Training & Mentoring

Developing Road Management Professionals

Managing a road network is crucial to the sustainability of any modern economy and society. Road managers therefore have a critical and important role to play in achieving this well and good road management training is essential. Bad roads (or no roads) cause huge economic and social hardship to everyone in local communities, impacting on entire regions. Communities are cut off from access to government services, markets and business opportunities. 

Good road management needs proper funding, along with appropriate management systems and processes to be established. But most of all, it requires the long-term availability of well-trained, experienced and highly motivated professionals, who understand the issues surrounding the management of roads. Without this, no amount of money or technology will ensure that the roads are managed well.

Traditionally, road managers have come from a predominantly civil engineering, technical background, where the focus of many educational programmes has been on the ‘traditional’ engineering elements of roads, especially design, construction, supervision and contract management. Little focus has been provided to many of the other non-technical skills needed by today’s road managers. They also need to have a holistic approach to their work, balancing up many different factors, before taking decisions. This includes economics, social and environmental impacts, political considerations and practical implementation factors. 

With over 40 years of international experience in many countries, I have a wealth of experience covering all the key areas of road management; and how important these non-technical considerations are to achieving better road management. With a degree in Civil Engineering and an MBA, I have both the technical training and experience in the broader requirements necessary for road managers. My training qualification, coupled with my extensive public speaking and communications experience also enables me to communicate these ideas and concepts effectively to a broad range of road management practitioners. Through my broad, international experience, I am especially aware that, time and again, the main problems and challenges facing road managers today are not technical nor engineering-based, but economic, organisational and political. In the modern world, road managers will need to be able to function in these other areas too, if they are to be effective and successful in their professional careers.

I provide a range of services to help road managers progressively strengthen their skills base. These services can be mixed and matched to suit individual needs. These include the following basic approaches: