13 May 2022:

Fulton Hogan is pioneering a new way for people to begin a career in road safety management.

The first course began this week in Christchurch – appropriately Road Safety Week – using accelerated learning techniques developed by the Infrastructure Skills Centre over the past year. The goal is for attendees to achieve their Traffic Management Operative (TMO) practising qualification and be ready to progress to STMS, with practical experience of all aspects of temporary traffic management, in just three weeks.

Twelve of the 16 on the course are female, and they hail from as far afield as Invercargill, Dunedin, Nelson and Greymouth.

Fulton Hogan’s National Manager Traffic Management Paul Tyson says temporary traffic management can be a high risk environment, and industry training has typically had a theoretical skew.

“While the theory is very important, there’s no substitute for hands-on practical training and experience. The feedback already has been very encouraging, and we’re delighted at how the group is responding to the practical challenge in front of them.”

All are new to traffic management, are employed by Fulton Hogan during the course and will continue to be employed by the company on completion.

One of several people from Fulton Hogan helping stage the course is Maporika Tahapeehi, a member of the first infrastructure Skills Centre intake from mid last year.

“It’s kind of amazing to think less than a year ago I didn’t know anything about traffic management, and now, even in a small way, I’m helping start new people on this career.”

The picture shows course members Ashlee Papara and Shan Mohi in action on day four of the course,