People new to street works often ask which course to book, as though one course covers everything. It doesn’t. NRSWA training is modular, so the course you book depends on your job on site, and your card lists each unit you’ve passed separately. Once you see how the courses map onto the units, choosing what to book and what to revise gets much easier.
Why the training exists
The New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 requires street works to be carried out and supervised by qualified people. Under the Act, every undertaker’s site needs at least one qualified operative and a qualified supervisor, competent in the work being done. The qualifications are recorded on the Street Works Qualifications Register (SWQR), and that record is what your card shows.
Training providers package the units into courses in different ways. The units underneath are the same everywhere. If you understand the units, a course listing tells you what you’re getting.
The main course types
Most NRSWA training falls into a few common bundles:
| Course | Who it’s for | Typical length | Units involved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Location & avoidance | Anyone connected with excavation | 1 day | LA |
| Signing, lighting & guarding | Anyone setting out or monitoring site safety | 1 day | O1 or S1 |
| Operative course | Operatives in excavation, backfilling and reinstatement | Around 5 days | LA, O1, O2 and the reinstatement units O3–O8 |
| Supervisor course | Supervisors monitoring that work | Around 5 days | LA, S1, S2 and the monitoring units S3–S7 |
| Reassessment | Card holders approaching expiry | Around 2 days | The units you already hold |
Course lengths vary from provider to provider. The table shows a typical pattern, not a rule.
The operative and supervisor courses are aimed at anyone working in “excavation, backfilling and reinstatement of various materials”, which covers almost the whole O and S range.
Some providers still advertise courses under the older numbered units, such as “unit 2” or “unit 10” for signing, lighting and guarding. Under the current structure that work sits in O1 for operatives and S1 for supervisors. If a course listing looks unfamiliar, check which O or S unit it actually leads to.
LA: the course everyone starts with
The location and avoidance course is designed for anyone involved in excavation. It explains the dangers of digging in the public highway and teaches three core skills:
- Getting and understanding utility drawings. That means knowing who to ask for records and how to read them, including what they don’t show you.
- Detecting buried apparatus. That means using a cable avoidance tool and signal generator properly, and knowing what the equipment can’t tell you.
- Digging safely. That covers safe digging practice once apparatus has been located, in line with HSG47 Avoiding danger from underground services.
LA is usually a one-day course with both a theory and a practical assessment. It’s also a key certificate. If LA lapses, every other street works unit you hold lapses with it. That’s why the LA certificate is the one to keep in date above all the others. Our post on which street works certificates you actually need explains how this dependency works in detail.
O1 and S1: signing, lighting and guarding
The signing, lighting and guarding course is for anyone who sets out or maintains traffic management on a road or highway. That includes highway authority staff and contractors as well as utility crews. The course covers:
- the correct layout of signs, barriers, lamps and warning notices
- safety zones, lane widths and pedestrian routes
- recognising conditions that need special measures, such as poor visibility, high speeds, junctions or vulnerable pedestrians
All of this comes from Safety at Street Works and Road Works, the Red Book. If you want to know what the equipment itself has to do, rather than where it goes, read Chapter 8 and the Red Book. It explains how the two documents fit together.
Recognising when a standard layout isn’t enough is as much a part of the unit as setting one out.
The theory questions often test exactly this. You won’t just be asked what the standard layout is. You’ll be asked what changes because of a particular condition on site.
The full operative and supervisor courses
The five-day courses cover the full workflow: excavation (O2/S2), backfilling and compaction (O3/S3), sub-base and base (O4/S4), bituminous surfacing (O5 and O6, monitored under S5) and modular surfaces and concrete footways (O8/S7). Most of this material comes from the Specification for the Reinstatement of Openings in Highways (SROH). That’s where you’ll find layer thicknesses, compaction requirements, material specifications and performance requirements.
Both courses include choosing the right PPE to protect yourself and others. The supervisor course adds one more thing: monitoring work carried out by operatives. That’s the real difference between an O unit and its S equivalent. An operative needs to know how to do the job. A supervisor needs to know how to check it was done properly, and what to do when it wasn’t.
Theory and practical: two separate assessments
On a course with both parts, you’re assessed on both parts. The practical shows you can do the work. The theory test is the same format for every unit:
- 20 multiple-choice questions
- 45 minutes
- 16 correct answers to pass
Several units are open book, so you can take the Red Book or SROH into the test with you. That sounds generous until you try to find the right clause with the clock running. As we explain in Open Book Does Not Mean Easy, the candidates who struggle usually know the material but can’t find it quickly enough.
Passing the assessments gets you certification from an awarding body and an SWQR registration valid for five years.
Reassessment: don’t let the date sneak up on you
Five years goes quickly. If you already hold a card that’s due to expire, you don’t need to repeat the full course. A reassessment course, typically around two days, renews the units you already hold.
A few practical points from experience:
- Check your key certificate dates first. Your earliest-expiring key certificate (LA, O1 or S1) is your real expiry date, whatever the other units say.
- Book early. Courses fill up, and a lapsed key certificate can take you off site straight away.
- Expect the documents to have changed. The Red Book, SROH and guidance get revised. Five years on, the answer you remember may no longer be the right one.
- Revise before you go. Reassessment candidates often do worse on the theory than new trainees. They rely on habit from site, and site habit isn’t always what the code of practice says.
Choosing the right course
Work it out from the job you actually do:
- Do you dig, or are you connected with excavation? You need LA.
- Do you set out or maintain site safety? You need O1, or S1 if you supervise.
- Do you excavate and reinstate? You need O2 plus the reinstatement units for the materials you work in.
- Do you supervise that work? You need the S units that mirror it.
- Is your card due? Book reassessment well before the earliest key certificate expires.
How NRSWA Revision Fits In
Training gives you the practical skills and the assessment. Revision is what gets you through the theory test without relying on luck. NRSWA Revision: Street Works for iPhone and iPad has 1,110 practice questions across 14 street works certificates, written for England. Every answer is explained and sourced to the Red Book, SROH or HSG47, so you learn where each rule comes from as well as what it is.
Each certificate has a 20-question timed mock test in the same format as the real theory test: 20 questions, 45 minutes, 16 to pass. It’s useful before a new course, and even more useful before reassessment, when your habits from site may no longer match the current documents. Start with the LA certificate and O1 or S1, since those are the key units, then move on to the units that match your work.
The app is independent revision material. It doesn’t award a card or qualification, and it isn’t affiliated with any awarding body or the register. You can try 192 free questions in the quiz, or check whether you’re ready with a mock test.
