NRSWA Courses: New Roads and Streetworks
Before you’re allowed to start working in streetworks, you should have the correct qualifications. That’s precisely what you’ll get with the NRSWA courses we offer.
Our NRSWA training courses, all of which lead to an SWQR card, include training for both streetworks operators and supervisors, and cover everything from cat and genny training to traffic management. They’re delivered by experienced professionals and accepted throughout the UK, meaning you’ll have a valuable street works qualification once you’ve finished your training.
If you’re interested in streetworks as a career and want to learn more about getting your street works ticket, please get in touch today by calling on 01234 604151 or emailing us via office@cpts.uk.
Why Take a Streetworks Course?
Why do so many people choose to take a streetworks course before they begin work? There are several good reasons:
- Enhanced Safety: There are many hazards associated with street work that all operators and supervisors should be aware of. Our NRSWA streetworks courses give you the knowledge needed to understand the dangers around you.
- Better Job Prospects: Employers want well-trained staff, and getting your street works ticket proves you’ve undergone thorough training. Stand out from the crowd with CPCS street works training.
- Legal Protection: Taking the time to educate yourself and gain a street works qualification shows you’ve done everything possible to understand how to work safely.
- Higher Pay: By showing that you have qualifications in streetwork, you increase your potential to earn higher wages.
- Increased Confidence: You’ll have much more confidence in your ability to work in streetwork when you complete an NRSWA course with us.
Our street works courses
See the available streetworks training courses available near you and at affordable prices.
Courses – comparison
Overview of durations, target audience, core units, certification validity and formats.
| Course | Typical Duration | Who it’s for | Key units / content | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CourseNRSWA Streetworks Operative | Typical Duration1-3 days | Who it’s forNew streetworks workers; people doing works on/near roads | Key units / content
|
FormatClassroom + Practical |
| CourseNRSWA Streetworks Supervisor | Typical Duration1-3 days | Who it’s forSupervisors or persons managing streetworks operations | Key units / content
|
FormatClassroom + Practical |
| CourseOperative & Supervisor Reassessment | Typical Duration1 day | Who it’s forHolders needing to reassess their existing units | Key units / content
|
FormatClassroom |
| CourseUnit LA or CAT & Genny | Typical Duration1 day | Who it’s forOperators performing CAT and Genny detection or wanting the LA unit | Key units / content
|
FormatClassroom |
| CourseSigning, Lighting & Guarding (Unit S1 / O1) | Typical Duration1 day | Who it’s forWorkers setting up traffic signage, warning lights & pedestrian barriers | Key units / content
|
FormatClassroom |
What You’ll Learn in Our Streetworks Courses
Our NRSWA courses cover everything you need to know in your chosen field. But some of the information you’ll receive in your street works training could include:
- Legal Implications: You’ll understand all important UK streetworks rules and regulations, ensuring you work in a legal and compliant manner.
- Core Responsibilities: We’ll let you know exactly what you should be doing and how you should be doing it.
- Machinery Basics: Learn about the various pieces of machinery you’ll encounter, what their roles are, and how to use them safely.
- Maintenance Essentials: Understand how to maintain equipment correctly, so it works properly and remains safe to use.
- Risk Prevention: Learn about the risks you’ll face while working in streetworks and how you can prevent them, plus find out about protective gear to use.
- Communication: Learn to communicate effectively with workmates, including using hand signals, to ensure everyone works collaboratively.
- Traffic Management: Understand how to control traffic effectively while ensuring the safety of workers and members of the public.
Why Choose CPCS for Streetworks Courses?
We offer some of the most detailed streetworks training in the country, properly preparing students for the role they hope to undertake. The main reason for our high standard of street works training is easy to pinpoint: our trainers. They’re experienced and have worked in the roles they teach about, giving them vital hands-on experience.
We also offer one of the most modern training venues around, with equipment and setups that let you learn most effectively. Our training venue is also comfortable and well-equipped.
In addition, we keep our NRSWA courses affordable, meaning you won’t have to break the bank to pursue the training you need. And we’re also flexible, with courses available at different times throughout the week. What’s more, once you’re finished, we offer ongoing support, plus SWQR card renewal when your street works ticket runs out.
Book Your NRSWA Course Today
We’re experts at streetworks training, offering some of the best NRSWA streetworks courses in the UK. Our instructors have been in your shoes, while our equipment is perfect for practice. Plus, our prices are among the best around, making it affordable to get your streetworks card.
Why not book your place on an NRSWA course today by calling us on on 01234 604151 or emailing us via office@cpts.uk.
NRSWA Streetwork Courses near You in the UK :
NRSWA, SWQR and your street works card are not the same thing
This is one of the easiest parts of streetworks training to misunderstand. People often use NRSWA, SWQR, street works ticket and street works card as though they mean exactly the same thing. They do not.
What does NRSWA mean?
NRSWA is the commonly used abbreviation for the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991. Among other matters, the legislation sets requirements concerning qualified operatives and supervisors when relevant street works are being carried out.
What does SWQR do?
The Street Works Qualifications Register records street works certificates and issues street works cards. Your card therefore shows which certificates have been registered against you. It should not be treated as one universal qualification covering every type of street work.
Think about your street works card as a record of individual certificates rather than one universal licence. The work you are qualified to carry out or supervise depends on the certificates you hold and whether those particular certificates remain current.
The certificate structure explained below relates specifically to England. Street works qualifications have equivalence arrangements across the UK, but the regulatory details can differ between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Which NRSWA certificates do you actually need?
Start with one practical question. What will you physically do, or which activity will you supervise? Do not choose streetworks training simply because somebody has told you to get an NRSWA ticket. The certificates should reflect the work you actually undertake.
In England, an operative carrying out excavation or reinstatement needs LA, O1 and the relevant certificate from O2 to O8. A supervisor monitoring excavation or reinstatement needs LA, S1 and the appropriate certificate from S2 to S7.
| Activity | Role | Certificate combination | Training route |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carry out excavation in the highway | Operative | LA + O1 + O2 | NRSWA Operative Course |
| Carry out backfill and compaction | Operative | LA + O1 + O3 | Confirm the certificates required for your work |
| Reinstate in hot lay bituminous materials | Operative | LA + O1 + O6 | Discuss the correct operative route before booking |
| Monitor excavation in the highway | Supervisor | LA + S1 + S2 | NRSWA Supervisor Course |
| Monitor bituminous reinstatement | Supervisor | LA + S1 + S5 | Confirm the certificates required for your role |
| Locate and avoid underground apparatus | Operative or supervisor | LA | LA and CAT and Genny Course |
| Set out signing, lighting and guarding | Operative activity | O1 can demonstrate appropriate training | NRSWA O1 Course |
| Monitor signing, lighting and guarding | Supervisor activity | S1 | NRSWA S1 Course |
A supervisor certificate does not automatically qualify you to perform operative work. If your job genuinely includes both roles, you need the appropriate operative and supervisor certificates.
Not sure which NRSWA certificates match your job?
Tell us what you actually do on site. Excavation, backfill, reinstatement, signing, underground service location or supervision. We can help you identify a training route that reflects your work instead of booking certificates you may not need.
The NRSWA certificate structure in plain English
The current English structure consists of LA, eight operative certificates from O1 to O8 and seven supervisor certificates from S1 to S7. Some of these certificates form the foundation for the additional activities recorded against an operative or supervisor.
Certificate used by operatives and supervisors
Operative certificates
Supervisor certificates
You do not automatically need every additional certificate. The appropriate combination depends on what you actually carry out or monitor. An operative excavating a highway, somebody reinstating bituminous material and a supervisor monitoring surfacing operations do not necessarily need the same combination of certificates.
Do you always need a street works card for O1 or LA activities?
This catches plenty of people out. Signing, lighting and guarding by itself is not defined as a street works activity in the same way as breaking up or opening the street. Department for Transport guidance therefore explains that a street works card is not required solely to set out signing, lighting and guarding.
There is an important second part to that answer. The person must still be appropriately trained for the work. Holding O1 is one way of demonstrating suitable training for signing, lighting and guarding.
A similar distinction applies to location and avoidance of underground apparatus. LA can be held and registered, but carrying out location and avoidance alone is not treated as street works for this particular qualification requirement.
This does not make CAT and Genny work a low risk activity. HSE guidance places strong emphasis on planning the work, locating and identifying buried services and then using safe excavation techniques. Cable locating equipment should be used by somebody who understands its operation and limitations.
Your new style SWQR card does not work like one five year licence
Look at the individual certificates rather than only the card itself. Under the English system, a new style street works card does not have one overall expiry date. Each registered certificate has its own expiry date.
A newly issued certificate normally lasts for five years from its certification date. Certificates can therefore expire on different dates if they were obtained or renewed at different times.
If O1 expires
The other operative certificates recorded on the rear of the card become invalid until O1 is renewed.
If S1 expires
The other supervisor certificates recorded on the rear of the card become invalid until S1 is renewed.
If LA expires
The certificates recorded on the rear of the card become invalid until LA is renewed.
If another certificate expires
That particular certificate cannot be relied upon for the relevant activity until it has been renewed.
When should you arrange NRSWA reassessment?
Certificates can be renewed during their lifetime. If a certificate is renewed during its final year, Department for Transport guidance allows the remaining unexpired period to be carried forward.
An expired certificate is no longer valid. However, under the English rules it can still be renewed for up to five years after its expiry date. If there has been a long gap, speak to the assessment centre before booking so that the appropriate route can be confirmed.
Initial assessment covers practical and theoretical skills. Reassessment used for certificate renewal is intended to be less burdensome and involves theoretical assessment. An assessment centre can still provide training or revision where needed.
Are your street works certificates approaching expiry?
Check the individual certificates registered against you rather than assuming that everything expires on one date. We can help you identify which certificates need reassessment.
An NRSWA qualification does not give you permission to dig up a road
It sounds obvious once somebody explains it, yet the two issues are easily confused. Your qualification concerns competence for the relevant street works activity. Permission to undertake works in a street is a separate matter.
NRSWA defines street works by reference to works carried out under a statutory right or a street works licence. Where an organisation does not have the relevant statutory right, a section 50 street works licence may be required from the appropriate street authority.
Depending on the project, additional local requirements can also apply. These can concern permits, road space, traffic management and conditions imposed by the highway authority.
Passing an NRSWA assessment does not by itself authorise somebody to arrive at a public road and begin excavation. The appropriate competence, authority to undertake the work and relevant highway processes all need to be considered before the work begins.
Official documents a streetworks team should recognise
An NRSWA qualification is only one part of competent streetworks practice. People involved in excavation, signing, reinstatement and supervision should understand the official standards that sit around the qualification system.
New Roads and Street Works Act 1991
NRSWA provides the legislative framework behind street works requirements. It covers matters including qualified operatives and supervisors and duties connected with the execution of street works.
Safety at Street Works and Road Works
Often referred to as the Red Book, this statutory code covers signing, lighting and guarding at street and road works. A proposed replacement is currently being consulted on, while the existing published code remains the applicable official edition until a revised version is formally issued.
Specification for the Reinstatement of Openings in Highways
The SROH contains requirements and specifications concerning reinstatement following street works. It is particularly relevant where excavation is followed by reconstruction of the affected highway surface.
HSE HSG47
Avoiding danger from underground services provides Health and Safety Executive guidance for people commissioning, planning, managing or carrying out work where buried services may be present.
The Red Book is currently being reviewed
The Department for Transport opened a consultation on proposed updates to the Safety at Street Works and Road Works code on 21 September 2026. The draft reflects developments in legislation, guidance and working practices since the existing code was last updated in 2013.
The proposed document is currently a draft. It should not be treated as the final replacement code until the consultation has concluded and the revised document has been formally issued.
Information checked against Department for Transport publications in September 2026.
Check these five things before choosing your NRSWA course
You can avoid plenty of confusion by starting with the job itself rather than the name of the course.
Define the activity
Write down what you will actually carry out or monitor. Excavation, backfill, bituminous reinstatement, modular surfaces, concrete work, underground apparatus location and signing can map to different certificates.
Decide whether you are operating or supervising
Do not assume that a supervisor qualification covers operative work. If your role includes both activities, check the requirements for both.
Check each relevant certificate
Look at LA, O1 or S1 as well as the activity specific certificates. The expiry of one of the foundation certificates can affect the validity of several other certificates.
Check permission to undertake the work separately
Qualification and permission answer different questions. Confirm the relevant statutory right, licence, permit and local highway requirements for the project.
Choose training that matches the real gap
A new entrant, an experienced operative adding one certificate and somebody renewing existing certificates can need very different training routes.
Booking for yourself or an entire streetworks team?
Tell us which activities your team performs and who carries out operative or supervisor duties. We can help you identify whether you need a full course, individual certificates or reassessment.
NRSWA Courses FAQs
From choosing your first streetworks course to checking certificates and reassessment, these are some of the questions we hear most often from operatives, supervisors and employers.
Can beginners enrol on your NRSWA courses?
Yes. Complete beginners can enrol on our NRSWA Streetworks Operative Course and start learning from the fundamentals. The Supervisor Course is generally aimed at people with streetworks experience, while reassessment is intended for existing certificate holders who need to renew their qualifications.
What do I get when I complete an NRSWA course?
After you successfully complete the relevant assessment, the appropriate street works certificate or certificates can be awarded and registered. The Street Works Qualifications Register records those certificates and issues a street works card showing the qualifications registered against you. The exact certificates shown depend on the course and assessments you successfully complete.
How long does street works training take?
It depends on the route you choose. At CPTS, the full NRSWA Streetworks Operative Course and full NRSWA Streetworks Supervisor Course generally run for five days. Individual certificate courses can be shorter. Our Operative and Supervisor Reassessment Course currently consists of one day of revision followed by one day of assessment. Contact us before booking if you only need specific certificates.
Do I need a driving licence?
No. You do not need a driving licence simply to take our NRSWA training. Requirements connected with a particular job, vehicle or employer can be separate from the entry requirements for the streetworks course itself.
Do you offer NRSWA courses near me?
Most of our NRSWA training is delivered at our training facility in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. We also provide training in other locations where available and can arrange on site training for groups where the required facilities and conditions can be provided. Contact our team to discuss your location and course requirements.
Does everyone on a street works site need an SWQR card?
No. In England, NRSWA requires a suitably qualified operative to be on site while relevant street works are in progress, and the qualifications held must be appropriate for the activities being undertaken. The works must also be supervised by somebody with the prescribed supervisor qualification, although that supervisor does not have to remain on site at all times.
Can a qualified NRSWA supervisor work as an operative?
Not automatically. A supervisor qualification does not make the holder qualified to carry out operative work. A person who needs to work as both an operative and a supervisor must hold the appropriate certificates for both roles.
Does a new style SWQR card expire after five years?
No. In England, a new style street works card does not have one overall expiry date. Each certificate recorded on the card has its own expiry date. A newly issued certificate normally lasts for five years from its certification date.
What happens if LA, O1 or S1 expires?
If O1 expires, the other operative certificates recorded on the rear of the card become invalid until O1 is renewed. If S1 expires, the other supervisor certificates become invalid until S1 is renewed. If LA expires, every certificate recorded on the rear of the card becomes invalid until LA is renewed.
Can an expired street works certificate be renewed?
Yes. In England, Department for Transport guidance allows an expired street works certificate to be renewed for up to five years after its expiry date. The certificate is not valid during the period in which it remains expired.
Does an NRSWA qualification give me permission to excavate a public highway?
No. Holding the appropriate qualification and having authority to carry out street works are separate matters. NRSWA street works are undertaken under a relevant statutory right or street works licence. Depending on who is carrying out the work and what the project involves, a section 50 licence or other highway authority requirements may apply.
Is the Red Book changing in 2026?
The Department for Transport opened a consultation on proposed updates to the Safety at Street Works and Road Works code on 21 September 2026. The replacement document is currently a draft. The existing published code remains the official edition until a revised version is formally issued.
Authoritative street works information
When you need to check regulations, qualification structures or safe working guidance, use authoritative government and safety sources rather than relying solely on forum discussions or old training material.
Department for Transport. Street works qualifications in England
Department for Transport. Safety at Street Works and Road Works
Department for Transport. 2026 consultation on the street works safety code
Health and Safety Executive. HSG47 Avoiding danger from underground services
Department for Transport. Section 50 street works licence guidance