Highways Maintenance Operative Apprentice
AMEY SERVICES LIMITED
Westhoughton (BL5 3NH)
Closes in 25 days (Friday 6 March 2026)
Posted on 3 February 2026
Contents
Summary
We are excited to offer a fantastic opportunity for a Highways Maintenance Operative Apprentice to join our Area 10 account based in Bolton.
- Wage
-
£26,813 a year
- Training course
- Highways maintenance skilled operative (level 2)
- Hours
-
Monday - Friday, 07:00 - 19:00 and nights 19:00 - 07:00, 4 on 4 off rotating days and nights.
42 hours a week
- Start date
-
Tuesday 1 September 2026
- Duration
-
1 year 9 months
- Positions available
-
1
Work
Most of your apprenticeship is spent working. You’ll learn on the job by getting hands-on experience.
What you'll do at work
- Routine and cyclic maintenance activities
- Minor civil and drainage works
- Carriageway patching
- Maintain high technical standards
- Attend project and work briefings as required
- To drive/operate vehicles/plant requiring general and specialist skills including vehicle checks, routine maintenance, (e.g. oil and water checks etc) and cleaning
- All aspects of highway maintenance works including routine and cyclic maintenance activities, minor civils’ works, litter picking, etc.
- Winter maintenance operations
- Emergency call out operations
- Taking responsibility for the safety of yourself and others within your team to ensure compliance with relevant health and safety legislation and safe operation to protect member of the public
- Carrying out vehicle checks, correctly filling in the defect proforma electronically
- Recording of Drivers hours
- Allocation and capturing time and resource utilisation in line with operated allocation system
- To keep records, complete all necessary paperwork, communicate, and liaise with other employees of Amey, sub-contractors, the emergency services, the police, the public, clients and customers
Where you'll work
Westhoughton Depot,
Chorley Rd,
Westhoughton
BL5 3NH
Training
Apprenticeships include time away from working for specialist training. You’ll study to gain professional knowledge and skills.
Training provider
PRESTON COLLEGE
Training course
Highways maintenance skilled operative (level 2)
Understanding apprenticeship levels (opens in new tab)
What you'll learn
Course contents
- Apply appropriate health, safety and environment procedures when working on the road
- Plan and undertake work practice productively when carrying out repairs to potholes, pavements and kerbs, and laying new surfaces on rural and urban roads
- Read, interpret and work to drawings, specifications and highways information Highways information will include details on the use of safety barriers, cones, traffic flow and safety zones to work within, whilst employed on the highway
- Use underground cable locators to identify buried water, gas, sewer lines or other utility services, and once identified excavate by hand around the line to stop any damage and disruption to services
- Apply safe working practise for moving, storing, lifting and handling of resources
- Excavation and reinstatement of the highway by carrying out maintenance and repairs, including removal of material within the road or road side using hand or power tools and reinstatement of the area using concrete, screeds, sub-base, aggregates or bituminous materials
- Install Street Ironworks (drain access covers and frames and gully gates situated on the road) to given work instructions
- Prepare and operate powered tools or pedestrian plant, machinery or equipment for use on roads. This will include machinery for generator™s, pumps, pedestrian operated plant (e.g. pushed roller), mixers, compressors and self“powered tools (pneumatic drill)
- Prepare, set up and work within temporary traffic management (using cones and barriers to section off elements of the road from vehicles and pedestrians) on urban and rural roads, whilst excavating and re-instating the highway
- Work with other sub-contractors on larger schemes (e.g. traffic management)
Training schedule
- As part of your apprenticeship, you will be enrolled onto a Highways Maintenance Skilled Operative level 2 apprenticeship which will take approximately 21 months to complete
- You will be fully supported by our partnered college to achieve this qualification, having 1-2-1 advice and support, e-learning materials, and a whole team of experts on hand for advice and technical knowledge at your office
- Join our vibrant, inclusive community in Area 10 working on diverse projects that make a real positive impact across the UK.
Amey is working in partnership with Highways England, to provide maintenance and response services for more than 300 miles of strategic road network in the Northwest, connecting the cities of Manchester, Liverpool and the surrounding areas - Responsible for incident response, winter maintenance services, and severe weather delivery, the teams will oversee traffic management during incidents on some of the region’s busiest motorways: the M6, M56 and M62
Requirements
Share if you have other relevant qualifications and industry experience. The apprenticeship can be adjusted to reflect what you already know.
Skills
- Communication skills
- Attention to detail
- Organisation skills
- Customer care skills
- Problem solving skills
- Administrative skills
- Number skills
- Analytical skills
- Logical
- Team working
- Creative
- Initiative
- Patience
- Physical fitness
Other requirements
If the candidates do not have GCSE/functional skills qualifications, they must achieve a minimum of entry level 3 in Maths and English during initial assessment.
Full UK driver’s license. DBS requirement. Applicants must be at least 18 years of age to be eligible for consideration, due to the nature of the work associated with this account.
About this employer
Amey is a leading infrastructure services and engineering company. Our 11,000 people are behind the critical services the country relies on every day and we each take personal pride in our public service. Our unique engineering and operations experience, together with data driven insight from our consulting business, delivers better results for our clients. We are trusted partners of Government – both national and local – managing assets and complex projects that are vital to the country.
http://amey.co.uk (opens in new tab)
Disability Confident
A fair proportion of interviews for this apprenticeship will be offered to applicants with a disability or long-term health condition. This includes non-visible disabilities and conditions.
You can choose to be considered for an interview under the Disability Confident scheme. You’ll need to meet the essential requirements to be considered for an interview.
After this apprenticeship
- Permanent employment for the successful candidate after completion of the apprenticeship
Ask a question
The contact for this apprenticeship is:
PRESTON COLLEGE
The reference code for this apprenticeship is VAC1000344082.
Apply now
Closes in 25 days (Friday 6 March 2026)
After signing in, you’ll apply for this apprenticeship on the company's website.