National Highways: Helping New Project Managers Lead Technical Conversations with Confidence
In partnership with QA and National Highways, Mint developed a structured eLearning programme to give new project managers a demonstrably quicker, more competent and confident start in road scheme delivery.
About National Highways
National Highways operates, maintains, and modernises England’s strategic road network, and delivers complex infrastructure programmes with significant public impact.
Within that environment, project managers manage timelines and budgets, and navigate technical decisions, contractor relationships, and governance requirements, all of which directly affect delivery risk.
The Problem
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New project managers join National Highways with strong, relevant skills, but often have limited experience of how road schemes are delivered in practice. Once in the role, they are expected to engage confidently with contractors and make informed delivery decisions, often early in the project lifecycle.
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As a result, many rely heavily on specialist teams to sense-check their decisions and answer foundational construction questions, causing friction in the process and delays to project timelines.
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National Highways wanted to strengthen road construction understanding earlier in the role, so project managers could contribute more independently, quicker. The challenge was how to build that capability across multiple cohorts without disrupting live project delivery.
The Solution
National Highways defined the core learning new project managers needed, focusing on the fundamentals of road construction and the knowledge required early in the role. This was to ensure a foundational level of accessible knowledge was available right across the organisation.
Mint worked closely with the NH internal team and subject-matter experts to structure and refine each module, shaping the content into clear, practical and easy-to-navigate learning.
The programme was delivered as structured eLearning that could sit alongside live schemes, giving project managers flexible access across devices and the ability to revisit key content as questions arise.
As every new Project Manager would have a different background and level of knowledge, the programme was ‘on demand’, and not mandatory. That meant it had to be engaging and accessible enough for new PMs to choose to access the information.
“Mint suggested changes to the format and structure that helped the content come to life for the learner, as well as ensuring accessibility needs were met.”
Matt - L&D Design Team Lead, National Highways
Measuring Impact
National Highways are focusing on two early indicators as the programme goes live.
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Firstly, completion rates among new project managers as they transition into the role. Normally, completion rates are a vanity metric (and not something we’d lead with), but as this learning was optional and senior stakeholders were the driver of uptake with their teams, getting people accessing and completing a non-mandatory course was a huge step to programme efficacy.
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Secondly, the focus is on measuring actual operational impact. This is being rated by whether specialist teams see a reduction in construction-related queries from new project managers working on live schemes compared to pre learning programme levels.
The programme is designed to build-in construction understanding earlier in the role, so project managers contribute competently and confidently to technical decisions and rely less on specialist input, saving time and money.
“Working with Mint has been a very positive experience. I would certainly recommend them to others looking to develop learning solutions that work.”
Sulaman - Innovation Project Manager, National Highways