Join our live online career challenges to find out how National Highways Digital Lab uses data to solve business problems every day, and gain virtual work experience.

Explore this page to select the right challenge for you and hear more from National Highways Digital Lab team.

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National Highways Digital Lab

National Highways is a Government company which designs, builds, operates and maintains England’s Strategic Road Network (the motorways and major A-roads), ensuring that journeys are safer, smoother and more reliable.

Our innovative Digital Roads programme looks at how we can improve what we do today and in the future by embedding digital, data and technology in everything we do. This is critical to enabling safer journeys, meeting the challenges of climate change and sustainability, faster delivery and providing a great customer experience. Through our Digital Lab, we partner with key suppliers like Amey, Arup, and Kainos, working together to achieve impactful results.

We support a wide range of Government objectives, including:

Safety: Our roads are some of the safest in the world.
Customer: With more than four million journeys taking place daily, our roads play a vital part in many people’s lives.
Biodiversity: Creating new habitats and planting over 260 hectares of species-rich grassland to support wildlife and pollinators.
Carbon Reduction: We are committed to the government’s net zero target by 2050, cutting emissions, enhancing supply chain efficiency, and helping road users reduce their carbon footprint.

We need a diverse workforce to build the roads of the future.

Join us in our online career challenges to find out how we use data to solve problems every day.

What’s involved?

Students work on the challenge
in their own time

Recorded industry
assessment

Certification of virtual
work experience

FIRST STEP CAREER CHALLENGE:

YEAR GROUPS 7-9, YEAR GROUPS 8-10 (Northern Ireland) & YEAR GROUPS S1-S3 (Scotland)

How did the Hedgehog cross the road?

Wednesday 27^th November at 4.30pm

At National Highways, we want to keep the multiple species of animals that live along the roadside safe. How do we do this? One way is building wildlife green bridges!

These special bridges are covered in plants, soil, and trees, and they allow birds, animals and insects to keep moving and keep safe, despite a road blocking their path. They can also provide a home for wildlife in their own right.

Green bridges stop animals such as badgers, hedgehogs, and mice becoming isolated and help them move safely across busy roads without getting hurt. Green bridges increase safety for road users too.

National Highways cares about animals, and we need your ideas to make sure they can safely travel across roads without harm!

Goal: Join the National Highways team to help them decide where the next wildlife green bridge should be built.

Your Mission: To review our dataset which will help you answer the below questions and provide advice to National Highways on where to build their next wildlife green bridge.

What wildlife is endangered in each location?
What communities of animals are separated by a road?
What roads are the busiest and would benefit the animals from having a bridge built?
What do you think we should think about when designing a bridge? (plants, insects, flowers) Research what would attract each of the animals listed to make your decision.

Bonus question: Do you have any other ideas of how we could support wildlife to live in harmony with our highways?

What this career challenge will involve.

1. Join the live session: Meet the National Highways team.

2. Information: Use the data we will provide you to answer the above questions.

3. Tell us your plan!: Present your ideas in a fun and impactful way to advise National Highways where they should build the next wildlife green bridge and why?

NEXT STEP CAREER CHALLENGE:

YEAR GROUPS 10-13 + FE , YEAR GROUPS 11-14 + FE (Northern Ireland) & YEAR GROUPS S4-S6 (Scotland)

Where there is Wi-Fi there’s a way!

Wednesday 11^th December at 5pm

It’s the August bank holiday, and your family are about to set off on your annual camping trip. Your bags are packed, and you’re all squeezed into the car—quite literally bringing everything, including the kitchen sink!

But…. You’ve forgotten to download enough music or films for the journey, and you’ve run out of data!

Why is there no Wi-Fi on motorways?

National Highways are exploring the potential benefits of providing Wi-Fi access on motorways. This could help improve safety and in-car experiences, from receiving traffic and incident updates to allowing passengers to stream entertainment, making journeys less boring and more fun.

However, this will cost a lot of money and due to a limited budget not all motorways can be equipped with Wi-Fi immediately.

Mission: We need your help to advise National Highways on which parts of the road network to prioritise for Wi-Fi connectivity and why.
Task: You will be given information around the following factors for you to consider when making your decision.

Traffic: What roads are the busiest? How many people would benefit from Wi-Fi connectivity?
Length of Journey: Consider what we know about the duration of people’s journeys and how this might affect their use of Wi-Fi.
Road Users: What data might help demonstrate user demand for Wi-Fi?
Installation: How does the difficulty of installing Wi-Fi differ across the road network?

What this career challenge will involve:

1. Understand the Problem: Why do we need Wi-Fi on motorways? What benefits will it bring?
2. Look at the Data: How do different parts of the motorway differ in terms of traffic, journey types, etc.?
3. Find Patterns: Which sections of the road network are the most used , or would benefit the most from Wi-Fi ?
4. Make Recommendations: Based on the data, suggest which locations should get Wi-Fi first, and why.

We encourage collaborative working so if you would prefer to work in a small group you can to brainstorm ideas, and discuss your thoughts before making your recommendation. If you prefer to work alone that is absolutely fine too!

STEP UP CAREER CHALLENGE:

UNIVERSITY + HE

Festival fun, emissions undone: Travel green and keep the planet clean!

Thursday 5^th December at 6pm

As the summer approaches, many of us look forward to the excitement of festivals, where we create unforgettable memories and experiences. However, while planning our festival adventures, it’s essential to consider our impact on the environment. Travelling to a festival often involves significant transportation, which can contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. With increasing awareness of climate change and its effects, many festival-goers are seeking ways to reduce their carbon footprint while still enjoying the fun.

National Highways are focused on supporting the UK’s net-zero target, aiming to create a sustainable road network and road use.

Your Mission:
Festival-goers travel across the UK to attend festivals and their travel choices will affect carbon footprint. Can data be used to better inform festival-goers on the best travel options from their location?

Data Scientist approach – Can you advise us how different travel choices can affect the carbon footprint?

Task: Leverage diverse data sources to recommend the most environmentally-friendly travel options. How can you use geospatial tooling and techniques to enhance the analysis of travel choices and/or present the results in a meaningful way?

Data Strategy approach – How can we best promote sustainable travel to the festival-goers?

Task: Analyse our dataset to make an informed decision on the most effective communication strategy to achieve this.