Category Archives: coaching

L6 CIVIL ENGINEERING APPRENTICESHIP CHANGES

It was great to attend the ICE’s Apprenticeship Conference on 8 November.  We could only attend virtually this time, but it was an excellent event again.  Thanks to the ICE and Richard Davis for arranging it all.

There were again inspiring presentations by the 4 apprentices invited to speak.  One of the biggest takeaways for us though was the update on the new Level 6 Integrated Apprenticeships.  These are due to launch in 2025.  They will lead to some modifications to the current non-integrated degrees.  However, the apprentice will not be awarded their degree until they have undertaken their End Point Assessment.

The changes lead to some lively discussions on the proposed changes.  For example, how can an apprentice sit their IEng EPA before they formally have a degree?  There is a potential need for universities to source mentors to support the apprentices on their IEng EPA journey.

IFATE have not released the new apprenticeship yet as it is in development – see https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/apprenticeship-standards/civil-engineer-in-revision

The HE sector as the Training Providers are already planning for the changes.  The ICE are also preparing a position paper, which we hope will state how they are going to respond to the changes with regards the EPA and the award of the IEng.

Other key questions are how much of the mentoring support to apprentices will employers have to provide?  How much will the universities absorb?  Will the ICE retain their EPA role?  These uncertainties are of great interest to us as we are already mentoring numerous apprentices and we need to provide them with appropriate support.

It will be interesting to see how things shake out.

If you have any apprentices requiring mentoring, please feel free to reach out to our Dr Andy Goodwin.  He is an EPA Assessor with the ICE and understands the demands on apprentices. 

By the way, the photo below is used with permission of one of the current apprentices – great learning opportunities working on a complex bridge!

COURSES IN DECEMBER 2024 AND JANUARY 2025

We have a selection of open courses in the coming months that you may be interested in.  All are planned to run in Chesterfield:

    • G307 Theory and Practice of Lime and Cement Stabilisation on 10 December 2024: Are you or your team involved in projects that involve lime and cement stabilisation? Do you need to expand your understanding and skills in earthworks?  If so, this course may be for you.  Run by a Panel Expert, it will cover the basic principles of these forms of stabilisation and relate them to construction.  More information can be found here.  Cost £300 + VAT per delegate.
    • G206 Slope Stability – Principles and Practice on 14 January 2025.  This course aims to develop the abilities of the delegates to recognise and address slope stability issues.  It will look at how slopes stand up and why they fail, before looking at stability analysis.  It will conclude with a look at slope remediation.   
    • PR402 The ICE Professional Review – Mock Interview (maximum of 3 delegates) on 30 January 2025: This popular course is for ICE graduates preparing for their review.  It is recommended that it be taken prior to the submission of your Professional Report but it can be taken afterwards.  It will give you first-hand interview experience and you will receive individual feedback during and after the course.  Cost £425 + VAT per delegate.
Please contact us for more information or to book a place on any of these courses. Details of courses in following months can be seen in our 2025 calendar.      

WEBSITE UPDATED WITH NEW COURSE INFORMATION AND CALENDAR

We are pleased to advise that the Surepath Training website has been updated to include a new list of courses and the calendar of courses for 2025.  Some of the pages have been tweaked too – please feel free to browse the refreshed site! If you see anything is of interest, please contact us for more information –  just email us using the Contact page.    

WEBSITE UPDATE AND NEWS ON SERVICE UPDATES FOR 2025….

If you have visited our site much, you will have seen it has not been updated since 2022.  That is all about to change so watch out for updates to the courses we offer, updates to prices (a little), and information on a new geotechnical mentoring programme. Some of you will be wondering why we let the site stagnate, which is a fair question.  It is quite simply because, post-covid, interest in open courses seemed to wane in favour of bespoke courses, and we have been busy delivering numerous such through word-of-mouth commissions.  We also increased our mentoring workload significantly in a similar way, so the website sat there. Looking forward, we are aiming to keep developing the bespoke course and mentoring element, and to build-up the open-course programme again.  Watch this space for website updates and more news on our services for 2025 in the coming days and weeks….. In the meantime, please still do contact us for more information on the courses and mentoring support services we offer – just email us using the enquiries link.    

UPCOMING COURSES IN OCTOBER 2022

We have a selection of open courses planned to run in Chesterfield in October that you may be interested in:
    • G202 Foundations and Building Settlement – Principles and Practice on 20 October 2022: This course aims to develop the abilities of the delegates in the design of shallow foundations and the prediction of settlements. Cost £250 + VAT per delegate.
    • PR402 The ICE Professional Review – Preparing for the Interview (maximum of 4 delegates) on 25 October 202: This course is for ICE graduates preparing for their review; it is recommended that this course be taken prior to the submission of CPR/IPR report as following feedback delegates may wish to amend their report.  Cost £335 + VAT per delegate.
    • G102 Fundamentals of Geotechnical Engineering (1.5 days equivalent) on 27 October 2022: This ‘long day’ course is mainly for engineering geologists and civil engineers that do not specialise in geotechnical engineering, and aims to develop a core understanding of how soils behave in principle and applies it to some geotechnical problems such as foundations.  Cost £335 + VAT per delegate.
Please contact us for more information or to book a place on any of these courses. Details of courses in November and December can be seen in our calendar, downloadable using the link on the home page.      

PREPARATIONS FOR ICE PROFESSIONAL REVIEW IN SPRING 2020

With the application window for the Spring 2020 Professional Review session with the ICE opening in January, those planning to apply will no doubt be planning for it already.  This will include plenty of revision and refresher reading as well as preparing for your interview. As a long-standing reviewer for the ICE, our Dr Andy Goodwin reminds you of his 6 top tips to help you prepare below:
  • Read your draft Professional Report again and again, and get others to read it too (they will read what it actually says and read between the lines…)
  • Ensure your report addresses all of the required attributes in a well-balanced way; try marking in the margins of a draft which attribute each paragraph relates to and tally them up
  • Practice your presentation, to yourself and others, to ensure when under pressure you stay within the time limit
  • Read through your quarterly reports and other records of your experience, to refresh your memory and identify good examples of how you have achieved each sub-attribute
  • Revise your knowledge and understanding of all things civils related
  • Practice your interview skills
As you prepare you may find some gaps in your understanding, or feel you are in need of some refresher training.  If so, we offer a wide range of courses may assist you.  Our top recommendations are:
  • Two half-day courses on The ICE Professional Review – Overview and Preparation, and The Professional Report, on 15 October (discount for both courses) 
  • Commercial and Contractual Awareness on 19 November
  • Two half-day courses on the CDM Regulations 2015 on 3 December (discount for both courses) 
  • The ICE Professional Review – Preparing for the Written Exercise on 10 December
If any of these courses are of interest then please contact us for details or to make a booking.  Equally, if you want to know what other courses may assist you then feel free to contact us.

APRIL NEWSLETTER ISSUED

We are pleased to confirm that our April 2019 newsletter has just been issued.  For those who are not registered on our mailing list, you can download it from here .  You can also opt to join our newsletter mailing list by following this link – it takes only a few seconds.  Rest assured we never pass your information to third parties, as stated in our privacy statement.

MENTORING PLAUDIT

We were delighted to receive recently a fantastic plaudit from Sam Fish for the mentoring support he has received from our Dr Andy Goodwin.  Highlights from the plaudit included: “…I couldn’t rate Andy highly enough…. as an ICE Reviewer for many years, his understanding of the chartered professional review process is excellent and very helpful to his mentees…. my progression as an engineer is a direct result of his coaching and ability to draw the best out of me.” The full plaudit may be read here.  Andy was hugely appreciative of the comments from Sam, and is looking forward to continuing to support his other mentees in the same vein.  Feel free to contact us without any obligation if you or your graduates require any mentoring support.

CPD IDEAS FOR SPRING 2019 REVIEWS

As regular readers know, we have a regular section on CPD in our newsletters, with links to follow-up information.  They are useful for anyone but those in this post are especially useful for graduates pursuing professional registration with the ICE with the Spring 2019 session imminent: Leadership in HSW – One of the sub-attributes that must be demonstrated to be successful at a Chartered Professional Review with the ICE relates to leading continuous improvement in health, safety and welfare.  Examples should be drawn from your own experience, but it is a good idea to keep up to date with what others are doing.  A good reference point is the Considerate Constructors Best Practice Hub which may be found here. Quality Management – Quality management is more than quality assurance or quality control, as discussed in an article on total quality management published on the Designing Buildings Wiki in December 2018.  It is worth a read – just follow this link. Managing Diversity – Diversity should come up at every professional review, whether it be for IEng or CEng.  It is always good to read around this topic before your review, and to relate what you read to what you see at work.  There are numerous articles and books on the subject. but one that is worth reading was published in 2013.  It particularly relates to the public sector.  It can be downloaded from here. If you want to see other CPD ideas, you can look back at previous newsletters by following this link.