Category Archives: Engineering Geology

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.      

BESPOKE GEO COURSE FOR EEG

We had a great day yesterday delivering a ‘fundamentals of geotechnics’ course to a great group in Earth Environmental & Geotechnical Ltd.  Delivered in Stockport, it was another of our ‘long day’ courses that fits 1.5 days of learning into a session that ran from 0830 to 1930.  There were regular breaks to keep everyone fresh, and this showed in the way the whole team stayed focused and met the challenges head on! Our thanks to Adam Czarnecki for inviting us in.  He has already posted about it himself on LinkedIn – which you can check out here. If you feel your organisation would benefit from a bespoke course then just call us to discuss your requirements and see how we could help you.

UPDATE TO 2019 COURSE CALENDAR

We are pleased to release ‘Issue 3’ of our course calendar for 2019, covering mid October to the end of the year with a look ahead to 2020.  The new calendar can be downloaded from here in a list format. If you are interested in any of the courses, just email us for more information or call to discuss your requirements.   As ever, discounts are available for group bookings or delegates attending more than one course. Remember too that all courses can be run bespoke for your company if there are sufficient numbers – just call us to see what we could do for you.  

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.

BESPOKE CDM COURSE FOR CAN

We had the pleasure earlier this month a running a bespoke version of our CDM course for CAN in Chesterfield.  It was tailored to deliver the core materials with group exercises, and incorporated too a workshop to review how the learning could be applied within the company to add to their existing health and safety culture. Feedback from the course was excellent.  Comments to date include “First rate” and “Really good course, plenty of coffee breaks so kept fresh!! :-)”.  If you feel your organisation would benefit from a bespoke course or series of half-day courses, then just call us to discuss your requirements and see how we could help you.

FUNDAMENTALS OF GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING

Our “Fundamentals of Geotechnical Engineering” course on 11 April 2019 went really well.  Feedback ratings showed it was rated at least good in all aspects, with 97% of the ratings very good or excellent.   As ever it was a long day, running up to 7.30pm, but the pizza delivery for tea went down well as can be seen below!  

LIME/CEMENT COURSE NEARLY FULL

Our new course ‘Theory and Practice of Lime and Cement Stabilisation’ is nearly fully booked!  It is running in Chesterfield on 30 April 2019 and has received wide industry attention, for example Britpave have added it to their diary of events here. We advise booking quickly if you wish to attend this course, more details of which can be found here.  Just call or email us to make a booking.  If you miss it this time rest assured we are looking to add additional dates into the diary as soon as possible.

POSITIVE CLIENT FEEDBACK ALWAYS APPRECIATED!

Following delivery of a bespoke version of our ‘Fundamentals of Geotechnical Engineering’ course in Burton-on-Trent for GRM Development Solutions in March, we were very pleased to see their post on LinkedIn here.  Such feedback is always appreciated. The GRM course was split into three half-day sessions and run for a group of 10 engineering geologists and environmental scientists.  If you feel your organisation would benefit from a short course or series of half-day courses, then just call us to discuss your requirements and see how we could help you.