FOCUS ON QUALITY AND SUSTAINABILITY IN SCT TRAINING

Sustainability based on best practice to ensure that a finished concrete product utilises resources as efficiently as possible is a common theme of Cement & Concrete SA’s School of Concrete Technology (SCT) courses for 2023.

In his foreword to the school’s training programme for next year, senior lecturer John Roxburgh says SCT realises how critical it is to produce quality concrete that meets all strength and durability requirements. “Our variety of courses caters for different needs required by a broad spectrum of students,” he explains. “Our slogan for the year is: ‘Not without concrete!’ It’s a theme that’s run through our lecture courses for many years, so for 2023, we’ve made it our official slogan.”

The 2023 training programme endorses the slogan by featuring photos of images directly linked to concrete, such as the tallest building in the world, the Old Kingdom pyramids, the longest bridge and longest tunnel in the world. Others are more abstract, such as the launching of the Saturn V rocket in the Apollo 11 mission, symbolic buildings of past empires and happenings, as well as huge stadia for world sporting events. “None of these would have been built or existed without concrete. All the images represent something big or amazing in the history of mankind. Our civilisation’s been built on the back of concrete. It’s the often unfairly maligned, quiet, solid facilitator of all the things we do in the world today,” adds Roxburgh.

Design and Construction”. All the courses are presented live in Midrand, with some also scheduled for Durban and Cape Town. Furthermore, on an advanced level, the UK Institute of Concrete Technology’s two highly-respected courses, “Concrete Technology and Construction General Principles and Practical Application” and the pinnacle of concrete training, “Advanced Concrete Technology (ACT)”, will continue this year. Roxburgh says the ACT modularised self-study programme was successfully launched in 2022 and several delegates have already joined it.

Continuing professional development points are awarded for selected courses.

The SCT 2023 training orogramme can be downloaded at: www.cemcon-sa.org.za or, for further information about the SCT courses, tel: 011 315 0300.

As usual, the SCT curriculum for 2023 covers 10 standard courses ranging from basic topics such as an “Introduction to Concrete” to more specialised training on various topics, including “Concrete for Industrial Floors” and “Concrete Road