SCHOOL OF CONCRETE TECHNOLOGY’S 2024 TRAINING VITAL TO DEAL WITH NEW CHALLENGES

Cement & Concrete SA’s School of Concrete Technology has released its 2024 Training Programme which contains comprehensive and trusted education for an industry facing unprecedented challenges.

The School’s wide range of courses for next year, says John Roxburgh, CCSA Technical Specialist, will provide essential concrete training for “exciting times brought about by climate change and new technologies”.

In his foreword to the Training Programme, Roxburgh says climate change is now a reality with the ever-increasing occurrences of extreme weather events, rising sea levels, loss of ice cover in the arctic and northern hemisphere, warming oceans, rising temperatures, and changing rainfall patterns. “Extreme weather such as flooding, storm surges, high winds, heat waves and droughts, with frequent and severe wildfires, requires a resilient and pro-actively designed and built infrastructure. Concrete will play a vital role to mitigate these adverse effects,” he states.

Roxburgh says durable concrete infrastructure is needed to deal with extreme climate change events while at the same time meeting the challenge of the concrete industry’s drive towards carbon neutral concrete.

“Striving for a lower concrete carbon footprint involves challenges in mix design, material use and structural design covering the whole life cycle of concrete. Consequently, new technologies are rapidly evolving in the concrete industry.

“Drone technology, thermal imaging, remote sensing, admixture advances are all examples, but by far the newest and biggest new development is 3D concrete printing. The potential for 3D concrete printing is quite staggering, providing stimulating work for those involved in concrete technology and structural design to deal with the unique properties required for 3D printed concrete.”

He feels a solid foundation in concrete technology education is now more than ever needed so the School of Concrete Technology has a structured progression of course levels that will allow prospective students to join at a level that matches individual competency. “There are no short cuts to becoming a skilled concrete technologist and the SCT has all the educational requirements to help the industry achieve its goals and counter all new challenges,” he adds.