Dear Colleague,

Welcome to our 6th Newsletter.

As before please find Quick Links for our major recurrent activities. News (where a review of what’s elsewhere can be found), Courses (as before together with their Booking Form), the Geotechnical Industries Post Graduate Specialised Award – a new development which started this year, details of which are outlined below; the first Module M1 (Basic Field Skills) is scheduled for the 4th, 5th and 6th June; please note this module also can be used by those wishing to take Module E5 (Field Work in Practical Field Geology). Also in this Newsletter is the update on The London Basin Forum, which has developed from the first Glossop Workshop and is open to all: Please note the meeting that will be held in the Geological Society on Wednesday 28th October 2009 when the first major presentation of this research will be given.

You will find on our website in the table for courses http://www.firststeps.eu.com/course-details.php now also includes dates for field trips which are being organised by The Geologists’ Association (GA). We have made this arrangement to work more closely with the GA so as to provide greater opportunities for obtaining field work under guidance as “the best geologist is the one who has seen the most rocks and soils.”
 

With best wishes
Christine

Training & Procurement of Services

Public bodies, such as Councils and Agencies, are being encouraged to request from their Suppliers evidence of the Programme for Training the supplier has in place for their workforce. This is aimed at Apprenticeships with Artisans but spills out into all areas.

First Steps can assist any company that finds itself having to provide a programme of training. Our courses can be given in-house if necessary (Click on courses http://www.firststeps.eu.com/course-details.php) and are part of a larger qualification (see the Geotechnical Industries Post Graduate Specialised Award http://www.firststeps.eu.com/award.shtml)

 

News
 

We would like to draw your attention to the following items this month;

1. The standard courses that are coming up (click on courses).
   
    
2.  Help for anyone who is in the unfortunate position of losing their job in geotechnics. There is quite a lot that can be done to keep your “hand-in”, protect your CPD record and keep moving towards Chartership, as well as trying to become re-employed, however all this does depend on you approaching us. If you have any views on this we would like to hear them. Meanwhile if you are already in the unhappy position of now being unemployed, and are at a bit of a loss for what to do next, please feel free to contact us. Please feel free to contact us too if you have any questions on how to fill in your application form for CPD status or any other related queries.
   
    
3. Our website has been updated. It now also includes a Trade directory. Please let us know if there is anything you or your company would like us to consider.

SPECIALIST AWARD; latest news

1. The basic arrangements for the Award are now on the web http://www.firststeps.eu.com/award.shtml and the “Learning Outcomes” – academic speak for “what you will learn” are now available also for each Module and each Elective. This will enable those who may now find themselves with time on their hands to consider whether their experience enables them to Fast Track through the system by compiling a file of the work that demonstrates they have the skills listed.
2. Enquiries are being made with the authorities that govern the Award to see whether a further module can be provided called Basic Geology for Soils and Rocks. It is intended for Engineers who have had little in the way of geological training and will be quite different from the usual Geology for Engineers courses followed at university. Details will be announced as they are finalised.
   

Courses

Northants Churches
Date:  30/05/2009
Location:  Please contact The Geologists' Association
Provider: The Geologists’ Association
Cost:  Please contact The Geologists' Association
Booking Form

Sampling and Analysis of Soils and Waters
Date:  02/06/2009
Location:  Chemtest Ltd., Depot Road, Newmarket, CB8 0AL
Provider:  Phil Hellier
Cost: £265 + VAT
Booking Form

Geotechnical Industries Postgraduate Specialised Award
Date: 04/06/2009 – 06/06/2009
Location: Mendips
Provider: First Steps Ltd.  with Emerson and Moore
Cost: £ 265 + VAT per day
Booking Form

Introduction to Soil Mechanics (Foundations)
Date: 08/06/2009 – 09/06/2009
Location:  Geotechnical Engineering Ltd. – Gloucester
Provider:  Simon Ferley from Capita Symonds
Cost:  £ 265 + VAT per day
Booking Form

Developing Geological Knowledge for CGeol Status
Date: 10/06/2009
Location:  RSK, Hemel
Provider:  Paul Stearns
Cost: £365 + VAT
Booking Form

Rock and Soil Logging Course (Eurocode 7 - BS 5930)
Date: 10/06/2009
Location: Geotechnical Engineering Ltd., Gloucester
Provider:  Emerson and Moore Geosciences Ltd
Cost: £265 + VAT
Booking Form

Fossilfest V
Date: 13/06/2009
Location:  Please contact The Geologists' Association
Provider:  The Geologists' Association
Cost:  Please contact The Geologists' Association
Booking Form

In the Footsteps of Charles Darwin - NW Midlands and North Wales
Date:  19/06/2009 - 24/06/2009
Location:  Please contact The Geologists' Association
Provider:  The Geologists' Association
Cost:  Please contact The Geologists' Association
Booking Form

First Steps - Digital Data for Engineering, an Introduction to AGS format
Date: 23/06/2009
Location:  Blackhorse House, Reading University
Provider:  DataFlex Solutions
Cost:  £265 + VAT
Booking Form

Following the open meeting of 25th March a smaller meeting was held in London on 13th May, attended by those who are most likely to be the main contributors to the whatever publication emerges from this initiative. The purpose of the meeting was to initiate the work that all agreed should be done.

1. From that meeting it became clear that the best way to present the information as it exists and in a form that is needed would be as an Atlas for London. An Atlas would have the following unique features;
   
   a) a content unrestricted by journal precedent and reputation - we can include what we want, how we want it; classical structural geology, sedimentology and stratigraphy, hydrogeology, neo-tectonics, geotechnics etc.
   b) a content that can differ in detail as a function of the quality of the data available for any particular subject:
   c) a content that can also differ in amount so that brief explanations of local examples of the implications of geology can be dropped into larger and broader ranging geological discourses: and
   d) a content that can differ in extent so that the geographical boundaries of the London Basin do not become a hindrance; thus aspects of the basement can extend beyond the shores of the UK, the Chalk can utilise the entire extent of the region and the Tertiaries can concentrate on the area of central London where they are known best.
   
   There was also some discussion on the provision of a CD-Rom that could enable users to either superimpose or compare their own data for a site with that for the larger area, as incorporated within the "London Basin Model".
   
    
2. It was felt that the Content, even though not yet specified, was perceived well enough for a realistic assessment of its "value" to be made. The work would be of interest to pure and applied geologists, and geotechnical engineers at home and abroad, and they would constitute the bulk of the readership. The content would be about geology and about the geophysical and geotechnical tools that high technology work in London has shown can be used to interrogate it. It would be very difficult for any engineering concern involved with geotechnics, environment or ground water, be they either consultants or contractors, and who operate in London to be without the work (even more so if a CD-Rom facility was available) - and that includes many based outside London. In addition there would be a substantial secondary readership in colleges, geological surveys, Government agencies, planning offices and insurers, and in the various offices of the providers of utilities, transport, and Local Government. Priced correctly it could also be a document that geologists and engineers purchase as their personal copy.
   
    
3. Engineering Group of the Geol. Soc. will be approached to see whether there would be interest in making the Forum a Working Party of the Engineering Group and the Atlas its Working Party Report, produced as a Special Publication of the Geol. Soc. The more this was considered the more it was seen as a "good idea" as it would provide an umbrella for fund raising, publication and marketing.
   
    
4. Financial support will be required to oil the wheels especially for producing the illustrations, artwork, CD-Rom and such like, and for supporting a simple secretariat that will manage affairs.
   
    
5. The timetable for the work is likely to be along the following lines, subject to agreement from those involved.
   
   Oct 2009; Geol Soc Engineering Group meeting to bring this project to a larger audience.
   Oct 2010; Regional Meeting Thames Valley Group - "this is where we are" - comments from the geological community in the Thames Valley welcome.
   Oct 2011; A Geol Soc Ordinary Meeting to present litho-facies and palaeo-facies findings, and associated tectonics, and to address the geological community at large.
   2012; A post-Olympics International meeting on the subject.
   2013; Production.
   2014; Launch in London at either the Geol Soc or ICE.
   
    
6. Meeting on 28th Oct 2009; The Engineering Group of the Geol Soc have agreed to dedicate their October meeting to this project so that it can have a “public” airing to a larger audience. Technical information presented would be to show what the work is about, what it is doing and some flavour of what could emerge. The Provisional programme is
   a)            Introduction to the evidence that is rattling around and its implications – hence the need for this research (M H de Freitas)
   b)            Basement, its post Palaeozoic history and neotectonics (J W Cosgrove & D Aldiss)
   c)            Chalk (R N Mortimore)
   d)            Palaeocene – Eocene (J A Skipper & C King)
   e)            Quaternary (P Gibbard & U Lawrence)
   f)             Implications for the holistic approach – geological, geotechnical, environmental (water supply, rising ground water levels, flooding etc) and value to UKplc (K Royse & others as appropriate e.g. from Thames Water, EA, Metro Net etc etc)
   
    
7. A web page for the London Basin Forum has been established and hosted by the Geological Survey. To find it go to the Home Page of the British Geological Survey’s site, look for the link, and click on that to obtain an update and learn how to contribute and benefit from the research in hand. This work is open to everyone.

THE GEOTECHNICAL INDUSTRIES POSTGRADUATE SPECIALISED AWARD

Economic recessions are traditionally times when younger members of the industry consider the benefits of further education. The number of applications to post graduate courses often increases as staff, facing either redundancy or part time employment, consider the opportunity this circumstance provides for their future. Some cannot afford either the time or the cost of such education and it was to help these that the Specialised Award was established. It is flexible, user friendly, and provides a Fast Track means for those having experience to obtain a nationally accredited award. http://www.firststeps.eu.com/award.shtml