Time and experience have placed The Concrete Institute’s School of Concrete Technology - which is this year celebrating more than 45 years of operations – as the preferred concrete technology training provider in South Africa, says John Roxburgh, senior lecturer at the School, which has just published its Education Programme for 2020.

Roxburgh says the wide variety of courses to be offered next year is the result of nearly half-a-century of experience of the type of training the construction and concrete industries require. “The selection of courses have been developed over these years to meet the educational needs of those working with concrete or in concrete-related industries,” Roxburgh states. 

He says the concept of concrete training was informally started in the early 1950s with the then Portland Cement Institute (PCI), based in relatively small premises in Richmond in Auckland Park, presenting lectures and organising several symposia.  “But it was only in 1974 that the PCI established a formal training school, the School of Concrete Technology, with courses initially mainly for foremen. 

Due to the success of these courses more were introduced in 1975 for engineers and technicians, and special one-day advanced modules covering pumping, repairs and admixtures, added later.  In those years, a cross-section of the whole construction and civil engineering industries - from foremen to sales representatives - attended the SCT courses.  The popularity of the courses, and growing number of students, soon placed a severe strain on the PCI laboratory in which the training was then offered.”  

In June 1980, the SCT moved into to a Fulton Award-winning new home adjacent to the PCI head offices at Portland Park in Halfway House.  “Here the School thrived in a state-of-the-art facility with fully equipped laboratory, lecture rooms and a much-envied lecture theatre and glass-walled function hall, where the courses were formalised into what is now offered.

During the 1980s, the City and Guilds courses, which SCT now offers as the SCT41 and SCT42 courses on behalf of the Institute of Concrete Technology in London, were introduced.  The Advanced Concrete Technology course was first run in 1990 with the graduates receiving their diplomas in 1991.”

The SCT moved to The Concrete Institute’s premises at Waterfall Park office park in Midrand in 2006 where it today offers 16 different courses to be repeated next year.  

“These courses are continually updated to keep pace with all the rapid changes in the world of concrete technology. The education provided by the SCT will open many doors for those wishing to establish and advance their careers in the concrete industry. The School is well-established, and years of experience has placed it at the forefront of concrete training,” Roxburgh adds.