Teaching ground engineering as a craft

Origin

In 2009 a small group of Chartered geotechnical engineers opened evening classes above a shared laboratory on the east side of Birmingham. Employers kept asking for graduates who could describe a clay with confidence and challenge a thin factual report. Those evening sessions grew into full daytime cohorts, then into the Field School weeks that now run across West Midlands investigation sites.

We remain an independent teaching school. Course fees fund tutors, laboratory consumables, and site access—not a franchise network or remote-only product.

How we teach

Sessions move from board work to soil in hand. Classification charts stay open while specimens are remoulded. Design examples use Midlands glacial till, Mercia Mudstone residual soils, and river terrace sands that learners are likely to meet on local jobs.

Cohorts stay small so tutors can mark calculation sheets with margin notes, not only a score. Field days emphasise consistent description language between partners logging the same trial pit.

Values

• Describe the ground before you analyse it
• Laboratory results need field context
• Drainage details belong in the same conversation as wall thickness
• CPD should change tomorrow’s drawing mark-up

Community

Alumni return as guest reviewers on design exercises and occasionally host Field School visits on live sites when health-and-safety plans allow. We keep a practical link between the classroom and the Birmingham contracting community that first asked for the school.