I trust you are keeping safe and healthy in these challenging times for us all. It has been very heartening to witness the way in which ICorr activities have transitioned almost seamlessly online. More than ever, our website, social media platforms and online meeting facilities are proving critical in bringing people together and facilitating the excellent networking, training and knowledge transfer activities that the Institute has to offer.
The future of ICorr rests with our younger members and I’m delighted to see the continued success of initiatives to support networking, training and career development of our students, apprentices and early career professionals. We have put younger members firmly at the heart of our membership development strategy and it is fantastic to see some of these activities already coming to fruition. I’ve mentioned some of these below but there is much more to come!
The Institute is proud to support the new Level 2 Industrial Coatings Applicator standard for apprentices, which has been developed in collaboration with Skills Training UK, BINDT and the Highways Agency. I was very pleased to hear that the first cohort of apprentices at Jack Tighe Ltd have successfully passed their End Point Assessment, which consisted of a series of practical tests and a professional discussion over a week in early August. The success of this initiative is down to a lot of hard work by a large number of people but I would particularly like to thank Martin Hillyard and John Whittaker of Jack Tighe Ltd for their strong support for the next generation of coating applicators. Hopefully this will be the first of many such cohorts!
Young ICorr is also continuing to flourish under the leadership of Caroline Allanach. Key to our strategy here is the intention to link Young ICorr activities with local Branch events to broaden the professional network of our early career corrosion engineers and scientists. Combined with the current need to hold Institute events online, this will also have the beneficial effect of revitalising some of our less active Branches. If you are interested in supporting these events in any way please get in touch with Caroline (Caroline.Allanach@gmail.com).
It was a pleasure to attend the 61st Corrosion Science Symposium, which was held online using the Institute’s Zoom Pro account in September. The quality of the talks by the students was very high and there were many interesting discussions, both verbally and via the chat function. I was also honoured to present the U.R. Evans Award (at least virtually) to Prof. Bob Cottis – hopefully there will be an opportunity to present him with the sword itself in the not too distant future!
As a professional society we are constantly striving to develop new ways to raise standards in corrosion protection across a range of sectors. Our training courses are an important part of this strategy and are internationally recognised for their quality and integrity. In the past few years we have been updating and expanding our portfolio of world class training courses. A notable addition that launched on 23 September is our new Level 3 Passive Fire Protection course, which has been developed in collaboration with PFPNet and will set new standards for health and safety in this area.
Finally, I’m delighted to announce a new grade of Corporate Membership, with BP as our first Corporate Member. Our thanks are due to David Mobbs for developing this concept and making it a reality in discussions with BP. I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to BP for agreeing to act as a ‘guinea pig’ for this new grade of membership; their strong support for the Institute and its vital activities is greatly appreciated. Going forward we have exciting plans to roll out Corporate Membership to other larger companies, which will further raise the profile of corrosion protection as a major priority for asset owners.
Enjoy this issue of the magazine – I would also like to point you towards the excellent blogs on our website (www.icorr.org) and the interesting links they contain. Happy reading!
Gareth Hinds, Institute of Corrosion President
