BITESIZE TRAINING
INTRODUCTION
As a business, your preference may be to organise more frequent and/or concise training for particular and discrete areas of construction contracts and their administration. You may also wish for one our speakers to present at your internal staff meeting, wither this is a breakfast, lunchtime or out of working hours event. Either way, we can deliver bitesize seminars with a duration of around 1 to 2 hours.
TOPICS THAT WE HAVE DELIVERED FOR BITESIZE TRAINING ARE:
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Practical completion and defects (a legal review of what is meant by practical completion; difference between patent and latent defects; the contractual effect of practical completion being achieved, accepting defects, making good defects periods, assessing damages arising from defects and consequences of not correcting defects)
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Acceleration (are instructions to accelerate permissible? Are shortened programmes issued by the employer or main contractor an instruction to accelerate? Claiming additional costs relating to acceleration instructions; preparing quotations for acceleration; what happens if a contractor fails to complete by earlier completion date – are they entitled to the additional payment; constructive acceleration)
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Key principles of contract law for construction companies (contract formation, letters of intent, misrepresentation, termination, rights to payment, limits and exclusions of liability, design liabilities)
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Project insurances, bonds and guarantees (a practical workshop dealing with insurance obligations typically required under a construction project; an examination of key provisions and potential pitfalls with performance bonds and parent company guarantees; a look at the distinction between on demand bonds and on default bonds, the application and use of retention and advanced payment bonds and how to provide for these under the relevant contract)
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Collateral warranties and third party rights (a background to the tort of negligence which led to the introduction of collateral warranties, effective drafting of warranties and who should provide them; collateral warranties versus third party right schedules)
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Legal update (a workshop focussing on recent judgements and how they affect the administration and interpretation of construction contracts)
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Pre-Construction Services Agreements and Letters of Intent (effective drafting of PCSA’s and letters of intent, caps on expenditure, expiry period, terms governing services the carrying out of any early works, good faith provisions for the conduct of negotiations, limits on liability and caps on damages; employer’s rights to negotiate with other contractors and rights of termination)
LEARNING OUTCOMES
The bitesize seminars are more concise and focussed on specific areas. They will serve to strengthen a pre-existing knowledge of the administration contracts and ‘fine tune’ commercial performance in these discrete area. As for all our training and seminars, our speakers will strive to prepare the content of these sessions so the topics, examples and cases referred to are relevant to your business needs.
TRAINING AND SEMINARS FOR JUNIOR MEMBERS OF STAFF AND APPRENTICES
INTRODUCTION
At Sunderland Ives, we understand that organising contract and commercial training for junior members of staff and apprentices can prove challenging. The reason being is that this category of employee, by definition, will have a little or no prior knowledge or experience in such matters and may feel disengaged if they attend one of our mainstream seminars with other staff. This can be counter-intuitive as the session may serve to demotivate such members of staff and discourage any form of interaction.
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Our speakers have experience of leading a commercial department in contracting organisations, hence they have first-hand experience of organising and structuring training that prove insightful and interactive for junior staff and apprentices. Examples of training that have been delivered under this category are:
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Contract law (basic principles) (contract formation, tort of negligence, main types of statue affecting construction operations)
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Letters of intent (background to necessity for letter of intent, why they are required and key terms)
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Key provisions of construction contracts explained (a basic guide to key provisions and frequently used terms such as; liquidated damages, extensions of time, practical completion and partial possession)
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Payment and pay less notices (a guide to the key features of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act and a practical demonstration of how to prepare applications, payment and/or pay less notice)
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Extensions of time (a basic guide of the grounds for an extension of time and how this is assessed; an emphasis on the importance of record keeping and having a robust programme)
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A brief introduction and navigation of standard forms (a background to any specified standard form, which is aimed at attendees with little or no experience. This would cover contracts such as JCT, NEC, IChemE and FIDIC).
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RICS APC: (We can deliver CPD that will supplement the required training hours required by staff undertaking their APC)
LEARNING OUTCOMES
The content of these seminars and training are tailored to generate through provoking examples and questions to encourage group discussion and understanding. This will provide your junior members of staff and apprentices with a sound background knowledge of key contractual and commercial matters, which supplement workplace learning, university studies and any RICS APC pathway programme.
DURATION OF WORKSHOP
Recommended to be concise bitesize seminars lasting no longer than 3 hours.
PROJECT SPECIFIC WORKSHOPS
We deliver in-house project workshops for a wide range of organisations. You may wish for us to deliver project specific training in regard to a particular project or contract that you are carrying out.
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Here, we will invite you to provide a copy of any agreed contract (including amendments thereto) and other relevant contract documents. Our speaker will then tailor a session to specifically address your rights and obligations under this contract to ensure that your team members are inherently aware of their responsibilities from the outset. After these training sessions, our speaker will prepare a brief report that summaries key responsibilities arising under the contract that were discussed and explained in the session. This report can then be used a reference point when carrying out internal handover meetings between your different departments and/or project staff.
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You may wish us to deliver these workshops jointly with your clients and or supply chain to foster a spirt of mutual trust and co-operation before the contract is commenced. We have delivered these workshops in specific reference to the standard form being used for delivering the project such as:
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JCT 201 or 2024 Design and Build
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NEC 4
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IChemE
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FIDIC
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If you are interested in engaging Sunderland Ives to prepare and deliver a project workshop to give you a commercial head start, do not hesitate to get in touch.
COMPANY TRAINING PROGRAMMES
Sunderland Ives recognise that continuity and familiarity between our speakers and your staff will create a trust and understanding that leads to continuous improvement in learning and development. As such, we welcome the opportunity to assist you in preparing annual training plans for commercial and contract training and education. With an insight into your project pipeline, we can help you select training sessions that are meaningful, with the content flowing one training session to the other. For companies wishing to adopt this approach, we can offer discount to pricing and/or offer a complimentary bitesize training session for every company that books more than three half day sessions in a calendar year.