Astutis Reviews

Very good

I think that the content needs looking at bit as it can sometimes be too much information dumping in one block so needs to be a bit more broken up with a group activity. Week three has been the best delivery as the tutor has set the pace and given proper 10 minute breaks every hour. He was able to manage a lively group and still keep us on track and that was becase he was engaging and set the right tone from the beginning. He was also very supportive. Can it be fed back to IEMA that a LOT of the material in the manuals is out of date, not just by years but sometimes by decades. Course material should be reviewed and updated annually to keep it relevant. Historical case studies can still be relevant of course many years later but there is no excuse for things like the Living planet index to be so out of date when it is published every 2 years. Thats just one example of many. The homework books were never referenced in week 1 & 2 and were pretty useless in week 3 as the sustainability reports we were directed to use were the most up to date ones that companies issued which we accessed from the web. It is correct to refer to the most up to date policies so this rendered the homework and reading book a waste of time and also a BIG waste of paper. Again not sustainable. Suggestion to IEMA that the manual stays a hard copy but reading materials are sent electronically via up to date links to access the latest documents and websites. Much more environmentally friendly.

The content is very good but alot for days

Daf was really helpful and kept the sessions interactive as much as possible. Particularly great at providing feedback to questions and general help/tips to be successful.

N/A

Highly relevant course that will be applicable and beneficial to my daily role. This will also improve my competence. Great use of real life example and case studies to assist learning and delivery of content.

Overall the course has been extremely disappointing, this has been explained in detail in my feedback for weeks 1 and 2. I also believe that the content from IEMA is massively out of date, examples provided were from 10 years ago and no longer relevant. What has saved things for Astutis is that our week 3 tutor Mike has been exceptional. I really enjoyed the final week due to the way he delivered the course. Clearly he is very experienced and this came across, and he was able to hold the attention of the group and ensured we had adequate breaks and breakout activities. I am still unhappy overall but really glad you found Mike for us for our final week.

Gary was brilliant. Clear communication, very enthusiastic about the topic, stayed calm when members of the group were confused on had got anxious and diffused the situation very well. However the course materials were late arriving to my house (arrived 2 days into the course) despite the fact I had completed the form as requested - the member of the team that asked me to re-confirm my address for the delivery of materials stated the forms were not working properly. But when I asked for an updated ETA the response I got was because I was delayed in providing my details - which was not factually correct - I completed the form as soon as it was sent to me. This felt unprofessional and added stress to the course. When the materials arrived the book had coloured pages and non coloured pages which is disorientating and again appeared disorientating. The powerpoint presentation used by Gary was a copy and paste 95% of the time from the text book which isn't particularly engaging. Because my hardcopy course materials did not arrive on time I used the online materials provided in the link to the teams meeting which contained the old materials that were no longer applicable and had to wait for the up to date materials to be sent. Gary arranged this as I was not the only one without the course materials but again it was another unprofessional demonstration on Astutis' behalf.

The video content had a lot in it so maybe focusing on one thing would be good and filling in AC4 form as you go along

Slow start not helped by hard copies turning up late after getting lost.