220 Training Places Created Thanks to Lottery Boost for Traditional Heritage Skills
07 December 2009, The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has announced additional funding for its Training Bursary Programme, to include £500,000 for 56 placements on the Traditional Building Skills for England and Wales.
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has announced seven projects, under its existing Training Bursary Programme, that are set to benefit from an additional £2.85m investment. This will deliver a wide range of skills training - including blacksmithing, botanic gardening, stone masonry, gold leafing and thatching – and immediately create over 220 additional training places. These placements will provide accredited work-based training with highly-skilled crafts people and environmental specialists.
This will include an additional £500,000 for 56 placements on the Traditional Building Skills for England and Wales scheme, run by a partnership of English Heritage, The National Trust, Cadw, ConstructionSkills and the National Heritage Training Group, and £436,800 for 14 year-long and 50 short-term bursary placements on The Masonry Conservation in Scotland and Northern Ireland Project run by Historic Scotland.
HLF’s £7m Training Bursary Programme, originally launched in 2004, has been a resounding success, already providing over 300 people with high-quality on-the-job accredited training over a range of 50 skill sets. 89% of those who completed placements in 2008-09 went on to secure jobs in the heritage sector.
Dame Jenny Abramsky, Chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund, said:
“We’ve allocated this extra money because we wanted to make a real impact now, when it is needed most. More than ever in difficult times, HLF wants to offer people skills that will give them a future career whilst also meeting the needs of the sector. This investment will help make sure heritage skills are protected for the future and is designed to attract people who might not usually consider a career in heritage.”
Further details of the placements are available on the Building Bursaries website
Skills for the Future
The additional funding announced today will be followed by a further £5m for HLF’s new programme, entitled ‘Skills for the Future’ to be launched in December 2009. Also focussed on work-based training, ‘Skills for the Future’ will equip the heritage workforce with an even wider range of skills, for example, those needed to work with digital technologies or to open up heritage to new audiences.
Organisations interested in ‘Skills for the Future’ should call HLF’s Information Team on 020 7591 6044/6042.