Traditional Building Craft Skills Research - Ireland 2009

A shortage of skilled craftspeople throughout the UK highlighted the need for a coordinated strategy to ensure that these skills are available now and in the future.

This led in 2002 to the formation of the National Heritage Training Group (NHTG), which has a UK-wide remit to implement a coherent strategy for training and skills provision, to meet the demands of the built heritage sector. Its membership is composed of heritage bodies, employers groups, contractors, Trades Unions and FE and private training providers.

This first major primary research of traditional building craft skills in the built heritage sector for the whole of Ireland follows the first ever report of this series on the sector in England, Traditional Building Craft Skills: Assessing the Need, Meeting the Challenge, published by the NHTG in 2005. Similar research reports in Scotland and Wales were published in January and July 2007 respectively, and the England 2008 review and a UK-wide report on built heritage sector professionals were published in April 2008.

This latest report, commissioned by the NHTG and funded by CITB-Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA), the Office of Public Works, FÁS and ConstructionSkills provides up-to-date statistical data on traditional building craft skills in Ireland, thus completing the UK-wide picture on this sector and extending the research to cover the Republic of Ireland. This data underpins the strategic planning and tactical delivery necessary to ensure a suitably skilled and qualified workforce for this sector of the construction industry is available now and in the future.

The purpose of this analysis of the Built Heritage Sector in Ireland was to:

• Understand the place of traditional buildings in the cultures of each of the two countries 
• Understand the influence of legislation, conservation groups and building professionals 
• Analyse and quantify supply and demand in the sector and identify specific skills shortages
• Assess the material supply chain and related skill issues for manufacturers and suppliers of traditional building materials 
• Assess current training provision

The research findings inform the separate Skills Action Plans for Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (See Section 10 of the Full Report) to ensure that the supply of traditional building skills and materials meets the repair and maintenance needs of the 300,000 pre-1919 buildings in Ireland. This will be achieved by coordinated action to instigate sustainable positive change within this sector of the construction industry through a Traditional Building Skills Working Group in both countries. In Northern Ireland, a partnership agreement between ConstructionSkills in Northern Ireland and NIEA will also help to deliver the action plan.

Download Traditional Building Craft Skills: Ireland 2009:

Traditional Building Craft Skills: Ireland 2009 (Executive Summary) 1.8mb PDF file
Traditional Building Craft Skills: Ireland 2009 (Full Report) 4.3mb PDF file