Traditional Building Skills Bursary Scheme – Calling Contractors In The North West
16 January 2009, The Heritage Lottery Fund Traditional Building Skills Bursary Scheme is open to business of all sizes and to help craftspeople, trainees and career changers work towards gaining NVQ3 (or equivalent) in relevant heritage skills.
The Bursary, worth £1.2m, is designed to help address the high skills needs currently being encountered in the heritage sector and is being largely funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (£900,000) and is being run in partnership with English Heritage, The National Trust, ConstructionSkills, the National Heritage Training Group (NHTG), and Cadw.
The scheme is designed to assist both craftspeople with transferable skills and knowledge already working in the main construction industry, and career changers who are seeking to obtain particular traditional building skills or experience in the heritage sector by funding and facilitating training placements with contractors and organisations. The main skills that the
bursaries will be aimed at include brickwork, carpentry and joinery, fibrous plaster, lime plaster, stone masonry and conservation, leadwork, traditional roofing, painting and decoration, earth building and blacksmithing.
Clara Willett, Bursary Scheme Manager comments: “We are keen to work with employers who want to host placements and to hear from those keen to develop their skills in order to work in the heritage sector. We’ve yet to fund any placements in the North West and so we are very keen to hear from contractors in this region who are interested in hosting a placement”.
The Bursary Scheme is open to business of all sizes and to help craftspeople, trainees and career changers work towards gaining NVQ3 (or equivalent) in relevant heritage skills.
New placements are available regularly and individuals can sign up to the Scheme’s e-newsletter to keep them informed of these and general progress.
More information is available from the scheme’s website www.buildingbursaries.org.uk