The National Heritage Training Group (NHTG) provides assistance with all aspects of recruiting, training, and qualifying the UK’s construction workforce in traditional building crafts.
Following on from the catalyst ofthe Government in February 2000 asking English Heritage to co-ordinate a wide-ranging review of all policies relating to the historic environment, this led to research and the report Power of Place (English Heritage) being submitted to the Government and published in December 2000.
This was followed in December 2001 by the government’s response with the publication of The Historic Environment: A Force for Our Future (Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions). Both these reports gave particular emphasis to and sought greater co-ordination of craft training in this sector.
The National Heritage bodies and CITB ConstructionSkills had been seeking to address the need to support traditional building skills and training issues for some time and the first ever UK summit of the built heritage sector in February 2003 resulted.
This in turn led to the formation in April 2003 of the National Heritage Training Group (NHTG), funded jointly by English Heritage and CITB Constructionskills it comprises contractors, the leading heritage bodies and training providers from across the UK working together to develop a coherent system for training and skills provision to meet the demands of the traditional building crafts sector.
A shortage of skilled craftspeople has highlighted the need for strong action to prevent further erosion of our skills base. One of the most important actions by the NHTG has been to commission research in the nine English regions which fills existing information gaps on the scope, depth and breadth of labour and skills needs within the traditional skills/built heritage sector. These results, together with an action plan, have recently been published as the Traditional Building Craft Skills: Skills need analysis of the built heritage sector in England 2005 report. This information is crucial to future planning.
It is concerned about skills shortages and gaps and wants to ensure that appropriate training is available for new and existing craftsmen and women. As an independent industry training group, it works closely with the main clients for the historic building sector, training providers and the trade unions. The challenge is to meet the skills and training needs of the next 5 years and beyond.
NHTG has a Management Committee that represents the relevant trade organisations, training providers and heritage organisations from across the UK. It is keen to work with all construction companies, training providers and heritage organisations that have an interest in ensuring they have sufficiently skilled craftsmen and women to work on our historic building stock across the UK.
England’s rich built heritage is part of our everyday lives. Regeneration, tourism, repair and maintenance provide local employment and revenue helping to sustain this valuable cultural asset. The historic environment is part of the present and connects us with the future and the past. Yesterday’s historic buildings are today’s heritage and the best of today’s buildings will be part of our future historic environment.
The use of locally available natural materials and local craftsmen has also produced the distinct building styles that form the regional vernacular character that makes England so unique. Our built heritage is however, a finite resource and is often vulnerable to loss – it needs legislation to protect it and prevent unnecessary demolition; national and regional commitment and resources to conserve it; professional skills to manage it; and experience of traditional building techniques to sensitively repair and maintain it.
In the past, building craft skills were passed down from generation to generation. However, modern life styles and different working practices within the construction industry have resulted in a shortage of craft skills. Bricklayers, carpenters, flint workers, lime-plasterers (including pargetters), stone-masons, thatchers and other skilled practitioners are now in short supply. Without these skills, the ability to conserve and restore our historic buildings is threatened.
The NHTG has a UK-wide remit, with responsibility for implementing a coherent strategy for training and skills provision, to meet the demands of the traditional building crafts sector. Its membership is composed of heritage bodies, employer federations, contractors, trade unions and training providers from further education and conservation specialists. It has a website and travelling exhibitions and acts as a catalyst for further action by CITB-ConstructionSkills and others.
For further information contact:
The National Heritage Training Group
Carthusian Court
12 Carthusian Street
London
EC1M 6EZ
T: 01509 282860
F:01509 283162
NHTG website link