Historic England and select partners have just announced a consultation with IHBC and the wider sector on plans for proposed new historic environment professional qualifications covering, among other things, a substantial body of built and historic environment conservation skills, all following proposals developed over the last year and more with DBIS, and now with a closing date of 24 March.
The proposed skills cover:
- ‘advice on all aspects of the historic environment from conservation areas to archaeological sites and collections…’;
- investigation, analysis and interpretation of historic environment assets from historic buildings through historic landscapes… [and]
- management of historic environment assets, whether historic buildings, historic landscapes … ensuring that their use is sustainable and consistent with their conservation needs.
Mike Brown, IHBC Chair said, ‘Members will note that the three skills areas Historic England is consulting on have a direct bearing on our professional area.’
‘Yet what began in 2015 as an issue relating to the demands of the National Infrastructure Programme (NIP) for early and up-front archaeology input has grown into a national training programme covering core built and historic environment conservation issues.’
‘Regrettably, the IHBC has not been at the heart of this development. It should have been obvious from a very early stage that the capacity issues generated by the NIP are more than an archaeology problem, that conservation-led skills would be central to success (or at least to avoiding unnecessary delays to this hugely important NIP) and that the IHBC should have been central to this process from the start.’
‘The IHBC and its wide networks have the skills to support making the NIP happen. We have the knowledge and experience to design any necessary training scheme to create the extra capacity to plug the conservation skills gap to ensure that the NIP is delivered.’
‘We will be making strong representations to Historic England and our partners in HEF, including under the Heritage 2020 programme, emphasising that while the core issues may relate more to archaeological concerns, in this expansion into wider conservation-based matters they:
- Do not clearly take account of existing National Occupational Standards (NOSs) central to the aspirations of the programme, notably the Conservation NOS written in partnership with the construction sector
- Do not recognise or reflect existing conservation accreditation frameworks widely used to ensure credible practice standards in conservation and currently in operation by Historic England itself – as well as all the other Home Countries – as a fundamental thread for Historic England’s own quality assurance of those practice standards
- Do not encompass the wide range of professional, specialist and informed skills relevant to successful built and historic management outcomes that will of course lie at the heart of the objectives in Historic England, and in the development of the qualifications which to date have failed to acknowledge or include representation from relevant key bodies, including, but not only, the IHBC.
‘I’m sure other professional bodies with interests in built and historic environment practice and conservation will share our concerns at this development, and help to voice them.’
‘Nevertheless the IHBC is ready to play its part in ensuring the success of the NIP, will play a constructive role in the development of supporting conservation capacity and hopes that lessons can be learnt from the current situation and that HE will recognise more readily in future the full historic environment perspective’.
‘The IHBC will be submitting a detailed commentary on the proposals in due course.’
Bob Hook, Intelligence Analyst at Historic England writes to the IHBC:
Last year a group of employers and organisations was successful in securing Trailblazer status under a Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) scheme to establish apprenticeships in Historic Environment Practice. I am writing to you to ask for your comments on the emerging draft standards.
The proposal is to establish an overarching qualification – ‘Historic Environment Practitioner’ – which will provide the basis for a number of defined specialist pathways:
- Historic Environment Practitioner (Advice) – provides advice on all aspects of the historic environment from conservation areas to archaeological sites and collections.
- Historic Environment Practitioner (Investigation) – undertakes investigation, analysis and interpretation of historic environment assets from historic buildings through historic landscapes to the excavation of archaeological sites and collections.
- Historic Environment Practitioner (Management) –undertakes the management of historic environment assets, whether historic buildings, historic landscapes or archaeological sites and collections, ensuring that their use is sustainable and consistent with their conservation needs.
The Steering Group for the project has representatives from Arup, Atkins, Mott MacDonald, AB Heritage Wessex Archaeology, Cambridgeshire County Council, Cotswold Archaeology, Oxford Archaeology, The Council for British Archaeology, MOLA, York Archaeological Trust, National Parks UK, the National Trust and Archaeology South East. Educational providers involved include Oxford Brookes University, Winchester University, UCL and Universities Archaeology UK. Among professional institutes both the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (CIfA) and the Institute of Conservation (Icon) are members.
The Historic Environment Practitioner is intended to offer apprenticeships covering levels 3 to 7, which equate to academic qualifications from A–level to Postgraduate level, providing career pathways along an accredited, non-academic route to qualifications in the sector. It will proactively address the issue of expanding career opportunities in the sector and will help address diversity issues. It has the potential to provide structured career pathways which equip apprentices with the skills we believe are critical to the sector. It has been designed to address employment and skills issues of existing career pathways in archaeology. We anticipate the standards will be completed in time to start awarding apprenticeships later this year.
I would welcome your comments and observations and those of IHBC generally on the draft Overarching Apprenticeship Standards at Levels 3 and 5. These have been produced by a working group drawn from employers in the sector and we now wish to validate this draft by opening it to scrutiny and input from the wider sector. I append both levels together with supporting documents which show how these relate to work functions and a short Q&A document setting out some more detail about apprenticeships overall. It is my hope, and that of the working group that an IHBC representative might be able to join us in the next stage of the project.
If you have any comments or suggestions then please send them to me by 24th March 2016 by email to bob.hook@historicengland.org.uk or contact him directly on 07831 523363.
Alternatively write to:
Bob Hook
Intelligence Analyst: Professional Infrastructure and Skills,
Strategic Planning and Management Department,
Research Group,
Historic England, The Engine House, Fire Fly Avenue, Swindon, SN2 2EH
