If you want any more information, may be able to offer placements, or are interested in being involved in another capacity please contact Andie Harris, heritage skills coordinator atandie.harris@nect.org.uk.
Press release reads as follows: Some of the region’s specialist heritage skills are to be passed on to a new generation to ensure that the North East’s industrial history will be preserved for the future. Thanks to a grant of £490,100 from the Heritage Lottery Fund <http://www.hlf.org.uk> (HLF) under their ‘Skills for the Future’ programme, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums and North of England Civic Trust will be able to offer training placements in practical heritage engineering skills to 24 people across the region.
The training programme aims to provide participants with varied skills including the repair and maintenance of steam engines and trams, and skills to maintain examples of Victorian industry such as mining and water pumping equipment.
Iain Watson, acting director, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums says,
“The North East is famed as the birthplace of the railway and the region’s fortune was made through mining, shipbuilding and marine engineering.
However we have reached a stage now where former miners and engineers are aging or retiring and vital skills to preserve our industrial collections are dying out. The Skills for the Future programme not only addresses this skills gap head on, but it enables a new generation to gain first hand experience working alongside expert older workers, develop their practical skills and contribute to the maintenance and preservation of some of the most important industrial heritage exhibits in the North East.”
The placements will cover a range of skills from mechanical engineering, metalwork and carpentry to painting and finishing and pattern making. Trainees will be able to preserve and protect valuable pieces of history and get some hands on experience in the field.
Andie Harris, heritage skills co-ordinator at North of England Civic Trust says: “The Heritage Skills Initiative (HSI) is committed to reducing the skills shortage in the North East’s heritage sector. The Skills for the Future programme is an engaging way for younger people to connect with valuable pieces of the region’s heritage whilst also preserving the essential skills needed to ensure their future. It is the first time the HSI has undertaken a programme involving industrial heritage skills and it will be a huge benefit to add this specialist knowledge to our remit.”
Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums and North of England Civic Trust will work in collaboration with museums, heritage societies and voluntary groups in the region to deliver a programme of work based training placements.
This is just one of a number of North East Skills for the Future projects. In total there are 54 projects across the UK and with an overall investment of £17m from the Heritage Lottery Fund. This money will deliver 808 placements and adds up to an impressive 780 years’ worth of paid training opportunities for people across the UK seeking a career in heritage.
For more information on this project please contact Andie Harris on (0191) 232 9279 or emailandie.harris@nect.org.uk
