The Institute of Historic Building Conservation (IHBC), the UK’s lead professional body for conservation specialists, has welcomed the announcement that a new conservation National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) Level 3 is now regulated by Ofqual and available to assessment centres though ABBE, the Awarding Body for the Built Environment.
IHBC Director Seán O’Reilly said: ‘We’re delighted that our long-standing ambition to support the specification of core skills for conservation specialists is finally coming to fruition. For too long the term conservation has been used loosely – even improperly – as a description of any heritage activity. These new training specifications will allow anyone to understand better just what skills conservation advisers and specialists need. As they apply to a technical level of advice, we are still in the early stages, but it is a huge step forward for the sector, not least as these specifications reach across to core conservation areas in planning and building control.’
‘Everyone interested in conservation should be truly grateful to the IHBC’s members as, through their subscriptions, they have underpinned our time-consuming but critical contributions to the NVQ development. This launch is also a by-product of a wider process of securing inter-disciplinary agreement on the National Occupational Standards (NOS) for Conservation, with hugely supportive contributions from colleagues and bodies such as RTPI, CIOB, RIBA and the National Trust, as well as other key employers. In addition CITB-ConstructionSkills, as lead author of the NOS, have been central to this process, and their central and supportive role there was especially welcome in a sector only too well known for its hand-to-mouth existence and attendant low profile in government.’
‘Of course we’re also keen to make NVQs as accessible a formal route to IHBC membership as the more structured academic routes. That is part of a wider programme of education and training in the sector that we want to support. The next step will be when we have Level 6 NVQ route in place – which will map more closely to IHBC’s professional membership structures – as we hope to have very soon!’
For the NOS see: LINK
For ABBE see: www.abbeqa.co.uk
Download the ABBE handbook here
Download the update letter here
