{"id":43606,"date":"2025-07-29T16:05:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T15:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=43606"},"modified":"2025-07-28T17:57:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T16:57:17","slug":"funding-the-future-of-traditional-skills-in-scotland-centre-of-excellence-for-canals-traditional-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=43606","title":{"rendered":"Funding the future of traditional skills in Scotland: \u2018Centre of Excellence for Canals & Traditional Skills\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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image for illustration: Thatching in Scotland by Fiona Newton<\/sub><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new national training centre for Scotland, focused on traditional skills, has secured \u00a33.7m of National Lottery support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Historic Environment Scotland writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scotland\u2019s Centre of Excellence for Canals & Traditional Skills will be located near Lock 16 on the banks of the Forth & Clyde Canal in Falkirk. The Centre, which will see Scottish Canals partner with Historic Environment Scotland, will focus on developing pathways into heritage skills training, volunteering, and employment within the historic environment sector. A range of activities including school engagement, pre-apprenticeships, modern apprenticeships, as well as upskilling and sector support activities such as \u2018train the trainers\u2019 will help develop a template for skills development work across the country.  It marks a significant investment in retaining and passing on traditional craft, engineering and construction skills essential to helping to maintain Scotland\u2019s built and industrial heritage, including thatching, stonemasonry, black-smithery and environmental conservation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Culture Secretary Angus Robertson said: \u2018Scotland has a proud heritage of traditional skills, and the valuable work planned at Lock 16 will ensure these skills are preserved, passed on, and used to support our historic environment for generations to come. This investment highlights the power of collaboration and demonstrates our shared commitment to empower people with the skills they need for the future.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caroline Clark, The National Lottery Heritage Fund Director for Scotland, said: \u2018We know that Scotland urgently needs to preserve and develop its traditional building, craft and rural skills so that it can properly care for its historic buildings and industrial heritage, especially in the context of climate change. Thanks to National Lottery players we are very pleased to be able to support this important work, saving our traditional skills from loss. I can\u2019t think of a better project to receive our \u00a31 billionth pound spent in Scotland – marking 30 years of investment in over 5000 projects which have helped to protect and celebrate Scotland’s incredible heritage\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Paterson Scottish Canals CEO said: \u2018We are delighted to secure this crucial funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. The funds will allow us to develop our plans for the site, which forms part of The Falkirk and Grangemouth Growth Deal, to transform this vacant building into Scotland\u2019s Centre of Excellence for Canals & Traditional Skills, a new low-carbon facility with our partners Historic Environment Scotland. The project will support workplace learning and apprenticeship training programmes developing new opportunities for the people of Falkirk and beyond. The campus will allow us to create new and exciting opportunities for collaborative working, whilst also ensuring Scotland\u2019s canals remain vibrant, relevant and alive for years to come.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katerina Brown, Historic Environment Scotland CEO said: \u2018We have been championing Scotland\u2019s traditional skills sector for some time, and this funding is warmly welcomed. It is an important step in helping us to provide further provision for key skills which are at risk without support and investment from the sector and beyond, and to help us on our collective journey to preserve these skills for future generations. It is also a unique cross-sector partnership, bringing together teams from the Culture and Transport sectors in support of public sector reform.  We very much look forward to working with our partners at Scottish Canals to see the vision for Lock 16, and the new centre, become a reality.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Cecil Meiklejohn, Leader of Falkirk Council, said: \u2018The funding secured by Scottish Canals through The National Lottery Heritage Fund will help establish Scotland\u2019s Centre of Excellence for Canals & Traditional Skills, a project that will not only support the preservation of traditional skills and the area’s industrial heritage, but also regenerate a stretch of the Forth & Clyde Canal into a thriving community and training hub. As one of 11 projects that form part of the Falkirk and Grangemouth Growth Deal, the centre will enhance local places, strengthen community connections, and support people to gain new skills, with \u00a34m being allocated from the Deal. By bringing disused buildings back into productive use and encouraging even greater use of the canal corridor for active travel and tourism, the project really does have a pivotal role in supporting more sustainable and inclusive growth across the local area.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scottish Canals has led on significant regeneration along the Forth & Clyde Canal, and the Union Canal which is linked to it by world\u2019s only rotating boat lift, The Falkirk Wheel. Since the opening of The Falkirk Wheel and the nearby Kelpies and Helix Park heritage-led regeneration along the canals has delivered significant investment, employment and outdoor recreation opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more….<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

image for illustration: Thatching in Scotland by Fiona Newton A new national training centre for Scotland, focused on traditional skills, has secured \u00a33.7m of National Lottery support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6,307,17,18,30,23,62,9,29,262,367,22,458],"class_list":["post-43606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ihbc-newsblog","tag-building","tag-canals","tag-climate-change","tag-conservation","tag-environment","tag-expertise","tag-funding","tag-government","tag-heritage","tag-lottery","tag-partnership","tag-skills","tag-thatching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43607,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43606\/revisions\/43607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}