Working Groups

Seven breakout groups considered the NHTG report as well the issues outlined during the morning’s discussions.

Delegates were asked to answer the following questions for each of the seven topics:

What is your vision for action at a local and regional level?
What barriers will you encounter?
What needs to be done and by whom?

Questions put to individual groups:

How do we interest young people and career-changers in a career in craft skills and how do we keep them?
At the regional level what needs to happen on procurements?
What is the menu of training options on a regional basis?
How do we get out of the heritage ghetto and how can we learn from those outside the sector?
How can we engage clients and contractors with trainers?
How do we obtain regional funding?
What does a good training partnership look like and who needs to be involved?

Responses - A Tool Kit for Designing Solutions?

These responses are as recorded in real time.

How do we interest young people and career changers in a career in craft skills and how do we keep them?

THE VISION

Starting at Primary Schools, develop a continuous thread through life (lifelong learning).

Website: career service link, bursaries, projects, then give qualifications
Outreach: instead of bringing young people to SkillCity, bring SkillCity to young people - eg a pantechnicon to visit schools, pupil recovery units, young offenders’ institutions, rural communities - so that potential students experience hands-on with a “real” person
Great expeience: half-hour hands-on sessions with real craftsmen, building school huts, engaging parents in building clubs as teacher assistants (like ESOL language clubs that are run by parents for parents and kids)
Follow-through: better books like Dorling Kindersley’s “The City Beneath Your Feet”, building on children’s basic curiosity about how things work
Parity of Esteem: twin track - vocational and academic: the work experience should have hooks back into the curriculum - maths, science, art, design technology, engineering - and vice versa: underpinning knowledge works both ways. Get exemplars into schools
Information centres: clubs, projects, diagnostics, careers, training providers - design one-stop shops for local voluntary projects

Progression develops from the 2-hour taster, through to clubs (eg Cubs and Scouts), to 2-6 weeks work experiences at 15 (eg Cathedral Volunteers), through to a website of voluntary projects (offering qualifications), gap-year opportunities, through to bursaries and diagnostics for career paths - women returners, post-retirement.

Look into The Prince’s Trust “Get Into” team program - Land (in Wales), Coffee (Carlucci), Construction (Gaggia) Cooking (Mossiman) - all sponsored by employers. Look into the “Teach it First” scheme.

A website should show bursaries and projects to give ideas to the young people. There is a need for twin-tracking in academic and vocational life skills.

Target marketing: why should kitchens used by women be designed by men? Appeal to women, to different ethnic cultures, to express themselves.

OVERCOMING BARRIERS AND CHANGING CULTURES

Parity of esteem - teacher-training and parents’ single-track attitudes.
Lack of hooks for twin-track in current curricula.
Scarcity of funding.
Poor work experience on site.

WHO NEEDS TO DO WHAT?

Require local authorities to write training funding into property developer contracts
Train teachers in twin-track thinking
Outreach - SWRDA and existing resources (eg Business Link’s pantechnicon scheme)
FE Colleges - write the hooks, ladders and bridges to create twin-track
Design the program: start small - hand picked craftsmen, great work experience
Identify construction sites that will provide positive work experience for young people

At a regional level what needs to happen on procurements?

Practice promoted above or at least alongside theory
Revalidate craftsmen
Redefine creativity
Build local partnerships
Create learning centres
Revive craft guilds movement
Revive the old cathedral construction and craft traditions

What is the menu of regional training opportunities?

Every level has the opportunity to engage/experience construction and heritage skills and ongoing support.

strong new regional partnerships with training manifestos and community/volunteer participation - eg Cotswolds Canals Partnership
FE Colleges/private training providers/local and county councils/RDA/companies/sector bodies - eg The Heritage Academy initiative, Rural Renaissance’s Construction Industry Task Force www.southwestrda.org.uk
primary schools - kindling interest via educational visits
ambassadors of the building industry to go into schools
promote GCSEs with vocational qualifications
craft workshops for the general public
promote access to old and new build, such as Woodchester Mansion, Tyntesfield, Poundbury.
university and FE networks - student placement schemes
vocational training
apprenticeship support
skills enhancement
85% SME’s employ less than 5 skilled people - because of health & safety issues and productivity loss. Employees must be multi-skilled

How do we get out of the ghetto?

There is a perception that heritage is something ‘set apart’ and not relevant to wider issues. The following actions could change perceptions:

learn from others - an example being the Scottish Conservation Bureau who got together craftsmen and trainers with their information officers
awareness - there is a shortage of competent people possibly because of certain negative perceptions. The profile of heritage skills has risen considerably in recent years though could be increased further by raising the profile through TV and by showing that they are valuable, relevant and aspirational
equality of academic and vocational training with more use of role models
heritage skills to be included as vocational training in curricula, should be linked to the idea of a “modern” career
greater co-operation between heritage organisations
there is a need for access to information - co-ordinated information on source of craftsmen and training - a centrally based website with a co-ordinated approach and focal point. CITB have a useful website as does NHTG
the support system should be rationalised and co-operative.
high quality skills are important to everyone and the present curriculum and academic system are not seen as the way to learn the required skills. It would be better if apprentices learned on the job, possibly with only a basic wage
heritage skills need to be relevant to the rest of the world
involve young people, not only in heritage skills but the natural environment as well

How can we engage clients and contractors with trainers on a regional basis?

VISION

contractors have to have the skills to meet clients’ needs
there is no way of forecasting supply and demand
there is a need to set up regional alliances and build up best practices
accreditation of courses is important
release skilled people into schools, colleges and universities for training
companies should set aside time to allow staff to gain experience

BARRIERS

not enough trainers with appropriate skills
no central information source

How do we obtain funding at a regional level?

SOURCES OF FUNDING?
Private sector

there is money in the private sector but it is a question of knowing where to find it. It would help if apprenticeship costs could be attached to contracts
banks - interest-free loans - funds to be project based
alumni - tax breaks
profitable businesses - there will be full costs recovery as training providers who work on full cost basis cannot afford poor quality delivery. However, there are insufficient construction businesses recognised as “Investors in People”
the Skills Centre at The Royal Agricultural College is selling training to businesses. Courses have to be good quality to do this

Charities

livery companies; national charitable trusts; smaller local trusts; US trusts

Public sector

LSCs through colleges and other training providers
HEFC through universities
LEAs for 14-16 year olds but 27% of the costs for over 19s are not covered
local authorities
ESF
HLF
ERDP
lottery fund
RDA - Rural Renaissance, major regeneration projects, market and coastal towns initiatives

BARRIERS

state aid rules
competition for funding - though by forming partnerships this could be overcome
very little funding for over-30s
health & safety
bureaucracy

What does a good training partnership look like and who needs to be involved?

This group attempted to answer the question - what would a regional partnership for rural and heritage crafts skills look like?

Firstly, a word of caution! A partnership would ideally be employer-led but, typically, employers in this sector are SME’s with the emphasis on very small firms, not used to spending time in meetings, away from the job, talking about strategies and funding opportunities, yet their representation would be essential.

The partnership candidates are less difficult to identify and recruit: training providers (especially colleges), patrons and sponsors (including property owners, large and small), local authorities and funders. Experience suggests that funders want to be kept in touch and will advise from time to time rather than have continuing membership. We know who should be there, but how do we get them involved? Locally there is interest in heritage partnerships but there may be a necessity to have sub-partnerships until RDA and others are involved.

Partnerships, to be successful and to become sustainable, need to achieve:

a common purpose or set of aims
opportunities for all to benefit
a shared understanding that while competition will continue, all will benefit from growing the market through the partnership
some early successes before despair at not achieving the long-term goals sets in
a synergy with cultural strategies prepared by government agencies and sector organisations
a congruence with other social policies such as ecological sustainability and economic regeneration (jobs)
a clear focus on the needs of the industry
a recognition that in the heritage sector a partnership will only succeed if it works with a range of development sites simultaneously and aims to reduce the duplication of scarce training capabilities while strengthening the individual specialisms across the region or sub-region

Examples were offered of projects involving numerous partners, interests and inbuilt long-term training programmes: Wells Cathedral face-lift; Terminal 5 at Heathrow; St John the Divine, New York and the Birmingham 14-19 education master-plan.

Partnership working is probably essential and can and should add value by:

ensuring a fuller and wider accountability for spending public funds
designing memoranda of understanding which offer hope of project sustainability over time
producing a co-ordinated approach to skill shortages, which are inevitably patchy across the region
reducing the risk of sectors and interests becoming alienated and uncooperative
increasing the pool of knowledge and expertise and the range of opinion available to the sponsors
providing the avenues for funding, accountability and sustainability

In the final analysis significant funding support from public and private services is unlikely to be achieved without evidence of real commitment and good working relationships between stakeholders.

IIC THE WORKING GROUPS