20 Y e a r b o o k 2 0 1 1 The Need for Skills The heritage perspective John Edwards Traditional building craft skills are at risk of dying out in the UK with only 30,000 or so craftspeople with the appropriate skills. Initiatives such as the development of bursary schemes, training routes into the Heritage Skills NVQ Level 3 and an increase in programmed and ad hoc training sessions and awareness courses have all helped, but they have not dramatically improved the numbers of appropriately skilled craftspeople in the UK. With the oldest building stock in the western world, more than 20 per cent of which is traditionally built with solid walls, you might expect the UK building industry to have developed the necessary expertise to maintain older buildings properly. National Heritage Training Group research published in 2008 suggests otherwise. The research established that a quarter of professionals find it difficult to specify the right work to traditional buildings and almost two thirds felt that their education was inadequate for this kind of work – and these are only the ones who were brave enough to own up. This results in the use of modern materials and techniques which have been developed from a new construction knowledgebase and which are inappropriate and potentially damaging to traditional buildings. It also results in the wrong skills being demanded and deployed. While many of our buildings require traditional craft skills, they are frequently not deployed, partly because the professionals involved are not asking for them. Genuine conservation specialists will of course specify the right work and demand the right skills, but most work undertaken to traditional buildings involves mainstream professionals. Until mainstream professionals recognise that many of them don’t understand 20 per cent of the UK’s building stock, and that this could be contributing to the deterioration of those buildings, they will continue to specify inappropriate work and consequently the number of appropriately skilled crafts people in the UK will never reach the level required. The full extent of the skill shortage remains hidden because appropriate work is not being demanded wherever it is required. We must address the shortfall in demand by increasing the knowledge and expertise of the professionals responsible for specifying work, while at the same time increasing the supply by improving the skill levels of craftspeople. Initiatives to increase the number of craftspeople with the required skills have had limited success, with only about 500 individuals obtaining the Heritage Skills NVQ Level 3. This will not solve the problem, so other initiatives need to be developed. One such initiative involves short courses aimed at increasing the knowledge base of craftspeople so they will be both better equipped and a couple of rungs up the ladder towards the Heritage Skills NVQ Level 3. The courses are aimed at upskilling thousands rather than hundreds of craftspeople and the first is being piloted in The Grade I listed Ham House (above) is maintained and repaired in an informed way using traditional materials and skills. Unlisted Victorian terraced houses (facing page, top left) are generally constructed in the same way as Ham House, basically in masonry units bedded and jointed in lime mortar. Although they are essentially the same, the approach to their repair is usually completely different; the Victorian terraced houses are normally treated with modern materials and repair techniques. The modern terrace (facing page, top right) is fundamentally different to the Victorian terraced houses as it relies on impervious barriers in its construction while the Victorian terraced houses are comprised of porous building materials. They are usually treated using the same modern materials and repair techniques, but they should be approached very differently.
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