The mark of the conservation professional
This page carries guidance on procedures and standards required for courses to achieve recognition by IHBC.
Full recognition of a course by the Institute confirms that the course achieves a standard that should allow its graduates to satisfy IHBC membership criteria, where supplemented by an suitable balance of professional experience. Full recognition confirms that the course provides the aspiring conservation professional with the best possible support for attaining IHBC membership. Ordinarily applicants for IHBC membership without formal conservation training require a minimum of five years of relevant professional experience, but graduates of fully recognised courses need only have a minimum of two years of such experience.
Conservation courses that are fully recognised by the IHBC provide a unique route to professional activity in the field conservation. They provide an informed inter-disciplinary grounding in the understanding of conservation that no traditional built environment training programmes aspire to match. They give students the essential tools to develop a career in the sustainable conservation and management of a rare and valuable resource, our historic places.
The skills typically developed in the fully recognised courses are inter-disciplinary, environmentally-aware and people-based, focussing on managerial and advisory skills based on a direct experience of the conservation process. Such skills are increasingly sought after. Indeed the ConstructionSkills Sector Skills Council’s research ‘Altogether Stronger - Skills Needs Analysis for construction’ (2004/5) has noted that
‘Research with best practice construction has revealed that… managers… are weaker in the soft skills needed for successful partnering… There is a lack of understanding of the impact of the Government’s wide-ranging sustainability agenda… [and] there is evidence of a growing concern as to the skills of both their existing staff and new recruits. These centre particularly on the technical skills associated with design and the management of projects’.
There are two forms of course recognition operated by the IHBC:
Please do encourage your students to join the Institute as affiliates or as appropriate, and to become involved with our activities. Student rates are generally subsidised, and participation in IHBC events will enhance the credibility of any applicant for full membership.
In addition, course tutors or contributors who are not already members might like to consider applying for full or affiliate membership; affiliate membership in particular may often suit course leaders, while involvement with our operations could provide an appropriate route to full membership.
Finally, in determining who should contribute to your course-work, consideration should be given to achieving a balance of IHBC members (full, affiliate, or associate). The breadth of skills typical of IHBC members can help mitigate issues arising from more narrow or focused courses.
Any enquiries should be passed to the Director (director@ihbc.org.uk).