Crisis in craft skills training

The college that trained many of the country’s top craftspeople, including three of the mentors from Monty Don’s BBC Mastercrafts series, will soon close its doors to heritage crafts trainees in spite of the Heritage Lottery Fund just having announced £17m in Lottery funding for skills training.

Closure of the New Entrants Training Scheme (NETS) at Hereford College, with its excellent record of getting students straight into full time employment, has prompted an outcry from crafts organisations. It highlights a national crisis in training provision - there are jobs available, master craftspeople willing to pass the skills on and people wishing to learn - but the support and infrastructure for craft training is inconsistent.

Ian Peake principle at Hereford College said, “It is with great regret that the college faces the closure of these courses due to changed national funding priorities and cuts in adult learning funding.” The courses in forgework, thatching, woodwork, wheelwrighting and upholstery have been running for over 30 years and are widely recognised by the industries concerned. However, because they do not offer a low-level NVQ level 2 qualification, they are not priority funding for the Skills Funding Agency, and so are being axed.

There is a similar problem in other trades. There is only one master cooper left in England. Following press coverage last year, Alastair Simms at Wadworth Brewery had a thousand letters from people wanting to learn the trade and he is happy to pass his skills on, but there is no government funded training scheme to cover the costs. An apprentice could get funding to take a low-level NVQ in woodwork on day release, but not for one-to-one tuition under a master craftsman.

Mike Turnock is the country’s last sievemaker, weaving wire garden riddles onto steam-bent wooden rims. He will retire this September aged 65 and local man, Damian Bramhall, would like to take the trade on and stop it from dying out. However, again there is no funding for Mike to pass his skills on. Such craftspeople are not interested in NVQs, quangos, priority provision or the endless paperwork which may be appropriate to large scale training in industry. They care about their skills and want help to pass them on to the next generation.

Robin Wood, of the Heritage Crafts Association, said, “The problem stems from traditional crafts falling outside the remit of all government agencies. Recognised by neither arts nor heritage organisations, there is nobody to protect traditional skills in the way that English Heritage protects buildings.” The problem is compounded because the crafts cross many boundaries - skills training is the responsibility of Sector Skills Councils, but the crafts fall within the remit of of Creative and Cultural Skills, Construction Skills and LANTRA.

Tuesday’s HLF press release announced £17m “for training in Heritage skills” and said “Trainees will learn traditional skills like dry-stonewalling and boat-building.” However, as with previous schemes, the majority of the funding is for building and conservation crafts. Robin Wood said, “When we see the annual budgets of quangos like the SFA (£4bn) and Sector Skills Councils it is very frustrating to see a centuries old crafts skill such as sievemaking in danger of dying out for the sake of £5,000, which is all it would cost for Mike Turnock to train his successor.”

Meanwhile, at a very human level, the decision to cut NETS is a sudden blow for many people, particularly those part way through the two-year course, who will not be able to complete their studies when funding is cut abruptly in July.

Notes:

NETS students are trained for 12 weeks over a two-year period. There are currently 72 trainees.

• Heritage Crafts Association (Chair: Robin Wood, 01433 670321 or mobile 0753 1742617)
• British Artist Blacksmiths Association (Chair: Terrence Clark)
• Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths (Chris Jeal, hammerandhand@supernet.com)
• Worshipful Company of Wheelwrights
  
• Guild of Traditional Upholsterers
  
• Hereford College (Principal: Ian Peake, 01432 365300)
• Mike Turnock, sievemaker, 01663 732607

Tuesday's HLF announcement of 808 heritage training placements is great news for 'The Heritage Industry' but sadly most crafts fall outside that industry's remit.

Of those placements 241 are in countryside conservation, 148 in heritage building skills, 142 in museum and archive skills, 46 in horticulture, 39 in education and information management, 18 in new media, 27 in archaeology, 12 in oral history, 21 increasing ethnic diversity and here are the crafts at the bottom, 16 in heritage ironwork, 12 in boatbuilding and 4 in bookbinding.