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.

New map of traditional craftspeople in the UK

The Heritage Crafts Association (HCA) is putting together an online map of traditional craftspeople working in the UK. When fully populated, this will help the HCA in its advocacy work, demonstrating the diversity and geographic spread of traditional crafts across the country, including those with skills that are in danger of dying out. It will also be useful for members of the public to become more familiar with, and better appreciate, the particular crafts of their local area.

You can access it the map directly at www.heritagecrafts.org.uk/map.html (if this link does not work, please copy and paste the address into your browser's address bar). There you will be able to view the map and, if you are a traditional craftsperson, sign up for free inclusion (please allow up to a week for entries to appear on the map).

Traditional craftspeople who have signed up as Friends of the HCA feature on the map as red pins, while all other entries feature in blue. For more details about the HCA Friends’ Scheme and to sign up, visit www.heritagecrafts.org.uk/signup.html.

Traditional craftspeople come together at the HCA launch and forum

Tuesday 23 March saw the official launch of the Heritage Crafts Association at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The HCA also played host to the first forum for traditional craftspeople across the spectrum of craft forms.

Traditional craftspeople may not be the most likely of campaigners, but representatives of most of the country’s top crafts organisations – from the British Artist Blacksmiths’ Association to the Association of Master Upholsterers – met for the first time in response to what is widely seen as a traditional skills crisis.

The afternoon launch featured Phil Harding, presenter of Time Team and one of the best flintknappers in the country. Phil expressed his delight at being asked to speak, not as an archaeologist or TV personality, but as a traditional craftsman – something he cares passionately about: “Thank goodness there are still people who care and are collaborating to save these crafts, which are still very relevant today.”

The launch also featured demonstrations by basketmakers, calligraphers, hand engravers, quilters and the last scissor makers from Sheffield, along with most of the mentors from the recent BBC2 Mastercrafts programme fronted by Monty Don.

The crisis faced by many traditional craftspeople is largely due to the fact that their crafts fall outside the remit of the current support agencies. In England for example, the Crafts Council exists to support contemporary and innovative crafts, whilst English Heritage’s remit is to protect the nation’s buildings and monuments, not its inherited knowledge and skills.

In 2004, the report Crafts in the English Countryside recommended the establishment of a ‘vernacular Crafts Council’ to support the traditional crafts, but unfortunately this recommendation was never acted upon, while in 2003, international cultural agency UNESCO passed a Convention that recognised traditional crafts as a key part of national heritage. The Convention was signed by 117 countries, but the not the UK.

Robin Wood, Chair of HCA said: “The V&A is home to some of the finest craftwork in the world, but the skills that produced much of that craftwork are under threat. It was wonderful to see people actually engaged in making things in the V&A and we hope this highlights the plight of some of these endangered skills.”

The HCA also launched its Friends Scheme at the launch. For more information and to sign up, either as an individual Friend or an affiliated group, visit www.heritagecrafts.org.uk/signup.html.

To read Robin Wood's blog on the forum and launch, visit http://traditionalcraftsblog.blogspot.com.

To view more pictures from the event, visit the new HCA Flickr group.

Photos ©2010 Heritage Crafts Association, all rights reserved:

1. Left to right: Matt Williams (Mastercrafts thatcher), Andy Oldfield (Mastercrafts stonemason), Sophie Hussain (Mastercrafts stained glass artist), Dave Bragg (Mastercrafts thatcher), Robin Wood (HCA Chair) and Guy Mallison (Mastercrafts greenwood worker).
2. Phil Harding, flint knapper and archaeologist from Channel 4’s Time Team, addressing delegates at the HCA launch.
3. Samantha Marsden, hand engraver, demonstrating at the HCA launch.
4. Delegates at the HCA forum for traditional craftspeople.

HCA launches Friends' Scheme - sign up now!

The Heritage Crafts Association’s Friends’ Scheme launches today (Tuesday, 23 March 2010). Since its website went live less than a year ago, it has attracted hundreds of supporters all keen to help ensure a sustainable future for traditional heritage crafts. The Friends' Scheme brings a new way of supporting the charity.

The Friends' Scheme has been set up to be as effective as possible in helping the HCA to achieve its charitable aims. It will spend as minimal amount of money as possible on administration and will not provide extensive membership benefits in the form of glossy magazines or other promotional materials. As such, the HCA Friends’ scheme is a very cost-effective way of supporting the charity and having the opportunity to be involved in shaping its future.

As a Friend of the HCA you will:

• know that 100% of your fee will go on helping the HCA achieve its charitable aims;
• be invited to the HCA's General Meetings, where you will have an opportunity to vote on significant issues affecting the charity;
• have priority on invitations to other events run by the HCA;
• have your name and website details featured on the HCA website if you wish, and be able to use special HCA Friends’ graphics on your own website, emails and stationery.

Inclusion in the HCA Friends’ scheme costs:

• £12 per year for individuals (each friend receives one vote at a general meeting);
• £24 per year for organisations (each organisation receives one vote at a general meeting).

In addition, if you are a UK tax payer you can help the HCA make your contribution even more efficient by claiming Gift Aid.

For more details and to sign up, visit the HCA Friends' Scheme page.

Heritage Crafts Association in the Guardian

On the eve of its press launch and first major event, the HCA is featured in this fantastic and thought-provoking write up by Jon Henley in the Guardian:

'"I'd estimate that more people in the world today eat with stainless steel knives and forks than speak English," says Robin Wood, chair of a newly formed lobby group, the Heritage Crafts Association, which is being launched today [Tuesday, 23 March 2010] at the Victoria & Albert Museum. "You could argue it's our biggest cultural export. So it seems quite extraordinary that we can protect the bricks and mortar of a place like this, but not care in the least about the skills and craftsmanship that are so much of this city's culture and identity."

'Modern Britain, it seems, is not much fussed about the skills and knowledge that exist only in the minds, eyes and hands of people who make things – our living vernacular heritage. We like them, in a rose-tinted, nostalgic kind of way, but we don't do much to support them.

'"And yet," says Wood, "they're every bit as much a part of our cultural heritage as grand museums, fine buildings and admired works of art or literature." They helped, too, make us who we are: how many people in this country bear the name Smith? Or Cooper, Turner, Cutler, Wright?'

Read more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/mar/22/heritage-crafts-at-risk.

You can also see a collection of Jon Henley's 'Disappearing Acts' slides, compiled to coincide with the HCA press launch.

HCA survey of craftspeople

In December 2009, the HCA posted a survey for traditional craftspeople. It was publicised specifically to craftspeople who had already shown support for the HCA, as well as more publicly on the HCA website and other websites. The survey closed on 28 February 2010 with 206 respondents.

One of the most interesting outcomes of the survey was that 53 per cent of respondents stated that they believed that skills within their craft were in danger of dying out.

Click here to view a summary of the report (PDF, 29kb). For a full transcript of the responses, please contact us.

The word cloud below shows the most common words in all of the responses to the survey (the larger the word the more often it occurred - click here for a closer view):

Preview to the HCA forum and press launch

The Heritage Crafts Association has been working hard to raise the profile of traditional crafts in the past few months. On Tuesday (23 March 2010), it is holding a forum and press launch event at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London to consolidate the support it has received so far, and to focus attention of its efforts to campaign to keep traditional crafts alive and flourishing in the future. Due to high demand, both of these events are now fully booked up.

The morning forum will play host to representatives of organisations representing a diverse range of crafts including basketmaking, pole lathe turning, pottery, calligraphy, woodcarving, feltmaking, lacemaking, upholstery, weaving, blacksmithing and many more. Under discussion will be the importance of traditional crafts and why they should be promoted, the issues that face traditional crafts today and how these differ across different disciplines, and, finally, how craftspeople can work together to ensure that traditional craft skills survive and flourish in the future.

The official press launch will take place in the afternoon, with journalists from publications such as Crafts magazine, craft&design, Country Life and The Guardian. There will be working craftspeople showing off their skills to invited guests including politicians from the Lords and Commons, craft consultants from funding agencies and trusts, and the Chief Executives of the Crafts Council, Craft NI, craftscotland and The Makers' Guild in Wales, amongst many others, including most of the BBC Mastercrafts mentors and the producers of both the TV series and accompanying book.

Also on Tuesday, the HCA will be launching its Friends' Scheme, allowing supporters to take a more active role in the organisation but signing up as a Friend and paying a small annual subscription of £12. This is intended as a very cost-effective way of supporting the Association - the HCA will not spend this money on expensive membership benefits, nor will it spend much time and money actively recruiting. Rather, it hopes that support will spread as it has done so far by word-of-mouth. Friends will get a chance to vote at General Meetings of the charity, as well as receiving priority invitations to future events.

Reports and photographs from Tuesday's events will be published here in the coming week. The Friends' page will go live on the HCA website on Tuesday.