£5.2m funding boost for training in heritage crafts

Traditional skills training for crafts including stone carving and blacksmithing has been given a funding boost through a new £5.2 million award.

Historic Environment Scotland (HES) said the award, made to it by the Hamish Ogston Foundation, will give a much-needed boost to the specialist skills required to conserve and maintain Scotland’s historic built environment.

Over the course of five years the Craft Your Career programme will support  skills training to 100 people across Scotland.

This will include 60 pre-apprenticeship training places, focusing on introductory construction and employability skills, initially delivered in partnership with Fife Council, Fife College and The Ridge social enterprise in East Lothian.

The programme will also fund 16 new apprenticeships throughout the country, covering trades such as stonemasons, joiners, plasterers, roofers, electricians, painters and decorators.

The funding will also enable the existing HES Craft Fellowship programme to expand, providing the opportunity for 24 people to work with master craftspeople to learn specific areas of traditional building skills, from joinery and stone carving to millwrighting and blacksmithing.

Karyn McGhee, technical conservation training manager at HES, said: “We’re delighted to be partnering with the Hamish Ogston Foundation and are very grateful for this significant funding award.

“This project is a unique opportunity to enhance the delivery and provision of our traditional skills training, help address the current skills shortage and provide new training opportunities across the country – providing a crucial boost to both the sector and the wider economy.

“The historic environment can make a huge difference to people’s lives by offering rewarding and sustainable careers.

“Within the heritage sector there is a huge variety of diverse skills, jobs and career pathways available, and it is important that we champion these and make them as accessible as possible.

“Our traditional buildings also have a significant role to play in tackling the climate emergency and meeting national net-zero targets, and this new programme will help ensure that our historic buildings, and the specialist traditional skills needed to maintain them, can thrive into the future.

“We look forward to working with the Foundation and partners across the sector as we embark on this exciting programme.”

HES said that traditional buildings are a significant feature of Scotland’s built environment, comprising around 20% of the nation’s housing stock.

The Hamish Ogston Foundation is a charitable organisation dedicated to three prime areas of philanthropic focus – heritage, music and health.

Robert Bargery, heritage project director at the Hamish Ogston Foundation, said: “We’re proud to be launching this new programme with Historic Environment Scotland which will help address the heritage skills deficit in Scotland and provide sustainable employment for the heritage champions of the future.

“Scotland is home to some of the UK’s greatest historical buildings and this new partnership with HES will help secure the future of these buildings to ensure they can be enjoyed by generations to come.”