Two reports by the National Heritage Training Group (NHTG) launched today highlight serious skills and knowledge gaps affecting specialist workers and building professionals working in the South West built heritage sector.

The reports, backed by ConstructionSkills and English Heritage, were launched at the Prince of Wales' Foundation for the Built Environment. The Traditional Building Craft Skills in England Report encouragingly showed that the shortage of skilled craftspeople to work on Wiltshire's historic buildings, such as Lacock Abbey and Old Wardour Castle, has been greatly reduced since the first NHTG report in 2005.

However, the future of the five million pre-1919 buildings in England could still be at risk as most of the workforce undertaking repair and maintenance work on these buildings does not possess the skills required to do the job properly.

According to the report more than 45% of construction output in the South West consists of repair and maintenance work, an above average figure. The South West also has more than 88,000 listed buildings and one of the richest historic environments in England. It possesses four of England's world heritage sites including Stonehenge and Avebury, and the City of Bath.

Similar knowledge gaps affect the majority of the building professionals who specify, commission and oversee this work and this is exacerbated by recruitment difficulties in the professional ranks of the sector.

The report also shows that the national shortage of craftspeople in this sector in England has reduced by 3,000 since 2005, when the NHTG announced a skills shortage of 6,590.

The number of craftspeople in the sector is around 109,000 compared to fewer than 90,000 in 2005, but with only 36% percent of contractors working on pre-1919 buildings it is estimated that only 33,000 craftspeople undertake work with traditional materials.

While around 16,000 mostly new entrants were identified as requiring some form of traditional building skills training in 2007, the evidence suggests that over two-thirds of the work, of which 67% is for private home-owners, is being carried out by those without the right skills and materials. This is detrimental to the buildings and stores up future problems and unnecessary extra cost to rectify.

44% of contractors in the South West reported having problems recruiting workers that had traditional building skills, with carpentry being the hardest trade to recruit. When asked what their response had been to lack of skills 37% of contractors said they asked other tradespeople for advice and 35% carried our their own research.

The NHTG is now focussing on ensuring that individuals working on traditional buildings receive the required training and guidance. This expands the work over the past three years, including improved recruitment and careers advice, developing heritage-specific qualifications and a programme for mainstream construction course college trainers to improve their understanding of traditional building methods and materials.

For example the National Heritage Training Academy South West (NHTA SW), grown from a pioneering on-site training programme started in 1989 at Woodchester Mansion, Gloucestershire, is developing an innovative, region-wide educational partnership which will both initiate new training by stimulating demand and demonstrate progession and employment sustainability within the heritage sector to a new generation of craftsmen and craftswomen.

The second UK-wide report, Built Heritage Sector Professionals, assessed skills and training of architects, engineers, surveyors, conservation officers and other professionals - the gatekeepers for this sector.

However, of the half million professionals working in the UK, only 507 are building conservation-accredited. This equates to one accredited surveyor for every 85,000 traditional buildings, and only one engineer with relevant conservation experience for every 276,000 pre-1919 structures. The report also shows that new recruits may be ill-equipped to replace experienced professionals approaching retirement, creating a vacuum in this part of the industry.

Working on heritage buildings, which are mostly privately owned, formed one third of all professionals' workload over the past year, but almost two thirds of workers do not believe their education prepared them adequately for this work and their knowledge is self-taught.

The NHTG will now be working with its partners to increase demand for suitably skilled and building-conservation accredited professionals and maximise the number of high-quality entrants into the sector by strengthening building conservation components within mainstream built environment courses. There is also a need to develop flexible training and improve advice and guidance on traditional building skills and materials and link these to the sustainability agenda The National Heritage Training Group and its partners will now be investing £1 million to help reduce the skills gap, to be spent on initiatives including:

  • Raising awareness of the built heritage sector and career opportunities through information and advice leaflets and brochures, plus a website and dedicated phone line, taster days and careers workshops
  • Encouraging up-take of qualifications such as the Heritage Skills NVQ Level 3 and a Heritage Apprenticeship Programme
  • Supporting Regional Heritage Skills Action Groups - providing training and skills development to meet regional demand and need
  • A mentoring programme, with experienced craftspeople passing on skills and knowledge to less experienced practitioners
  • Expanding the number of National Heritage Training Academies For further information about the National Heritage Training Group, please visit: www.nhtg.org.uk