The Historic Environment Skills Forum was launched in November 2022 in direct response to Action 1.1 of the Heritage Sector Resilience Plan.
The purpose of the Skills Forum is to bring together employers, professional bodies, the many sub-sector specific forums and individual interest groups across the sector - from archaeology to conservation, to construction and craft, to local authority advice - and aims to coordinate activity across the sector to ensure that skills acquisition activities are evidenced, effective, responsive and meet relevant demand.
It is self governing, and led by a Steering Group made up of (self nominated) representatives from across the Forum.
The Skills Forum is also committed to providing a central place for sharing good practice and resources across the sector. We have invested in the creation of Heritage Sector Resilience Plan Resource Hub which has a specific area for resources for skills development. This includes templates, case studies, research and toolkits, made available publically, and can be added to by all Skills Forum members.
We have also started a new series of bi-monthly webinars, focused on skills issues in the historic environment . Webinars take the form of either a "Showcase", highlighting a particular project or inititaive and discussing it; a "discussion/debate" on a key topic, often using a case study to promot discussion, or a "workshop" which is practical and focused on achieving an specific outcome.
The Skills Forum uses an online group to manage its activity and engagement. The group features tools for discussion and collaboration, sharing news and practical resources; and has an events calendar noting webinar dates and other relevant events.
Membership is open to all who want to collaborate to tackle skills issues across the historic environment sector - just request to join the online group!
The Skills Forum recognises the four strategic challenges below as being fundamental root causes of many skills issues across the sector. We advocate that any activity undertaken to address skills issues has these challenges at the forefront of its thinking.
The issue of lack of diversity within the heritage workforce has been noted both anecdotally across the sector, and through labour market intelligence such as the Profiling the Profession survey for archaeology. The Skills Forum will consider how making the sector more diverse will assist career entry and ongoing development; and conversely how improving those things will address barriers that prevent a more representative workforce from developing.
In summer 2023 the Skills Forum published a Strategic Statement of Intent, outlining a set of aims that members of the Forum agree to work collaboratively to achieve. It also includes a “route-map” to developing a cross sector skills and careers action plan; with activities divided into four workstreams:
Across 2023/24, members of the Skills Forum have undertaken activites across each of these workstreams.
The Forum has been showcasing existing skills development initiatives, sharing information about government schemes such as Skills Bootcamps, and launching our own webinar series on skills issues. Topics have included research into apprenticeship barriers for employers and a showcase of York Minster’s Centre for Excellence in Heritage Craft Skills and Estate Management.
Historic England has led the creation of an online Resources Hub for the Heritage Sector Resilience Plan, focusing first on Skills. This hub, launching in Spring/Summer 2024, will be a repository for materials around skills development such as case studies, guides, research, and templates; that can be shared publicly across the sector.
To develop the skills evidence base, Historic England and CITB are working with Harlow Consulting to produce a 2024 Skills Needs Analysis for the repair, maintenance, and retrofit of traditional buildings. The research is exploring the skills supply and demand for on-site construction with a view to enabling the sector to work collaborative on prioritised action.
Historic England has also commissioned Preservation Matters and the Heritage Alliance to undertake an analysis of recruitment in 2023 to provide a picture of the job market in the historic environment sector. This report is due in early Summer 2024.
The HEF Skills Demand Group also undertook a collation exercise, categorising the existing evidence base for skills gaps/shortages and career entry and development barriers to historic environment occupations. The resulting spreadhseet will be made available on the Resources Hub.
The Skills Forum held its annual workshop in February 2023 to further define skills challenges and prioritise collaborative activity. The outputs of this workshop, alongside the research noted, will directly inform Skills and Careers Action Plan for England, which is now set to be published in Summer 2024.
