On 15th March 2017, the Heritage 2020 Capacity Building working group held a workshop on Apprenticeship Reform in the cultural heritage sector as part of its work to ensure access to skills, knowledge, and infrastructure to support the management of the historic environment.
The workshop was designed as a means of bringing people together to address one aspect of the barriers surrounding skills development. Its aims were: to update participants on the Apprenticeship Levy and Apprenticeship reform in England, including the Trailblazer process; to share experience and practice in developing new Apprenticeship standards; and to establish next steps and priorities for the cultural heritage sector. These aims were set to ensure a shared level of knowledge and understanding on changes to Apprenticeships, thus reflecting Heritage 2020’s mission to address key challenges in the heritage sector through collaborative working.
Outcomes from the day included a series of potential next steps which potentially include the development of a ‘consortium’, (designed to take an overview of both Trailblazer-related activities and Apprenticeship Standards), to identify existing strengths to be capitalised on and any gaps that need to be filled. Heritage 2020, as a mechanism for bringing organisations together, will consider these future actions through its Capacity Building Working Group in relation to its priority area of creating a more integrated and focused approach to education, training and continuing development. Heritage 2020 is grateful to the Heritage Lottery Fund and Historic England for their support of the day.
A full summary of the day and presentations are available on the Heritage 2020 website.