C O N T E X T 1 2 4 : M A Y 2 0 1 2 15 KEVIN MALONE Training the gang Heritage Lottery Fund funding for a three-year project by the Engineering Heritage Skills Initiative reflects widespread concern about the loss of skills in the heritage sector. The story of the Engineering Heritage Skills Initiative (EHSI) started in 2010 when Bill Griffiths of Tyne and Wear Archives andMuseums (TWAM) andAndie Harris of the North of England CivicTrust (NECT) submitted a bid for funding a heritage engineering skills project to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).The HLF had been running an educational bursary scheme for some time but had become concerned about the loss of skills in the heritage sector, and had created a specific fund to help address it. In 2010 the HLF awarded £17 million to 54 projects that created 800 new paid training opportunities in heritage settings across the UK. The EHSI project was awarded just over £500,000 for a three-year project. Strong evidence of the need for an engineering heritage skills project was established through detailed research and discussions with potential placement providers in the region.Andie Harris produced detailed training plans for the delivery of the EHSI project. The project depended on heritage organisations in the region being willing to pass on their knowledge and expertise free of charge to a trainee who would be placed with them for a year. During the year trainees would be supported by a tax-free educational bursary in line with the HLF’s earlier bursary scheme.The placement providers and trainees would be supported by two project staff. A full-time ‘gang leader’ would support trainees in developing engineering skills, linking these with formal vocational training to provide trainees with a nationally recognised qualification, depending on their level of skills and experience. The second staff member would be a three-day-a week project coordinator. By March 2011 John Stelling and I had joined the project. Stelling is an engineer with experience in running apprenticeship for the North East Chamber of Commerce. He was gang leader role and I became project coordinator after running a five-year project at Northumberland National Park where we trained 50 men and women to be professional dry stone wallers. On arrival at NECT we had about six weeks to recruit eight trainees to start at Beamish and Locomotion museums, Bowes and Tanfield railways, at Stanegate Restoration in Haltwhistle. John Stelling, an accredited skills assessor, has developed a strong working relationship with charitable training provider TDR, based in the Team Valley in Gateshead. Following skills assessments, TDR was able to create opportunities for EHSI trainees to gain nationally recognised quaifications ranging from L2 NVQs to advanced apprenticeships.Three of our eight EHSI trainees have already secured jobs within the heritage sector and we are helping the remaining five to gain full-time employment. EHSI has recruited nine new trainees for year two of the project. There are two full-time placements at Weardale Railway and one at Vintage Vehicles Shildon, a private commercial vehicle collection.We have created a part-time placement at the North East MaritimeTrust, which restores heritage wooden boats in South Shields. We are anxious to spread the benefits of the project to smaller organisations who do not have the resources to support a full-time placement. Kevin Malone is project coordinator with the Engineering Heritage Skills Initiative. Further information www.nect.org.uk/ engineering-hsi/ehsi-news Nigel Jenkins works with John Stelling on a 1940s amphibious ‘Gosling’ vehicle at the 2011 Heritage Skills Fair at Souter Lighthouse. Stephen Unsworth, nearest the camera, fits the 03 diesel’s chimney at Locomotion. The eight trainees stand proudly in front of the world speed record holding LNER locomotive Mallard, which at the time was on display at Locomotion.
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