John Fidler surveys the training scene and sees major changes underway for building professionals which offer new opportunities for ACO and its members. TRAINING FOR CONSERVATION: WATCH THIS SPACE Vocational trammg, its funding and management are in a national state of flux, and academics, industry training boards, professional institutions and funding agencies are mixing it with the employers and, more particularly, with the government. How does the ACO fit into this melee and what will be the consequences for young architects, surveyors and planners who wish to make conservation their career? Let me try to explain ... I will start from general matters and work to the particular. Here you need to know two basic points: (a) that government funding for higher education is being rationalised; and (b) that Et!ropean Economic Community directives on vocational training may have a significant impact on the education of architects and of 1rchitect-planners. At their most basic, the present government's policies focus on market forces with the absolute minimum of centralist intervention. So, through its higher education funding agencies and a new quango called the National Council for Vocational Qualifications (NCVQ), the government is driving forward a programme: (a) to make vocational training more relevant to industry; and (b) to make industry responsible in some part for the costs of vocational training. Now the first part relates to the government's current policies on the national curriculum in secondary education. Here, the objective is to achieve common standards throughout the country in basic education. But at further and higher education levels, there is also a need to make academic work more relevant and usable to and by industry. By such means, it is argued, the country can develop more quickly without industry wasting productive time retraining students before they become effective. The NCVQ has therefore started to encourage indusCONTEXT23 tries to come together to form "lead industry bodies" to focus on qualifications and training and to come to a consensus on the rationalising and restructuring of academic awards. For the construction industry things are shaping up as follows. LEAD INDUSTRY BODIES&THENCVQ The National Council on Vocational Qualifications is exciting pan-industry interest in the development of a lead industry body to undertake its work with the support of the Training Commission (formerly the Manpower Services Commission). In the construction world this is a tough nut to crack because there are so many joint bodies all jealously fighting their patch to be in control. First of all, there is the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) which has a remit over blue collar training but there is also the professional sector which has been the subject of two separate initiatives, each claiming to be the most representative. One body is called the Centre for Educational Resources for the Construction Industry (CERCI) and the other is a new body calling itself the Building Industry Council (BIC). These groups have at last seen fit to come together to form some sort of joint council to represent the industry proper. Naturally, conservation will fall under its remit in all its forms from planning and architecture to craft skills. However, there is another lead industry body being formed outside the construction industry proper called COSQUEC (the Council for Occupational Standards and Qualifications in Environmental Conservation) which impinges on our affairs. It seems to have moved further on because it is representing dispersed groups that have never before seen themselves as being part of the same industry. Consequently, there are no axes to grind and no rivals in competition. COSQUEC claims to represent landscape, wildlife and habitat management; pollution and waste recycling; recreation and amenity development; field archaeology and building conservation. Its job, like that as seen by the CITB/CERCI/BIC consortia, 1s to represent employers, professional bodies and trade unions and to produce agreed standards of competence and relevant training as endorsed by the NCVQ. These groups will provide an information service for employers, examining and validating boards and for training establishments. They will articulate employment opportunities, define occupations and test the suitability and availability of existing qualifications for those working in the field. Naturally, educational establishments will want them to react to the findings of these bodies to produce relevant training. COTAC As can be seen from the above, there is a long way to go before these lead industry bodies get round to building conservation and planning as they affect you and me. There is, however, a pan-industry group that already exists to represent these issues and training, and it is called COTAC: the Conference on Training m Architectural Conservation. Although this group started life as the Conference on Training Architects in Conservation, it eventually changed its title to become more representative of the professional institutions, interested employers and specialist amenity bodies and academic institutions. The plan is to include the craft industry so that COTAC stands waiting outside the squabbling and infighting between the lead industry bodies and their competing representative groups. This should put COT AC in an influential position 11
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