Historic Buildings

All Ireland Heritage Skills Programme: Consolidating Heritage Skills

This is the first phase of a new heritage skills programme, which will upskill 8 craftspeople. This will augment the declining supply of skills across the British Isles and will help to mitigate risk of damage or decay to heritage assets caused by inappropriate and delayed works. The craftspeople will benefit from workplace placements and training across a range of heritage skills, including stonemasonry, blacksmithing, joinery and decorative finishing, achieving National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) accreditation enhancing their economic potential. The outcome will be an increased supply to Northern Ireland of skilled craftspeople who can appropriately maintain and restore heritage assets across the British Isles in the public and private sectors, contributing to thriving communities. The programme aligns with complementary initiatives aimed at obligating the use of heritage-skilled craftspeople in tenders for public assets and grants distributed to private sector asset owners; creating a virtuous circle of skills demand and supply.