This project aims to promote the traditional building skills needed to repair the historic built environment, developing learning materials for young people at secondary school. TBS is not aught in schools in the UK, but there is a recognised skills shortage and there is a ready supply of traditional and historic buildings needing specialist attention. 20% of buildings in Scotland were built before 1919 and 60% suffer from condition problems (BEFS Fact Sheet). Under-use, vacancy and homelessness are rife, while affordable housing is in short supply and demolition is hardly a sustainable solution. The idea has grown out of a pre-existing programme initiated by a built heritage network (The Scottish Traditional Building Forum) and their demonstration workshops for Yr 1-2 pupils, pitched at 11-13 year olds and run usually in a public place over two days and to give up to 60 young people a hands-on traditional skills experience, typically in four trades of stone masonry, roofing, traditional joinery, lime mortar and plastering. Further work and discussion has led to a drive to have traditional building skills included on the national school curriculum. Forward-thinking schools in Stirling and Falkirk have begun to run classroom TBS demonstrations. This project would take these ideas a step further working in conjunction with St Andrews High School and Fife College, both in Kirkcaldy, Fife and with the national advisory, Historic Environment Scotland and Then Scottish Lime Centre Trust, together with associate partners. The demonstration workshops in the classroom have been very successful and there is relatively un-tapped potential to extrapolate and disseminate from this activity into developing traditional building skills learning modules embedded into the curriculum and to make connections with VET and with employers. This would be at two levels: A Year 1 and year 2 (ages 12-13) (O.1) would be a new course, a general introduction to traditional buildings, not only a technology course but also for other subjects and central to the blended transnational mobility activities (C.5 and C.6), which would also include relevant visits to historic sites to develop an understanding of comparative vernacular architecture. A Year 3 and year 4 (ages 14-15) (O.2) would be a more advanced course (departing from the model to date) (relevant to C.4) which would be a partnership with the VET college and would be recognised by locally derived certification. Early on in the programme, SLCT will develop a new Training Toolkit to train the trainers for teachers at school and college as well as contributing to activities and curriculum development. Through the Erasmus+ project there would be the potential to work with partner countries and to learn from their experience. An intellectual research study will examine how traditional building skills education and training in TBS in Europe works, sharing experience, at schools, VET college and, at strategic level, via built heritage research. It is said that young people in some European countries begin vocational courses aged 11-13. The unfair stigma attached to VET courses, in comparison to universities, however, appears to be universal. A “First Chances” taster experience for High School pupils at Fife College will be developed St A HS as part of this project, benefiting participants in the Yr3/4 course and pupils and pupils in general. The project would allow the benefits of working across education sectors and with businesses and built heritage partners and from the EU to be translated. Experience in Poland, Norway and Germany is different in interesting ways, but in general learning of these practical skills begins at age 11. There is great potential to begin a conversation with partner countries to share and develop ideas and practices and fed into curriculum activities and intellectual outcomes which would be recorded, shared and disseminated. The modules would be used by other schools and colleges and that the reliance on businesses requiring support and funding at this stage would reduce due to the use of good visuals produced. However, it is also hoped that businesses would choose to continue their involvement and that new demonstrators would also come in, creating more positive employability linkages. There may be scope for funded apprenticeship schemes for some. The future for young people has never been more uncertain. Girls are not going into construction. Young people from disadvantaged families "early school leavers" are not going on to further education. In either case, they may be missing out on a course or career option that would suit them. Those pupils will be given priority to participate in this project. Equipping them with practical traditional building skills could make a big difference. Equally, creative and practical young people who are considering university, may find their true vocation as a result of trying out one of the traditional skills.
This project has promoted passing on traditional building skills (TBS) to young people and perpetuating the skills needed to repair the historic built environment. The ambitious projected outputs have been delivered; an impressive range of new learning materials for young people at high school level. The wider outcomes and aims of sharing experience and learning lessons on how to further education initiatives and promote traditional building skills have also been successfully addressed by the the project. The intangible outcomes, the participation of the young people, the different approaches at each school and the links with the strategic partners and with businesses and employers in some of the project activities and the networking developed and continuing has raised awareness of the issue and added to the debate on traditional building skills. The project experience has shown that there are skills shortages in all three participating regions and that there is a need to introduce high school pupils to the possibility of traditional building skills. The issues arising from a general shift away from vocational education and the general demise of the apprenticeship system that were evident to some extent in all three regions, but more so in Fife and less so in Hordaland. At each of the partner High Schools of St Andrews High School (and Fife College), both in Fife and Voss Vidaregaande Skule (VVS) in Hordaland, Norway, and Zaklad Doskonalenia Zawodowego (ZDZ) in Torun, Poland, new courses were developed in TBS. The schools in Voss and Torun were not directly comparable with that in Fife, being technical upper schools which catered for an older age-group of 16-19 year olds, more comparable with colleges in Scotland. They also already had construction courses with work experience and craft skills as part of their courses, but not focussing on traditional buildings and skills. The input of the strategic and national partners Historic Environment Scotland and The Scottish Lime Centre Trust proved invaluable in helping the Fife school and college to design and deliver TBC construction crafts training. Innovation has been the main aim and a suite of new educational resources have been created that in each region are ground-breaking. The new O.2 course also used innovative digital technology in scanning buildings and taking drone footage from above as part of the repairs assessment exercise set. The pilot courses and other resources created can be used by other schools and supported by the new video resources produced, which are again the first of their kind. Networking has been an important aim of the project- to build up a support network for the pupils and schools with employers engaged in TBS. Torun and Voss both include work experience extending up to one year. The TBS project experience has highlighted further opportunities and the new courses are linked in each case to a craft centre and folk museum as well as local employers. In the UK, the specialist assistance was required to support the development and delivery of the courses, over and above the practical sessions and videos. The Scottish Lime Centre Trust and Historic Environment scotland donated much additional time and resource in supporting the school and college. Links made with Fife College, the Scottish Lime Centre Trust and Historic Environment Scotland and with crafts people who led craft workshops may prove useful in that respect. The Train the Trainers course has however up-skilled the teachers to continue to deliver the O.1 course. The three mobilities were completed successfully and the Norwegian and Scottish visitor left Poland only hours before the first lockdown.The project prioritised the participation of any under-represented groups. The exchanges included girls (from Fife and Torun, but Norway had no girls in their construction course), young people from disadvantaged families and "early school leavers" who not going on to further education. In addition there were a small number of participants from ethnic minorities and pupils with learning difficulties. Some pupils were travelling abroad for the first time. The COVID-19 outbreak has affected the project. An extension of one year was granted but no extra finance. The schools were periodically closed. Pupils in Scotland are still wearing masks in school and external visitors are at the time of writing still not allowed in school. With construction courses already in place, the schools in Voss and Torun were able to deliver their pilot courses before Lockdown. In Fife, the O.1 and I.O.5 courses were 50% complete (for approximately 100 pupils) but the O.2 had not begun yet-it had been scheduled for March-June 2020. Both were eventually re-run but the all-important craft sessions for the O.1 course were delivered partly by the teachers and partly by specialists via zoom but had to be to one class only -25 pupils due to COVID restrictions and the challenges faced at school.