Making working with wood accessible
There remains an urgent need to save traditional building and joinery skills and plug shortfalls in training. Here we look at just some of the many community hubs and national projects aimed at making traditional skills more accessible.
While there remains work to be done, across the UK there are many excellent examples of local and national projects that have been set up to raise awareness of traditional building skills and to make training in those skills more accessible.
Joinery and carpentry skills bootcamps
In 2021, the Government announced £43m form the National Skills Fund to support upskilling and retraining, and expand ‘Skills Bootcamps’ across England. Initially launched in the West Midlands, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and the Liverpool City Region, the bootcamps included building and construction, horticulture and forestry, engineering and environmental conservation. They offer free flexible level 3 qualification courses of 12–16 weeks to those seeking to build up sectorspecific skills suited to specific employment opportunities. Those accepted onto the courses also get help to pay for childcare, travel and other costs.
The National Open College Network offers Level 3 NVQ Diplomas in Wood Occupations (Construction), Bench Joinery, Carpentry and Joinery, or Architectural Joinery, among others, across many locations in England. The free courses for jobs provider list is available online.1
All-Ireland heritage skills
Northern Ireland’s Heritage Skills Fund Traditional Building Skills Initiative aims to improve and promote traditional building skills as a career, as well as improve public awareness. Funding is available for workshops, field trips and other training opportunities covering traditional skills such as joinery. To qualify for funding, the primary aim of the course must be educational and focused on traditional buildings.2
In July 2020, the Department for Communities’ Historic Environment Division (HED) partnered with The Prince’s Foundation to launch the NI Heritage Skills Programme.3 Preserving the traditional wisdom and knowledge embodied by the nation’s built environment, the programme provides opportunities for trainees to work with experienced mentors, gaining the skills required to become the next generation master craftspeople. >>
“Northern Ireland’s Heritage Skills Fund Traditional Building Skills Initiative aims to improve and promote traditional building skills as a career, as well as improve public awareness. ”
George Irwin MBE, a conservation joiner at the Department for Communities with over 44 years’ experience said: “I have a passion for working on old buildings and using traditional construction methods to fabricate items which will remain for years to come. It is vitally important that we preserve and prevent the loss of our historical assets and pass on these traditional skills to maintain our historic environment.”
Working with all ages and backgrounds, The Prince’s Foundation helps pioneer ideas, championing sustainable farming and heritage-led regeneration. While the organisation focuses on the regeneration of the Dumfries House estate and wider community, the work takes a broad view both nationally and internationally to help create a more sustainable future.
The All-Ireland Heritage Skills Programme is a full-time, 12-month course in heritage building skills, which includes a Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Heritage Skills (Construction). The course includes practical experience in carpentry and joinery as well as many other traditional building crafts such as stonemasonry, blacksmithing and thatching.
Wood to Work as a Way into Work
Launched in October 2021, Wood to Work is a partnership between Ways to Work, Oxford Wood Recycling and Oxfordshire Employment.4 The scheme trains individuals facing significant barriers to employment, including health or disability, in work-related wood shop skills. The programme includes health and safety training and relevant PPE, and is aimed at breaking down the barriers to employment opportunities.
Volunteers work with experts at the Abingdon Wood Shop using reclaimed wood to make solid wood furniture. The
results are sustainable and beautiful. The collection includes stools and tables, benches, bookcases, shelves, racks, barrels and boot stores. The final items use a selection of wood finishes that enhance the final product for use either indoors or outdoors.
“We are seeing an increase in enquiries from public sector and corporate clients wishing to include recycled and reclaimed materials in their projects. For us this has particular resonance in the use of reclaimed timber for production of outdoor furniture for street and leisure areas. In 2022 we quoted for planters, benches, acoustic screening and boardwalks and predict this to be a growth area, and an opportunity for community wood recyclers nationally as suppliers and manufacturers,” said Richard Snow, CEO, Oxford Wood Recycling.
Eight volunteers currently benefit from the valuable experience they gain in the workshop, which they can add to their CVs. Once settled into the programme, the Ways into Work Senior Employment Coach (SEC) assists with CVs and begins job matching individuals with suitable vacancies. Several volunteers now look forward to starting paid employment.
Traditional skills and conservation training centres
In Scotland, the Historic Environment Recovery Fund offers £2.6m across two streams: to support reopening historic buildings and sites, and sector resilience and recovery. As part of this second stream, funding is also available for those delivering traditional skills training courses.
Built using a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant, the Engine Shed in Scotland was purpose built to encourage building conservation and increase awareness of traditional building materials and skills among both the public and professionals. Part of Historic Environment Scotland, the centre promotes the care and maintenance of the build environment using cuttingedge technology and traditional skills.5
Dedicated training centres in Elgin and Stirling offer nationally recognised, accredited and approved courses to apprentices and craft fellows specifically aimed assisting the transition to a low-carbon economy and net zero by addressing the traditional skills shortage. Owners of traditional buildings can seek advice, learn how to solve common problems and gain insights into the use of traditional materials.
Since 2021, the enlarged site in Stirling offers conservation science, innovative 3D digital documentation of Scotland’s built environment heritage, and technical outreach and public education both at the Engine Shed and across Scotland.
Traditional skills training in Wales
There is also a host of funding schemes to support training and learning in Wales, from the Business Wales Skills Gateway, apprenticeships and traineeships, ReAct and Jobs Growth Wales, through to the Communities for Work intensive mentoring for the unemployed, low-income or at-risk individuals facing complex barriers to employment.
Y Dref Werdd, an environmental community organisation based in Blaenau Ffestiniog in North Wales,6 used Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO) Skyline project funding to construct a traditional skills training centre. The Skyline project aims to use local resources for the benefit of communities.
Joinery Skills
Designed by local craftsmen Wil Gritten and Hefin Hamer, the new traditional skills centre is a 6 x 6 x 4m octagonal timber structure built from 25 tonnes of Douglas fir. The timber was grown and felled near Llyn Vyrnwy and milled using a Wood-Mizer owned and operated by locals George and Lois Wynne-Williams.
The structure was built around eight 6 x 6in timber columns, with four trusses around a central king post supporting the roof. Because the timber was sourced and milled locally, the craftsmen were able to specify their own components and so enjoyed the luxury of laying 400 x 30mm floorboards and cladding the walls with 300 x 20mm boards.
“The final construction of the floor came about through a mistake,” explained Wil. “I’d laid half the joists, but then got Covid. Then Hef laid the rest of them perpendicular to the others, so we ended up with a unique four quartered floor.”
Wil continued, “The building is nearly done and will be used to teach traditional skills to locals. There’s already a long list of things people want to learn – as well as the usual green woodworking, joinery and basketmaking, it includes a request for cocktail-making classes from the ladies at the Antur Stiniog cafe and one from the kids in the youth club for making longbows.” n
References
1. Department of Education, Free courses for jobs: provider list, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/find-a-free-level3-qualification, published 1 April 2021, updated 4 October 2022, accessed 31 October 2022
2. Traditional Building Skills Initiative, The Heritage Council, https://www.heritagecouncil.ie/projects/traditional-buildingskills-initiative accessed 31 October 2022
3. All-Ireland Heritage Skills Programme, The Prince’s Foundation, https://princes-foundation.org/education/allireland-programme accessed 31 October 2022
4. Wood to Work – Oxford Wood Recycling, https://www.oxfordwoodrecycling.org.uk/wood-to-work/ accessed 31 October 2022
5. The Engine Shed: Scotland’s dedicated building conservation hub, https://www.engineshed.scot/ accessed 31 October 2022
6. Y Dref Werdd, http://drefwerdd.cymru/en/home/ accessed 31 October 2022