Introduction

 The Conference on Training in Architectural Conservation (COTAC) has now been in existence for over 50 years.  In that time, there have been many very significant changes to the climate and context within which conservation practitioners must operate.    

The role of conservation has expanded beyond the core of ancient monuments and historic buildings and is now widely accepted as a vital element of regeneration and sustainable development. The basic skills required for the repair and maintenance of the majority of the 5.5 million pre-1919 buildings remaining in urban and rural areas are very similar to those also required for the conservation of listed buildings. This has led to greater recognition of the scale of need for traditional building skills and appropriate specialist support. 

It has also become apparent that the knowledge and skills required extend far beyond the form and structures of buildings to place greater emphasis on wider issues such as materials and their supply, energy efficiency and the effects of climate change. The range of skills required is therefore much broader than those required for work on the fabric of buildings. It is also recognised that conservation, repair and maintenance have considerable potential to contribute to the social and economic regeneration of local communities.

In terms of the skills and knowledge, the Edinburgh Group has provided a focus for pan-professional action and the industry-led National Heritage Training Group has been established to provide an enabling mechanism, to match supply and demand, primarily at the craft level.  Meanwhile, the statutory framework faces radical change; there are some signs that procurement practice will begin to acknowledge and reflect the costs of investment required in skills; and, more generally, education and training policy continues to evolve.  Devolution provides another dimension and skills audits recently undertaken by NHTG provide the opportunity to review priorities and statutory arrangements within the Home Countries. 

This paper discusses COTAC’s role in the light of these changes and changing circumstances. 

Background

At its inception in 1956, the key objective of COTAC was to obtain recognition of the need for specialists in building conservation.  The result of the first phase of its activities was the establishment of courses at degree, post graduate degree and eventually doctorate level, located initially at Manchester, York Universities and the Architectural Association in London.  Other courses such as that at Edinburgh College of Art followed.  

After an intervening period of modest activity, COTAC took on a new mission in the early 1990s.  This was first to encourage the establishment of a network of training centres throughout the UK for all disciplines at all levels in building conservation.  The ideal was (and still is) to establish and maintain local and/or regional networks of professional trainers/educators linked to practitioners and supported by employers in maintaining a regular demand for training.  It has extended its membership to reflect as far as possible all interested bodies within the building industry and major client bodies such as the National Trust and British Waterways, and provides an independent, UK-wide voice on standards and training within the conservation sector. The Scottish dimension of the network operates through the Scottish Conservation Forum.   

A second objective was to obtain agreement on national standards for qualifications and training.  Inevitably this was largely through the Scottish and National Vocational Qualifications system.  The UK now has a range of qualifications in building conservation, for crafts, building site managers (contractors), conservation officers and consultant professionals such as architects and surveyors. The take up of these awards has been slow, although the first candidates are now well through the assessment process. All these qualifications are based on the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) Training Guidelines. 

Recent developments 

Edinburgh Group   
A UK-wide forum for those concerned with specialist professional registers known as the Edinburgh Group has been working under the chairmanship of Historic Scotland.  These include, for architects throughout the UK, the Register of Architects Accredited in Building Conservation (AABC), a specialist register for members of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS), a specialist Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) register and a general register of the members of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation (IHBC).  Specialist registers are also proposed for Structural and Civil Engineers and Building Site Managers.    

Having identified a common curriculum for continuing professional development and agreed on common standards for registers, the Group now needs to move on to an operational footing, adopting a monitoring and policing role.  It therefore requires an operating base independent of statutory bodies in the Home Countries.  It has been formally proposed that COTAC should provide the necessary administrative base and secretariat support and this is expected to be ratified at a forthcoming meeting of the Group.   

Sector Skills Councils 
The Government has established a network of some 25 industry-led Sector Skills Councils whose footprints cover the majority of economic activity in the UK. ConstructionSkills is one, the largest SSC representing the construction sector and it has assumed a lead role, focusing largely on craft skills and professional services for new build.  However, other SSC  impinge on building conservation, repair and maintenance, for example: Asset Skills (which includes building and facilities management), Cultural and Creative Industries (who cover a wide range of creative and specialist craft skills), Summit Skills (primarily building services but particularly important due to the sensitivity of inserting modern energy efficient services into historic buildings), LANTRA (which covers a portfolio of land-based and rural craft industries, of particular relevance to vernacular buildings) and Proskills, (primarily manufacturing but also covering the materials supply chain). 

NHTG
A more recent development has been the creation of the National Heritage Training Group (NHTG) by ConstructionSkills, initially through a Sector Skills Agreement with English Heritage and subsequently through similar agreements with Historic Scotland, Heritage Wales (Cadw) and DoE Northern Ireland.  NHTG has been created to promote skills training in built heritage conservation and the repair and maintenance of traditional buildings.  It operates as an industry-led Specialist Training Group, representing specialist contractors and trade associations in what is now seen as one of the most significant specialist sectors within the construction industry 

Future Directions

Independent Voice for Standards and Training
COTAC remains an independent, UK-wide voice for standards and training in conservation. However, new imperatives and significant changes in the statutory framework present new challenges and new opportunities to build on the existing role of the Standing Conference. 

Bridge
The second role is not new, but there is a continuing need to reinforce the mutual dependence of the craft and professional levels. Closer ties between the Edinburgh Group and all SSC relevant to repair and maintenance need to be developed. These links need to be more fluid and dynamic, seeking to provide clearer progression routes and to promote a greater understanding of craft issues amongst conservation professionals.  A bridge needs to be maintained. COTAC is ideally placed to reinforce the necessary links. 

Sector Skills Council Footprints
Specialist links need to be developed across the SSC whose footprint impinge on the conservation, repair and maintenance sector. COTAC is well placed to help in wider, non-craft issues and in developing pan-SSC and other links required.   

Devolution
With devolution, there is now the potential for divergence on both policy and the mechanisms for the implementation of policy within the Home Countries.  This is already apparent, for example, in the mapping of qualification levels and in variations in apprenticeship frameworks.   A mechanism is needed to help to ensure broad consistency whilst the retaining the flexibility to accommodate necessary variations in different parts of the UK.  It is not at this stage clear how such variations will be accommodated by SSC, but it is anticipated that COTAC could have an increasingly important part to play in respect of conservation, maintenance and repair.  

Sustainability
The concept of sustainability now encompasses social and economic regeneration, energy efficiency and the effects of climate change as well as the more traditional rationale for conservation in terms of maintaining our heritage and a sense of place.   A greater emphasis on the repair, maintenance and improvement of traditional buildings is now further justified by the need to avoid the energy cost of wholesale demolition and re-build.  Sustainability can be further considered in the context of the use of traditional, predominately natural, materials, which will usually involve lower energy in supply and building compared with modern materials and which may well also be more thermally efficient.  All this suggests the need to engage with a wider range of relevant bodies to exchange information relating to the environment, energy efficiency and sustainability, perhaps involving the Academy for Sustainable Communities and drawing on BRE and other research institutions. In the sense that traditional conservation expertise, coupled with effective repair and maintenance can contribute to sustainability and that current practice needs to reflect applied research and new techniques, COTAC has a role in ensuring that all this is reflected in training standards and operational practices. 

Mastercraft and Mentoring
Further work is needed to build on Master Craft and Mentoring initiatives and to put in place arrangements to support the specialist CPD required by those working at the craft level in the conservation sector.  Possible links here might also include the Craft Livery Companies, some of whom already have their own Master Craft Certificate Schemes linked to the City & Guilds of London Institute through their Senior Awards Scheme.  COTAC is already actively involved in the formulation and development of higher-level craft qualifications and the associated mentoring requirements and provides general support for the NHTG programme. COTAC is well placed to support the further development of this work.  

Craft Institute
The professional institutions are based on individual membership, but very few organisations exist to support individuals at the craft level.  The exceptions include SPAB, through its Scholarship and Craft Fellowship Schemes, and the Institute of Carpenters. COTAC might consider the possibility of providing support for individuals at the Advanced and Master Craft Levels of the conservation sector.  It would also be a logical extension of COTAC’s course list information to incorporate a pool of mentors and assessors available to support individuals in working towards higher level qualifications. 

Networking, Liaison and Communication
No initiative will succeed without effective communication.  A comprehensive strategy is required for the conservation sector, ranging from public information and general awareness to the more specialist and technical information required by those training in and for the sector.   

Web-based systems are now the most powerful and effective means of communication. An excellent example is the web-based CPD/diagnostic site developed by Historic Scotland under the auspices of the Edinburgh Group and which is now freely accessible in the public domain.  COTAC already maintains a list of conservation courses, Heritage Link provides regular heritage policy updates and NHTG has plans for the further development of its website.  COTAC has begun to survey relevant websites and is now in a good position to act as a broker in nurturing the development of comprehensive web-based information for the whole of the conservation repair and maintenance sector, embracing all the SSC involved.  

Conclusions   

1. COTAC should continue as an independent, UK-wide voice for standards and training in conservation and continue to promote the mutual dependence of the craft and professional levels within the built heritage sector.

2. COTAC should engage with relevant bodies to promote the contribution of conservation, repair and maintenance to the broader sustainability agenda.

3. COTAC should actively support the development of pan-SSC links to ensure that the breadth of skills and also the supply of materials required for conservation, repair and maintenance are fully reflected in standards and training.

4. COTAC should promote a UK wide framework to ensure broad consistency of standards and training in conservation, whilst accommodating necessary variations in different parts of the United Kingdom.

5. COTAC should support the development of higher-level craft qualifications and mastercraft awards and associated mentoring requirements, analogous to the Edinburgh Group at the professional level. 

6. COTAC could provide the mechanism to support individuals at the craft level in progressing to higher level qualifications.

7. COTAC should promote the development of a comprehensive communication strategy for conservation, repair, maintenance and materials, focusing on the potential of web-based information.