Heritage Skills Academy

With this project being an 1870’s listed building, the skills shortage was even more apparent. The contractor struggled to find the workforce in Northern Ireland to take on the commercial restoration project. Of those they could use they were either too busy or they didn’t understand the H&S requirements within the commercial sector. Therefore this contractor, knowing they had other Heritage projects in the future, felt it necessary to tackle this issue head on by upskilling their supply chain.

This alone was not enough so they also assisted interested small sub-contractors by teaching them how to write RAMS and provided them H&S training to broaden their future opportunities from small domestic to commercial restoration.

The Heritage Skills Academy (HAS) has allowed individuals to focus on the skilled professions and allowed them to stay in the industry for longer and share their knowledge with the next generation. The industry is currently struggling to get skilled trade persons and this allows them to maintain employment for longer without the current timeline restrictions imposed on them. Historic (Listed Buildings) require the wealth of knowledge held by the aging workforce and training the next generation to maintain our historic buildings.

A total of 6 Joiners, 16 masonry, 3 cleaners and 6 tilers as well as 8 labourers are now trained in restoration works and have retained employment in restoration schemes.