Improving access to the heritage sector

Overview

The Skills Investment Plan for the Historic Environment, which was developed in consultation with heritage sector organisations and stakeholders, identified a need for a cross sector collaborative approach and two core areas of attention:

• attracting a diverse range of people into the sector 
• improving entry routes

To help support this work two delivery groups have been set up in these areas. 

Attracting Future Talent Group

The 'Attracting Future Talent' group has been tasked with developing a collaborative approach to raising awareness of heritage careers and tackling misconceptions about what a heritage career is.  We launched the first Discover! Creative Careers - DYW - Scotland last year with Creative and Cultural Skills and Developing the Young Workforce

Improving Access Group

The 'Improving Access' group is tasked with creating a collaborative approach to supporting the development of accessible entry routes into the sector, and to developing and implementing solutions to the challenges faced by our organisations in providing opportunities.

We want to bring together a 'coalition of the willing' who are working in this area to address challenges collectively, to support each other, and align and maximise the opportunities we are offering.

To do this it is vital that we hear the views of people who are working with:

• historic and listed buildings and sites  
• the built environment  
• conservation areas  
• gardens/designed landscapes  
• historic landscapes  
•  museums and galleries 
• archaeology
• and any other organisation operating in the heritage sphere

Why your views matter

This survey will provide us with information on what is happening in the sector, what the aspirations are and what challenges/barriers organisations face.

It will take 10-15 minutes to complete but your time is appreciated and your input is important to ensure any plans meet the needs of the sector, and to ensure that organisations who want to, can engage in this work regardless of size, location etc. 

The findings of this survey will be used by the Improving Access group to develop a sector opportunities plan in partnership with the Young Person's Guarantee which will identify the actions that need to be delivered to better support those working in this area.

For more information please contact Catherine Cartmell, Skills Investment Plan Manager, Historic Environment Scotland catherine.cartmell@hes.scot

Privacy Notice: Historic Environment Scotland and its partners would like to know your views on your organisation's current and future work based learning offer to support the development of the sector opportunities plan which will help to deliver the most appropriate benefits to the Heritage Sector and those looking to enter it. 

We will not be collecting your personal details as part in this survey, other than voluntary contact details including an email address to be used  to keep you informed of future activity around this work. 

The data and views that Historic Environment Scotland and our partners collect will only be used for the purpose of the content and delivery of the sector opportunities plan under the lawful basis of our public task. You can see more about how we manage and store your data, as well as your rights, in our privacy notice. 

What happens next

The findings from the survey will be reviewed by the members of the Improving Access group they will be used to develop a sector opportunities plan in partnership with the Young Person's Guarantee which will map what the sector is currently delivering, identify the challenges we face, and actions for future delivery.  We will publish an anonymised summary of the survey results.