EFFORTS by a Bedale-based training company to bridge a nationwide shortage of heritage skills workers have been backed by Richmond MP Rishi Sunak.
Mr Sunak visited the Heritage Crafts Alliance (HCA) at Thorp Perrow to see the work carried out by apprentices using traditional skills to restore old buildings.
The apprentices are learning a range of heritage craft skills including stone masonry, brickwork and woodworking.
They are currently working on converting some derelict piggeries in the grounds of the Thorp Perrow estate into small workspace units for artisan tradespeople.
Mr Sunak spoke to staff and apprentices and enjoyed the opportunity to try pointing some of the former piggeries’ brickwork using specialist lime mortar.
He said: “This is the only place in the UK offering this kind of training in the skills which are vitally important if we are to conserve and maintain Britain’s world-renowned built heritage.”
He added that 87 per cent of people working on the nation’s heritage buildings had no relevant qualifications.
“There is a national shortage of heritage skills and the HCA is leading the way in offering the highest quality training in this field to meet the growing demand for these skills,” he said.
Glenn Young, the HCA’s managing director, said the training company had created the Heritage Skills apprenticeship to satisfy a burgeoning demand for craftsmen and women to work on Britain’s unrivalled stock of old buildings.
He said HCA provided training for a range of companies and organisations looking after the nation’s most revered structures. They included the National Trust and the River and Canal Trust. It would shortly be working with the Eden Project in Cornwall.
After his visit Mr Sunak said he would contact the Skills Minister Nick Boles to tell him about the work of HCA and discuss how its apprenticeships could be encouraged.