The Heritage Lottery Fund has today announced a further £15m cash injection into its Skills for the Future programme to support organisations in creating new training places.
Since its launch in July 2009, Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has so far awarded grants totalling £26.8m through the Skills for the Future initiative.
This latest round of funding will start on 1 November 2012, and the additional £15m will be to support work-based training for skills needed to look after buildings, landscapes, habitats, species, and museum and archive collections.
Money will also be available to equip people to lead education and outreach programmes, manage volunteers or use digital technology. Organisations (not individuals) can apply for grants of £100,000 to £1m.
Applicants for a portion of the £15m will be encouraged to build in supplementary training, such as developing business planning or marketing skills, to prepare trainees for the modern heritage economy.
First-round applications need to be submitted by noon on 31 January 2013 for a decision in May 2013. HLF will be running a number of Skills for the Future pre-application workshops across the UK in November and December 2012.
Building organisational resilience
“This special funding initiative - building on what has already been achieved since 2009 – is designed to address the shortage of skills and training opportunities and will provide hundreds more training places,” said Dame Jenny Abramsky, chair of HLF.
“One of our key aims is to build organisational resilience within the sector. Ensuring people have the skills to look after our heritage is an important part of that.”
"Skills for the Future provides the double benefit of protecting and nurturing skills and attracting people who might not have previously considered a career in the heritage sector,” added Matthew Hancock, under secretary of state for education, business innovation and skills.
The last Heritage Lottery Fund funding was awarded in May this year, when £13m was released to expand skills projects in the UK, through both its Skills for the Future and Training Bursaries programmes. A total of 788 new placements were promised by 2015.
