The biggest losers in the government’s mission to boost apprenticeships are traditional crafts for whom the term “apprenticeship” was initially intended. We investigate how longstanding training going back to the Middle Ages is now under threat.
Crafts passed on since England’s original national apprenticeship scheme was introduced in 1563 are now considered too small in scale and specialist to conform to our standardised apprenticeships system. Only a quarter of the UK’s 259 heritage crafts have approved apprenticeship standards – and far fewer are being delivered.
But all is not lost. The popularity of TV shows such as BBC One’s The Repair Shop, “how to” crafting videos and heritage-themed films and festivals are breathing a new lease of life into some traditional skills.
Organ-building and watchmaking – skills passed down since the 1500s and now deemed “critically endangered” – have been available as apprenticeship standards for five years but have yet to enrol any recruits.
