The government has recently announced that it plans to ‘rebalance’ how it spends the employer training levy to include shorter programmes and to restrict spending on level 7 apprenticeships. This puts our much-valued level 7 archaeological specialist master’s degree apprenticeship at risk.
Archaeological specialists* are valuable members of the heritage profession, performing a variety of roles revolving around the processing, reporting and preparation for long-term deposition of archaeological data and materials. They have specialised knowledge of one or more aspects of archaeological investigation and analysis, often a particular artefact or ecofact type. They provide meaning to these archaeological ‘finds’ and tell the stories behind the artefacts.
For example, if we look at the role of an animal bones specialist we know that, while it may be relatively straightforward to count how many animal bones are found on a site, it takes a specialist to know what animal(s) those bones came from and to interpret the data they contain. The specialist will be able to analyse the bones and paint a picture about the society at the time: they may be able to tell us about diet, or animal-human relations. They could draw conclusions about the culture and society, or about trade and exchange.
Dr Emily Johnson, Senior Zooarchaeologist at Archaeology South-East (UCL), CIfA Member, and Chair of the CIfA Finds Special Interest Group says:
“If you don’t have an archaeological specialist looking at the finds collected from archaeological excavations, you might be missing the super-interesting storyline, or vital piece of evidence that might support current thinking – or turn it on its head. Archaeology is basically storytelling; we are weaving a story from multiple lines of evidence. Losing archaeological specialists will lead to those stories not being told.”
“Archaeological specialists also play a key role in the design and delivery of archaeology programmes in advance of construction. A specialist can provide crucial advice on what finds are important and need to be analysed and reported on, and what isn't significant, streamlining the process of excavation and sampling and helping to reduce the quantity of finds that are going to museums unnecessarily.”
“Specialists also provide vital support for archaeological teams in public engagement with archaeology, which can link directly to clients’ social value outcomes. Archaeology is important to people, and the stories we discover can be an opportunity to connect with diverse audiences in society. If you’re looking at open days, exhibitions, art projects based on finds – if you don’t have a finds specialist, you’re not going to get that enigmatic story that’s going to speak to people and inspire them.”
So why is the level 7 apprenticeship so important to this role? Put simply, it’s providing work-ready specialists for a profession that’s been at risk for many years. It’s widely recognised that there’s a shortage of specialists in key areas, such as pottery specialists,** and the sector is currently reliant on a relatively small pool of specialists, many of whom are approaching retirement age. As many are self-employed (their services having been outsourced over the years) the structures to train the next generation are not in place without extra support.
The level 7 apprenticeship delivers the practical skills, knowledge and, crucially, the ‘real world’ work experience that employers value, which can’t be gained via an academic route. As Emily says:
“Developing this apprenticeship was a colossal step forward in meeting a training need for this role. These practical skills can’t all be taught from books alone, and even where artefact specialism courses exist (eg as part of university degrees) they may not prepare you well for a job in commercial archaeology doing that specialism.”
“Coming to commercial archaeology from academia was a big change for me and I wish that my university studies had prepared me better for it. Working to tight deadlines, on multiple projects, in large teams of archaeologists, and in an environment of ‘evals’ and ‘mitigations’ and ‘post-excavation assessments’ that I just didn’t really understand all made for a steep learning curve. A person who understands how commercial archaeology works will find this much easier – and doubtless be more employable because of it.”
Archaeology is not a wealthy sector and profit margins for firms are slim. It’s not that employers don’t want to train the next generation; it’s that the money very often just isn’t there. (There is heaps of information in the public domain about how archaeological skills are not recognised adequately when it comes to pay.)
Andrea Bradley, Heritage Consultant and CIfA Member says:
“Of course, if we had businesses in the sector who could afford to pay for the level 7 themselves, then that would help, but we don’t. We don’t have margins that are comparable to other professions, partly due to poor remuneration. And that also means it’s harder to pay off student debt.”
“It can take years for a specialist to train and, without targeted education and training programmes in place, we face a skills vacuum. Once the dwindling number of existing specialists is gone, their skills could be lost forever.”
“Our apprenticeship numbers are relatively very low; our current cohorts for the level 7 average at about four per year, which equates to £60k from the levy funding pot (although we are expecting numbers to increase slightly). For this small investment, the public, and future generations, would be getting a great deal back.”
“We’ve recently had a community open day for a site and one of the things that people love to do is see, handle and learn about the finds. This ‘physical’ archaeology is a way that people can connect to their past and to past communities. But if you don’t have a finds specialist to tell the stories of these objects, they’ll remain just objects – a piece of old brick, bone, broken glass.”
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* Typical job titles in this field include finds supervisor, project officer, finds officer, geophysics supervisor, materials scientist, artefact specialist, aerial investigation and mapping investigator, archaeological investigator, environment archaeologist, aerial investigation, mapping investigator, heritage scientist
**Landward Research ‘Profiling the Profession’ & FAME ‘State of the Archaeological Market 2023’
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