The Institute of Historic Building Conservation (IHBC), the UK’s lead body for built and historic environment conservation professionals, has just launched a new support opportunity for the UK’s conservation and related courses, IHBC’s ‘Course Connection Day’: an innovative offer of free places and reimbursed travel costs to student representatives from each course to attend and report back on a skills and networking day hosted by the IHBC in Birmingham on 18 November.
IHBC’s new Chair Mike Brown said: ‘I’m delighted that the IHBC is able to demonstrate our continued leadership in the sector by hosting this unique and ground-breaking initiative. These conservation courses are respected globally. They represent the best in the country’s conservation training heritage, with a legacy built up over more than a century of innovative and progressive approaches to placemaking in the UK. It is a privilege to be able to offer our support to the students working on these courses with our first annual ‘Course Connection Day’.’
David McDonald, IHBC’s Education Secretary and Chair for this special day said: ‘The culture of the UK’s conservation courses is built on the SPAB fundamentals of William Morris, shaped by the legacy of Patrick Geddes, and responds to the legislative infrastructure for planning in the UK as a whole. Critically the conservation standards of these courses are shaped by the principles of ICOMOS, and so also reflect the IHBC’s membership criteria and resources.’
‘That’s why we feel we have so much to offer the students, on top of our annual Student Award and introductory web resources such as the IHBC’s WebStarter. It’s also why, following consultation with the courses, the IHBC is investing in this ground-breaking strategy to use professional resources to support educational activities, all at no cost to student participants or the courses themselves.’
‘In this first annual ‘Course Connection Day’ we’re offering an intense day of learning and networking between the lucky delegates that get selected by their fellow classmates to attend on their behalf, and the IHBC’s officers and volunteers. And we’ll have good food to complement our vibrant and historic venue, keeping students and discussions in top form across the whole busy programme.’
IHBC Membership Secretary Paul Butler said: ‘This initiative is just a small part of how the IHBC will deliver on the commitment made to our members, and the wider sector, at our last AGM: to support people as they progress to full IHBC membership through our accreditation processes. The annual ‘Course Connection Day’ is aimed at highlighting the IHBC resources that can help students working in built and historic conservation. By asking them to report back to their colleagues on the courses we will reach out to all the students, not just those attending.’
IHBC Director Seán O’Reilly said: ‘We’re working to a simple idea: free places and travel costs are offered to nominated representatives from relevant courses so they can learn about what the IHBC offers in training and educational support. In return these delegates are asked to relay what they learn to their fellow students, with the support of the course directors. They’ll not be able to capture all the benefits and enthusiasm we’ll generate on the day, I imagine, but if they can even serve as a link between the IHBC’s resources and the challenges of learning conservation, then we’ll consider this initiative a huge success.’
‘The IHBC is perfectly placed to underpin the kind of national, UK-wide learning of this sort. As a charity we offer a vast array of online resources and links on open access to the public. The added benefit is that these resources are all integrated into our membership standards, benefits and criteria. As we offer extra targeted support for low-waged and hard-up individuals seeking a career in our sector, clearly we are doing all we can for students of built and historic environment conservation that are prepared to work at developing their career!’
‘Subject to capacity, too, we’ll open out attendance to other interested parties where they can demonstrate that they can add value to the sector in similar ways, so I’m sure there’ll be lots of interest!’
For the IHBC see www.ihbc.org.uk
To find out more about the IHBC’s ‘Course Connection Day’ contact IHBC director Sean O’Reilly at director@ihbc.org.uk
For those on low-income (£17,500 or under) seeking IHBC membership see: LINK
For hardship support as a member (typically where annual income is under £12,500) see: LINK
For the IHBC’s 2014 Annual Gus Astley Student Award see http://gasa.ihbc.org.uk/
For the IHBC’s guidance on the best way to use it’s website for learning, see our WebStarter at: LINK
