Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
qualifications throughout industry, and to guarantee the competence of trainees
by demonstrating that they satisfy specified performance standards.
The important consideration now is not how long it took to achieve, at what age,
or where the skills were acquired. In effect, there is no set length of apprentice-
ship; to become qualified, it is only necessary to demonstrate job competence in
the required units of construction.
Until proven, however, it would seem prudent to question and examine closely
whether the product of a system not demanding a prescribed training period,
minimum experience or adequate maturity - the cornerstone of our historical
training methods - does produce the skills required of true craftsmen.
If learning craft skills had not required a five or even a minimal three-year
apprenticeship, then those with past responsibility for the crafts would not
have provided them. Time-served apprenticeships were all about a combina-
tion of growing maturity and in-depth learning on site and at college to gain
overall experience and competence.
By the early 1990s, acceptance of a dramatic national decline in the know-
ledge and skills of gauged work was revealed in the revised fourth edition of
J.C. Hodge's
Brickwork for Apprentices
, where the original chapter on gauged
work was omitted. The understandable reasons, though rubbers were in fact
still available, were given (Hodge and Baldwin, 1993, 133):
Much thought was given before deciding to omit this chapter (which fully
described this highly skilled aspect of the bricklayer's work) from this revised edi-
tion. The primary reason for leaving it out is that these red rubber bricks are no
longer available; another reason is that modern methods of cutting voussoirs on
masonry bench saws have displaced the labour-intensive traditional method of
cutting and rubbing by hand.
In 1994, the Conference on Training in Architectural Conservation (COTAC),
working with the City and Guilds and CITB, convened a working group to
develop an advanced NVQ at a higher level than that offered within the basic
craft modules. This would lead to a Master Craft Diploma. Leading figures
from each building craft, including the author, were invited to assist in devel-
oping this important objective, seeking to define the range of skills neces-
sary for conservation, restoration, or refurbishment within each craft. This
included gauged work within bricklaying.
This initiative had some degree of success, but struggled with inadequate
funding, limited colleges capable of delivering it and (within the craft of brick-
work) a lack of practical lecturer experience to teach with authority and confi-
dence. It was also, it is felt, an error to choose to use the term 'Master' within this
additional qualification, implying that upon successful completion of the course
one would become a master craftsman. Such a move would historically have
