Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Quality craft education and training ensures a sound understanding of what
underpins all craftsmanship - traditional and modern materials, tools, equip-
ment, technology, and the skills of how to prepare and correctly apply them. It
develops an enquiring mind that seeks to evaluate work and to reason-through
the inevitable problems in the pursuit of quality work. Craft students need
clearly defined high standards and ideals to aspire to, so that ultimately they
will be capable of producing work that is equal to that created by their historic
forebears. If made aware of these objectives from the outset of learning a craft
and to readily see that this is realistically achievable, most will recognise the
value of dedicated study and practice.
Education or Training?
Differentiating craft education from training can be tricky, as in many respects
they are two sides of the same coin, and on-going throughout a working life.
The author sees
education
as the acquisition of the practical, theoretical, arith-
metical, and technological knowledge that provides the foundation for a craft
and its skills, by studying relevant textbooks, attending specified formal lessons,
and through on-going oral discourse with those of skill, knowledge, and expe-
rience from whom one is learning.
Training
is the organised sequential acquisi-
tion, development, and refinement of the numerous elementary and advanced
practical skills that are part of a craft, by being surrounded by, observing, and
learning from those who are more proficient in a certain craft.
Current Craft Apprenticeships and Training
Apprenticeships - being taught, over a number of years, about traditional and
contemporary craft materials, tools, and techniques - are the bedrock of craft
heritage. As detailed earlier, craft training in the United Kingdom since the
early 1990s has been delivered through the National Vocational Qualification
(NVQ) system, designed to standardise qualifications throughout indus-
try, guaranteeing competence of 'trainees' by demonstrating that they satisfy
specific performance standards. This replaced indentured time-served and
in-house apprenticeships with programmes for students (employed or not)
delivered in short, modular, assessment-led units. There is no set time limit for
the acquisition of craft skills and knowledge. Once all of the modules within
the prescribed craft syllabus have been assessed and accredited, that person is
deemed 'competent' as a bricklayer.
Though driven by the need to reduce public expenditure, it is ironically
delivered through vast expensive and wholly unnecessary bureaucracy that
didn't previously exist. It is skewed in delivery toward the narrow, modern
construction needs of both the Industrial Training Boards and powerful large
