IfA Annual Conference for Archaeologists, Reading, 2-4 April 2007

IfA Workplace Training, Monday 2nd April, 14.00-17.30

Hosted by Kate Geary and Natasha Kingham, Institute of Field Archaeologists

This session was designed to showcase the workplace learning placements designed by the IFA for the HLF funded Workplace Learning Bursaries Scheme and the English Heritage funded EPPIC scheme. The HLF scheme will deliver at least eight placements a year for four years aimed at new and experienced practitioners. The EPPIC scheme is primarily aimed at archaeologists in the early stages of their careers and consists of around five placements each year, all placed with English Heritage teams.

The first half of the session concentrated on the HLF placements. The variety of different placements and specialisms became very clear as Eliza Gore talked about learning to lecture with the University of Winchester, Foxy Demeanour described her training to become a finds/environmental officer with English Heritage, Tessa Poller recounted her experiences surveying in the Scottish Highlands with RCAHMS and Emma-Jane O’Riordan spoke about working with digital data and e-publishing at the ADS. We also heard from Oliver Russell and Victoria Bryant, trainee and supervisor at Worcestershire County Council and their work on enhancing the Worcestershire Historic Environment Record. The speakers were all at different stages in their placements, and one had already completed, and between them they gave an excellent overview of the scheme, the benefits they had gained and the challenges the placements had provided.

The second half of the session looked at the EPPIC placements. These have been run in previous years entirely in-house at English Heritage but were taken under the IFA wing last year. We heard about the challenges Kate Page-Smith faced learning non-intrusive archaeological surveying techniques with the south west team and the experiences of Naomi Archer and Matt Bentley, respectively architectural investigation and architectural graphics placements in York. The final speaker, John Lord now of CGMS, had completed an EPPIC placement four years ago and summed up the benefits, and deficiencies, of the scheme.

The presentations kicked off a lively debate about the value of work-based learning and placements such as these, the potential job market (or lack of, in some cases) for the skills gained and how future placements might be funded. Congratulations are due to all the speakers, many of whom were speaking for the first time at a conference, for such a thought provoking and inspiring session. Next years EPPIC and HLF trainees have a hard act to follow.

For those who missed this excellent session, there's some very good news....you can view presentations and listen to a selection of podcasts at your leisure by clicking on the links below!

N.B. As these are fairly large files, it is advisable to save them first. (This can be done easily by right clicking on the link and selecting 'Save target as')

More details on the Workplace Learning Bursaries Scheme, including a range of inspirational case studies and an evolving workplace learning diary, can be accessed from the Workplace Learning Bursaries page.