OMC on Heritage Professions at the Closing Conference of the EYCH22018, Viena 7th December 2018

We are pleased to share to the Conservator-Restorers community the Executive Summary of the OMC on Skills, Training and Knowledge transfer in heritage Professions, that was presented on Friday 7th December. These are the general recommendations: Engagement Cultural heritage professionals are the best placed actors to communicate to the whole community the vital relationship between the health of society and our cultural heritage. Traditional and innovative communications skills training should be devised for all actors (public, policy, professionals and mediators) to improve mutual understanding and empowerment, with online information portals and networks to raise awareness and transmit knowledge and skills, together working towards the common purpose of heritage protection and implementation of the Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society (Faro Convention). Sustainability Expert cultural heritage professionals personify a specific public good as they are an essential requirement for sustainable heritage protection and preservation. Cultural heritage professionals should be enabled to validate the full breadth of their formally and non-formally gained knowledge and skills, and thereby register for recognition in certification schemes operating to criteria that would accord accredited professionals ‘specialist’ status for recruitment and procurement purposes, with smart skills profiles for increased personal mobility. Protection Cultural heritage professional associations play a crucial role to augment public policy on cultural heritage, by motivating the continuing professional development of members to maintain and enhance their core and transversal knowledge and skills to adapt to current and future skills demands. The detailed expert knowledge held by the main actors representing the cultural heritage sector, should combine with the policy-making expertise of the public sector to set out vehicles to identify and map cultural heritage professions (including skills at risk), improve data collection and analysis in order to classify these occupations, assess current and forecast skills needs, and to recommend frameworks of cross-sectoral training co-operation. Innovation Cultural heritage professionals combine traditional, creative and innovative methods working in an interdisciplinary environment to research, assess and carry out work that affects our irreplaceable patrimony while retaining its significance for future generations. Educational and training centres of excellence should provide entry-level and advanced cultural heritage training, fourth-level research programmes, lifelong learning opportunities and structured knowledge-exchange activities for the cultural heritage workforce and professions which interact with it, utilising (where appropriate) cultural heritage standards, and seeking EU funding for training and research in association with sector representative bodies. Check the document here: https://europa.eu/cultural-heritage/sites/eych/files/executive-summary-new-european-landscape-for-heritage-professions_en.pdf?token=PsxLjN1o 

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