Historical archaeology and Australia’s cultural heritage sector: emerging issues for education and skills development.
Journal
Australasian historical archaeologyVolume
31Pagination
3-13Location
Sydney, N.S.W.ISSN
1322-9214Language
engNotes
This paper reviews findings from the Heritage Trades and Professional Training Project (GML et al. 2010) and draws out emerging issues for historical archaeology and heritage management in Australia. The research project was designed to gather and analyse data on the nature of existing education and training for the historic heritage sector and on the skills most used by heritage professionals. The analysis reveals that archaeology differs from other professions working in historic heritage in that most archaeology degrees are likely to contain heritage related content. Further, archaeologists are more likely than other heritage professionals to have gained their most-used workplace skills through formal learning, rather than ‘on the job’ training, suggesting that archaeology education has responded effectively to the needs of employment in the heritage sector. However, a range of systemic problems in heritage education and training were identified including: the geographic concentration of education in SE Australia; the need for education to respond to the changing theory and practice of heritage; the need for improved national co-ordination and collaboration between education providers and regulatory authorities; and the need to make grant funding and project approvals conditional upon the employment of appropriately qualified specialists, in order to build demand for quality and best practice.Publication classification
C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2013, Australasian historical archaeologyPublisher
Australian Society for Historical Archaeology
