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HCA members sought to become mentors

Deadline: Friday 14 May 2021

The Resilience Programme is a new mentoring initiative run by Applied Arts Scotland and Craft Scotland to help and support makers to navigate these particularly challenging times. There is an enormous amount of collective knowledge and experience in the craft community and the pandemic has forced makers to be even more innovative, to reinvent their ways of working and rapidly learn new skills. The Resilience Programme will help makers tap into this collective wisdom to gain new perspectives, take valuable and supported time to reflect and develop the resilience required to re-energise and revitalise their practice.

The HCA has been asked to recruit Mentors for the Resilience Programme from across the UK. We are looking for makers with at least five years experience of running their own practice and keen to support others. You will not need to have had any previous mentoring experience as training will be provided in a half day workshop on Thursday 3 June.

“Mentoring is to support and encourage people to manage their own learning in order that they may maximise their potential, develop their skills, improve their performance and become the person they want to be.”
Eric Parsloe, The Oxford School of Coaching and Mentoring

 

What we are looking for

As the definition above explains, effective mentoring offers structured time for discussion, with the mentor listening and questioning the mentee to help them form their own plan. Mentors will not be asked to teach or share making skills but rather offer mentees support to develop their own action plans. So we are looking for individuals who already have reflective skills or are keen to develop them.

We want to create a pool of approximately 20 potential mentors from which we can make mentoring matches for the Resilience Programme participants. Those who are matched will be contracted to undertake 6 x 1.5 hour mentoring meetings from July to December 2021 with a fee payable.

We are aware that not all potential mentors will be matched in this phase of the Resilience Programme, but we hope that in providing training in mentoring best practice all those selected will develop useful transferrable knowledge and skills, and the opportunity to be considered for other mentoring programmes.

 

What we are offering

  • A free half day Mentor Training workshop delivered by Zoom on Thursday 3 June, 2pm to 5pm
  • For those who are successfully matched, payment of £100 per 1.5 hour mentoring session (six sessions in total) = £600

 

How to apply

Please send a copy of your CV, up to 3 thumbnail images of your work, and a personal statement of no more than 500 words detailing your reasons for wanting to become a mentor, any previous relevant experience and any longer term professional benefits you anticipate in undertaking the training.

Please send this to hello@appliedartsscotland.org.uk with the heading ‘Mentor Application’ by 14 May 2021.

COVID-19 grants for green woodworkers

Deadline: Friday 25 September 2020 at 5pm

Pole-lathe turningThe Heritage Crafts Association (HCA), with financial support from the Association of Pole-lathe Turners and Green Woodworkers (APTGW), is offering grants of up to £500 for UK green woodworkers and pole-lathe turners operating as sole traders and small businesses to invest in something that will help make their business more sustainable during the COVID-19 pandemic (and in the months that follow) or to ‘bridge the gap’ until future income can be secured.

Based on the result of our recent sector survey, crafts businesses are being particularly hard hit by the economic implications of the crisis, so this fund has been set up to help small crafts businesses access new markets, trial new ways of operating, or keep them afloat until they can be more sustainable.

Examples might include (but are not limited to) investing in:

  • market research and development of products suited to the emerging economy;
  • tools and equipment to make new products;
  • targeted advertising to reach out to new markets;
  • improved online presence to develop the mail order side of your business;
  • training and skills development;
  • developing online teaching/workshops as an income stream; or
  • paying the bills until a time when applicants have reason to believe that business will improve.

Applications will be considered based on the potential of the idea to develop new ways of working that will improve craftspeople’s sustainability during difficult times or to ‘bridge the gap’ until future income can be secured. As well as the grants, the HCA has some capacity to provide advice and guidance to help applicants make their idea a reality.

The deadline for applications is Friday 25 September 2020 at 5pm. Funds are limited, so unsuccessful applicants from this round may be contacted again in future if more funding is secured later, to ask if they want their applications to be reassessed in future rounds.

Applicants must:

  • be green woodworkers or pole-lathe turners practising a craft that requires a high degree of hand skill and has been practised in the UK for two generations or more, (including migrant crafts);
  • rely on green woodworking or pole-lathe turning (making, teaching, demonstrating etc) for over 50% of their personal income;
  • be based in the UK or intending to practice their craft in the UK on a permanent basis;
  • actively promote the crafts of green woodworking and/or pole-lathe turning as part of their regular practice;
  • demonstrate how they will use the grant to make their business more sustainable during and after the COVID-19 pandemic or to ‘bridge the gap’ until future income can be secured;
  • be HCA members or indicate in their project plan that they will allocate part of their grant to a year’s membership (£20 for sole traders or £40 for small businesses of two or more); and
  • not have received funding of more than £500 from the HCA in the last 24 months.

 

Please download an application form here and email your completed form to info@heritagecrafts.org.uk by 5pm on Friday 25 September 2020.

Are you a young person in West Somerset who wants to try a career in heritage craft?

Gareth Irwin, green woodworker (photo by Gavin Hogg)

Gareth Irwin, green woodworker (photo by Gavin Hogg)

Young people aged 16 to 21 – West Somerset

The Heritage Crafts Association SEPE pre-apprenticeship scheme, funded by the Ernest Cook Trust, allows young people to see what it would be like to work in heritage crafts.

  • Would you be interested in trying a new practical skill in a traditional craft and learn more about being self-employed?
  • You can gain an entry certificate to a BTEC Level 1 and valuable experience to add to your CV

We would like to meet you and talk about the opportunity we are offering to nine young people – starting Spring 2017.

Come and join us and our craft professionals for a work placement – you never know where it might lead….!

For more details, please contact Tracy Hill at tracy@heritagecrafts.org.uk.