Heritage Crafts and the Hugo Burge Foundation launch Apprenticeship+ project

UK charities Heritage Crafts and the Hugo Burge Foundation have announced a new joint project to establish a better evidence base for the financial needs of small craft businesses wanting to pass on their skills to the next generation.

The project, called Apprenticeship+, will supplement two pilot apprenticeships – one in England and one in Scotland – with a financial contribution to the apprentices’ salaries and a grant to help compensate the employers for the reduction in their earnings during the training period.

Currently, the only government support available for apprenticeships is for the off-the-job element of the training, usually in the form of a day-release or block-release to a local college or specialist institution.

The other costs tend to be prohibitive for sole traders and micro-businesses, resulting in many apprenticeship standards experiencing a low uptake and many crafts on the brink of extinction, as evidenced in Heritage Crafts’ ground-breaking research The Red List of Endangered Crafts.

Most crafts featured on the list are able to operate commercially-viable businesses and do not need ongoing subsidy. However, when it comes to passing the skills on, they do require external financial help in order to keep the business afloat and prevent an untimely end to the lineage of skill and knowledge passed down through the generations.

The learning from the two pilot apprenticeships, along with data gathered from the applicants, will inform an advocacy campaign directed at current and future policymakers. With government plans to reform the existing apprenticeship levy into a more flexible ‘growth and skills’ levy, this is a well-timed contribution to discussions around more effective use of such funding.

Hugo Burge, who died in 2023 aged 51, was a British entrepreneur, philanthropist and art-lover who spent the last ten years of his life investing in establishing and fostering a creative hub around the Marchmont Estate in Berwickshire. The Foundation established in his name constitutes a major new charity dedicated to supporting the arts, crafts and creative industries across the United Kingdom.

In 2018, Heritage Crafts worked with Hugo to recruit two apprentices, Richard Platt and Sam Cooper, to learn the skills of rush-seated chair making from last-in-the-line Lawrence Neal, and to move the chair making operation up to Marchmont, where it could establish a commercially-viable base. At the end of 2024, Richard and Sam took on Isaac, the first apprentice of their own.

The Apprenticeship+ project will go live to employer applications in March 2025, via the Heritage Crafts website. Potential applicants are advised to monitor the charity’s website and social media for further announcements. Any queries in the meantime can be directed to [email protected].

Daniel Carpenter, Executive Director of Heritage Crafts, said:

“Hugo’s passion for craft skills and their transmission from master to apprentice make this project both a fitting legacy and a real opportunity to develop an evidence base from which lasting change can happen. We are hugely grateful to the Foundation for this opportunity to work in close partnership for the long-term good of the sector.”

Dr James Fox, Creative Director of the Hugo Burge Foundation, said:

“Apprenticeships are the lifeblood of our crafts, and the only long-term way to sustain them. There’s currently a woeful lack of support for apprenticeships in this country. The Hugo Burge Foundation is therefore delighted to be working with Heritage Crafts to make the change that’s so urgently needed.”