The historic environment is a diverse sector offering a variety of employment and business opportunities ranging from visitor operations staff to archaeologists through to construction workers and specialist IT workers. English Heritage commissions various research projects which explore the workforce in more detail, including workforce diversity, skills and training needs.
How big is the heritage workforce?
There is no single definition on what constitutes the heritage sector. The heritage sector includes many small businesses which are not picked up by statistics and those people that work in other sectors but often work on heritage projects (such as those in the construction trade).
Each year Heritage Counts provides employment figures on those directly employed in museums and the historic environment. This tends to cover visitor sites only. In 2007, the latest data available, there were 35,000 people employed in heritage, museum and conservation services. Heritage Counts also provides information on employment in specific sectors. For example, Heritage Counts 2008 looks at employment in the archaeological sector.
The Creative and Cultural Skills Council, using a wider definition of the heritage sector has produced a number of research projects looking at the size of the cultural heritage sector.
Skills requirements in the heritage sector
Building craft and built heritage professionals are an important part of the heritage sector. In 2008, the National Heritage Training Group published a set of research papers which explores the size of this sector and its skills requirements. A summary of this report can be found in Heritage Counts 2008.
We have also produced research reports which explore training and skills needs in certain sub-sectors of heritage such as archaeology. A summary of these reports can be found in the Heritage Counts series.
