The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) have put £5million into a new funding programme for heritage training called Skills for the Future. It opened to applicants on Wednesday 2 December and will close on 19 March. This is a one-off opportunity to apply for some of the money.

This new programme is intended to deliver up to 1,000 paid training opportunities for people across the UK seeking a career in heritage.

It will not only support traditional conservation training but also a wide variety of skills needed to engage people with heritage, including new media and technology.

Dame Jenny Abramsky, Chair of HLF announcing the scheme this month, said: “More than ever in these difficult times HLF wants to focus on offering people skills that will give them a future career and at the same time meet the needs of the sector. I believe passionately that heritage can play a significant part in the UK’s economic recovery.”

Organisations will be able to apply for funding from £100,000 to £1million for a number of traineeships over a period of up to five years with an emphasis on high-quality work-based training.

Skills for the Future is complementary to HLF’s Training Bursary Programme which is already delivering a range of skills training, including masonry.

Online guidance and pre-application forms for Skills for the Future funding are available on the website.