Lottery backs Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland trainees with £464K
21st April 2017 Nigel Devereux News
THE Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways has scooped a £464,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant for its Heritage Trainees project.
Twenty people will be offered year-long traineeships to develop their heritage skills, while maintaining the line and its rolling stock, gain a greater understanding of the broader heritage scene and act as messengers for heritage within communities not normally associated with strong heritage links.
Heritage trainees working on visiting quarry Hunslet 0-4-0ST Hugh Napier. FR&WHR
The programme is expected to begin in the spring of 2018 and the first 10 trainees to be in post by the autumn. The lottery is investing £10.1 million in 18 projects across the UK to help train a new and more diverse generation of heritage craftspeople, digital specialists and entrepreneurs.
FR&WHR director and general manager Paul Lewin said: "Our railway thrives because of the tremendous range of skills that our team has built up over many decades. We are very pleased that we have the opportunity to share those skills with others for the benefit of the wider heritage sector in Wales. "
HLF chairman Sir Peter Luff said: "The heritage sector has been slow in widening the profile of its workforce and as a consequence is on a long-term learning curve.
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