We recently travelled over to Brookland's Museum to visit Heritage Skills Academy.

Heritage Skills Academy are an educational establishment that specialize in teaching apprentices and young people skills in heritage engineering.

Whilst under Heritage Skills Academy, apprentices will learn all things in metal fab the good old fashioned way of course including welding!

Whilst there we caught up with apprentices welding using Gas Welding Techniques, Mig Welding and Tig Welding.

Heritage skills academy are kitted out with a wide variety of equipment including multiple Tig Welders to allow apprentices to easily weld Steel and Aluminum



What do you guys do at Heritage Skills Academy?

We teach apprenticeships to the wider car restoration industry.
Our courses are designed to teach and giver insights into fabrication, welding, chassis repair, coach building, composite trim and timber also.
We try and teach all of the skills that an apprentice might need for employers in this industry.


When I was in School(in the dark ages), we were never offered the option to learn skills like this especially Dom in a facility such as this,  How does an apprentice join Heritage skills academy and how do you get young people interested in welding and fabrication?


Much the same for me, I did design and technology at school, but we definitely didn’t have facilities such as these and metal work was never on the cards.
I think most of the interest from the apprentices comes from already being involved with or having an interest in vehicles such as motorsport or perhaps they have a classic car themselves.
It ignites their want to be able to learn to repair them.
Apprentices tend to approach us find us they are wanting to do a full apprenticeship.
We do also offer commercial courses as well such as a 2 day introduction into TIG Welding as well as a course on TIG Welding and wheeling course where you can spend the day doing fabrication by the traditional methods and then you’ll spend the next day learning to TIG Weld.

I have had a few young people take on this course who wanted to try fabrication out without having to commit fully, I think if you give people opportunities to get a taster for those kinds of skills, they can see for themselves if they’re good at it, actually really enjoy it and just see if it is for them.
I think a lot of our apprentices just want to improve their skills so in turn they can earn more money, as an apprentice they can earn whilst they learn.
As their skills improve that is then reciprocated by their employers.
It is also self-satisfaction for them, as their skills improve, they can see the aesthetics and quality of their skills such as welding improve which in turn encourages them to keep practicing and to keep improving further.
There is a lot of mileage in saying ‘practice makes perfect...
You can sit and watch YouTube Videos or watch people do demos, but you need to try it yourself to get a feel for it.


Do you think we have an aging population in this industry?

Companies out there do have an aging workforce and they are looking to invest in the future.
If they want their company to be sustainable and have longevity, they need to recruit young people and have to actually provide them with the opportunity to come and learn how to do the job that they want them to do, work through that whist gaining a qualification alongside and when they complete their qualification, retain them in the company and want to stay.
Encourage them to stay and give them the incentive to stay in the industry and become say, the new workshop manager or even become a teacher themselves to teach the next apprentices.
We need to keep it rolling otherwise it will become quite stagnant with people who learnt it and then that is it.
If there is no one coming up again, you are in a stuck place and then there will be no one to repair our cars!

Is there an age restriction to apply for Heritage Skills academy?

Not at all!
The earliest we can take an apprentice on is 16 years old, they just need to be employed.
We’ve had people who have had a career change in their 50s and have become an apprentice at 50, the term apprentice still applies as they are in a cohort with 16 year old's.
We’ve had accountants, estate agents etc. approaching us as they simply do not want to follow that career anymore or perhaps have an interest in classic car, they want to learn how to repair it so they come on the apprenticeship, its great to have that diverse mix.


If you would like more information on Heritage skills academy, head over to their website:
https://www.heritageskillsacademy.co.uk/