Managers of the National Trust have introduced a new apprenticeship plan to educate adolescents conventional skills together with stone masonry, carpentry, joinery, lead work, plumbing, painting, and decorating.

The Trust that sustains the UK’s historic monuments, is now inviting young people to apply for the 16 locations on the new training proposal.

The plan is devised to deal with the strict building skills scarcity in the heritage sector, because a quarter of the present labor force is due to retire in the upcoming six years.

Trainees will be trained on customary crafts during a three-year course that commences in September, at National Trust properties throughout the nation.

Apprentices will work together with employees due to retire within that time period. At present, the National Trust has 130 direct labor workers with an average age of just below 50.

Almost 19% of those employees are due to retire within four years, mounting to 25% in six years.

Rory Cullen, Head of Building at the National Trust, said, “The severe shortage of people with heritage building skills has made it extremely difficult for the Trust to recruit appropriate staff and this situation is common to the industry as a whole”.

Philip Venning, Secretary, The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, said that the National Trust has a wide variety of diverse types of structures, and this program will give the trainees an exclusive opportunity to learn from some of the greatest in the field.