Australian Heritage Academy

To address the youth issues of employment, engagement and skill development. Using a real life learning model, by having youth that are unemployed or disengaged working along side master craftspeople, on real heritage buildings in their communities. While gaining a qualification and a trade.

1.            Promote and develop the skills necessary for the understanding, protection and management of the historic environment by a certified, accredited and registered workforce that is equipped to adapt to changing needs.

2.            Academy that offers a wide range of heritage craft skills, so that students can specialize in their chosen fields. By learning with hands on projects. Through a real-life learning model, with master craftsman.

3.             Develop accredited heritage training courses, specializing in Building and Construction, in a variety of heritage craft disciplines.

4.        Connecting communities and creating a sense of place and belonging, by working on building's to develop skill and engagement. While address the communities long term sustainability, through heritage tourism.

Giving youth an opportunity to develop specialized technical skills in heritage building and construction. While having the opportunity to develop skills, while working in their community's, and being involved in the long term sustainability of that buildings use and heritage tourism potential of the project. 

Can't change the world, but we can start by working in our backyards and changing one community at a time.  It is about creating a model, that looks at the whole picture not just the short term outcome.

Problems the solution solves:

1.    Register of qualified heritage craftspeople

2.    Providing young people with skills, for employment, as well as giving them an opportunity to be able to live and work in their communities.

3.  Senior Craftspeople to pass on to the next generation specialist knowledge and skills

4.  Affordable model, where the buildings are restored after being empty or damaged natural disaster, by their youth.

7.  Holistic model of technical skill development and most of all a sense of place and belonging.

 Have worked for 30 years in education working mostly with disengaged youth and have had great success . Done this by developing a real life learning model. The secret is having experienced people, working along side youth modeling and given opportunities to be part of the solution, so that they are part of every stage of the project. By saving our heritage, to create community's and a sense of place and belonging, while developing skills in our next generation.  If we know where we have come from, you know where we are going.  How better to do this!

1.  To encourage cross cultural exchange of skills between Australia and Fiji. By having youth from both countries working alongside each other working with master crafts people on projects.

2. Communities as building damaged by Cyclone or being left empty for decade, are restore.

3. Skilling the next generation for employment.

4.  Bringing business and community long term sustainability by building restoration and heritage tourism.

Track the number qualified and certified, by having a heritage crafts register. - Youth gain qualification

Track the business, that move into the restored business - Community Sustainability

Compare the number of tourist coming to the town or city pre and post restoration - Money into the community

Want to start by working with youth in regional Western Australia and then working on giving them the opportunity to share their skills with other youth in Fiji.  Also see the opportunity for youth in both countries to go to Europe at some stage to gain further qualifications and go back to their communities with there new skills.

Going back to an old model of learning, of master and craftsman.  The skills gained, will maintain the buildings, as at the moment they rely of foreign labor that have these specialist heritage building and construction skills.

Having youth in both country's work on heritage buildings in their communities, to gain a qualification and skills, to restore the buildings so that they are able to gain employment.

Youth working in their communities on real projects instead of foreign labor being imported in to solve the shortage.

How it becomes affordable for communities is that the majority of their labor on the project, as training, so this reduces the costs of the project.

It will be accessible for communities as they will be able to be involved in the restoration, as it is buildings in their community they can pop past and see the restoration as it progresses. For tourist this can be come an attraction and may be some way of getting money for the project.

Will be dependent on grants

Access to the grants or funding

I hope to:create options and possibilities for young people, where they have choices moving into the future, sustainable communities, mentorship transfer of skills between generations and cross culturally.

Australia- National Trust, TAFE & DOE

Fiji- Bart van Aller

Netherlands- Restoration School Arnhem

At the moment no one