Quote:quote:Originally posted by wombat
The more training schools the better as far as I am concerned, if run properly and professionally. However, although the basic principles of stratigraphy are the same, tools, techniques and artefacts are very different in each and every country. As a prospective employer, a few weeks experience on a foreign training school is not going to make someone a likely candidate for a digging job in the UK. Furthermore, curators are increasingly beginning to request CVs of all field staff to show they have appropriate experience, with experience (rightly or wrongly) being measured in terms of work in the UK commercial sector.
Here, Here.
Totally agree.
There may be others I'm not aware of, but the Hungate site in York is offering training all year round on a commercial archaeology project, both as one-to-one experiences from autumn through to spring and group training on Archaeology Live! during the summer training weeks.
Hungate is, therefore, meeting both the general need for archaeology fieldwork training, and also the need for specific training and work experience on a commercial site (ie. Not another 'bloody villa'!)
Trainees work alongside the commercial team on digging complex deep urban strat, recording single context to current professional standards and methodology. Many of the Post-ex processes are also carried out on site so trainees can gain experience of a range of tasks. The 'Trainers' are all experienced commercial archaeologists who work full time on the site and are, very importantly, highly skilled in training and communicating with a wide range of people, from general public, to school students, undergrads and post-grads.
The project also offers long-term student placements (from 1 month up to a year).
There have been many success stories with former trainees and placements quickly getting work in contract digging, once they start applying, presumably their CVs being attractive to employers due to the relevant urban/single context/commercial site experience.
