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14th March 2010, 02:33 PM
Hear hear amber! Sadly there often aren't the opportunities to train staff and when the training is done buy the supervisors 9and icount myself in that) who haven't been properly taught themselves then it can get frustrating.
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14th March 2010, 05:22 PM
as has already been said before, the "duty to train" is very poorly valued - often along with the "miserable old codgers" who have sufficent Sincerity to do it...
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15th March 2010, 01:29 AM
(This post was last modified: 15th March 2010, 01:35 AM by Ladygeek.)
I voted 1 for this, but I was very lucky on getting my degree at the University of Glasgow which (thankfully) puts an equal emphasis on the practical skills required to actually do the job to a professional standard. We had to be able to show that we could produce the kind of work that would be expected of us in a commercial environment and we had a helluva lot of practical assessments and things. Plus, we were required to get a fair bit more field experience to graduate than most other universities ask for. Interestingly though, I actually have found most of the volunteer research digs I worked on much more demanding (mentally and physically) than any of the jobs i've had in commercial archaeology. Maybe i've jinxed myself by saying that, and the next project will be a killer :0
I don't think you can say that NO graduate straight out of uni can be ready for commercial archaeology - it depends on the nature of what they were taught, although there are a lot of uni's churning out archaeologists that (through no real fault of their own) don't know which end of the trowel is up...
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Im interested to know how many compulsary weeks excavation training you recieve at Glasgow?
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trowelfodder Wrote:Im interested to know how many compulsary weeks excavation training you recieve at Glasgow?
Hi
According to their website 11 weeks to graduate.
Steven
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Yup it's 11 weeks, but we were strongly encouraged to graduate with more, and in fact the structure of the portfolio and other assessments for Honours meant that we had to seek out more field work (of a decent standard) in order to have something to base them on. We didn't 'receive' it though, we had to find it and pay for it ourselves, although now they have a fieldschool that people have to do as well before they can qualify for Honours.
NEVER expect competence.
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Personally I voted 2, I was lucky enough to attend Embra Uni in the late 90's when they ran a field school for all first years in both the Easter and Summer breaks ran by professional field archaeologists attached to the at that time 'Centre for Field Archaeology'. Maybe it's just me but out in the field without the 'lecturers' the whole process of the discipline was brought alive by dedicated knowlegable people who not only cared for the results of the dig (obviously), but were passionately dedicated to passing on not only the skills but also the theory behind what we were trying to achive as a team, and that I think is what was so important. No idea from whoever was ever dismissed out of hand, instead ideas were discussed with all, and although the concensus was led enevitably by the most knowledgeable, we were left with the impression that we had contributed as a team to one piece of the jigsaw of our prehistoric past. It was the same on my subsequent uni led digs. Does that mean that on graduation I was prepared for the commercial world? Well yes and no. As I say I do count myself very lucky indeed in that I had had a solid background in all aspects of field work and that includes all aspects of recording, drawing, photograpy, context sheets, surveying, sampling etc so I understood the process of archaeological recording and why we went through that process, however the first time I was on my own conducting a watching brief in a professional environment I can still recall the tight knot in my stomach and fear incase I should miss anything, I'm glad to say that it is an emotion that continues to this day. And most importantly I am still learning, still on site gleaning knowledge and ideas from my fellow archaeologists and realising that ultimately that I am just a small cog in a big wheel that informs all of humanity on what it is to be human, isn't that just about the most beautiful way of earning a living? Of course the truth is that archaeology is all about teamwork, like the very life we try to elucidate, and considering another thread on here those 'academic' archaeologists who look down at commercial types are a generation passing whose time has gone, we are archaeologists all, with different skills and abilities but we all have something to bring to the table.
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I was, but I spent most of my holidays and weekends volunteering on (pre-PPG16) commercial excavations for several years before I went to university.
D. Vader
Senior Consultant
Vader Maull & Palpatine
Archaeological Consultants
A tremor in the Force. The last time I felt it was in the presence of Tony Robinson.
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When I graduated I had 6 months experience of commercial work, I was lucky enough to get employed my a local unit in my holidays. Although I did balance this out with some research excavations as well.
But here I am, post graduation, and post surgery, unable to work as a digger at the moment, so the life of a bartender calls instead.
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Well said Amber, we do all have a duty to train new comers in all aspects of fieldwork, something a lot of archaeologists appear to have forgotten...or in some cases have no interest in imparting knowledge and experience..............
When you came out of Uni were you ready for commercial work
