17th October 2005, 11:52 PM
All extremely important views. It occurs to me that the nations heritage is still undervalued and by default, heritage professionals too. I remember a certain Institute pledging to undertake a bit of a mission to raise the public perception of heritage and-its value.This simply has`nt happened. Could a carefully scripted campaign help to raise our value in the public eye? One of our American colleagues made a good point on here recently...developers stateside have grasped the concept that heritage is a positive attribute in a business and PR context. Is`nt it about time that developers are helped to see us as a positive attribute? I can`t believe that we do what we do on a daily basis without communicating with the public.When projects are finished, our reports are hidden away in unheard of SMRs.Just what is it that we are afraid of? I also don`t believe for a moment that in terms of wages, anyone`s hands are tied. When a developer needs plumbers/sparkies etc, they pay the going rate. A professional wage for a professional job. What is it about our industry that allows for the conditions we see? How do we raise our value in the eyes of developers and, the tax-paying public?
On another note, by maintaining artificially low wages, highly qualified,multi skilled and experienced workers leave the profession with frightening regularity.This means that the profession is led by increasingly rarer valuable and able managers and, staffed in the field by a conveyor belt of inexperienced bright eyed newbies (no offence meant). In simple terms, by driving costs down, we are also driving standards down with them.......
On another note, by maintaining artificially low wages, highly qualified,multi skilled and experienced workers leave the profession with frightening regularity.This means that the profession is led by increasingly rarer valuable and able managers and, staffed in the field by a conveyor belt of inexperienced bright eyed newbies (no offence meant). In simple terms, by driving costs down, we are also driving standards down with them.......