1st July 2010, 08:56 AM
Having watched the results of hundreds of watching briefs of all types over (intermittantly) 20 years with one company, it's not surprisingly the old hands who tend to find/recognise stuff more often than the inexperienced, so I concur that it's not a good idea using them as a way to give less experienced staff experience! On several occasions when I've been having to 'ghost-write' WB reports back in the office due to people moving on/illiteracy/just-can't-write-reports I've identified what was obviously archaeology in the records which the person on the ground completely failed to recognise - bit late by then! The more experience of a wider range of archaeology the better, for instance I've got no interest whatsoever in industrial archaeology but from long experience I can recognise residues from most industrial processes etc (A-level chemistry helps), or just stuff that doesn't belong there, and phone someone who has. Just being able to recognise what the strange rusty thing sticking out of the machine bucket is can make or break a WB....