4th February 2013, 05:41 PM
barkingdigger Wrote:Sadly, the technical skills and experience of excavation don't really factor in! [...]
It would have been better if the IFA had kept to a simple "in or out" structure, rather than trying to replicate Council employment grades...
Excavation is not more favoured or disfavoured than any other skill, excavation is just one archaeological skill amongst many. The grades are not assessing your level of 'skill', but your level of responsibility and to some extent time served. Assessing your level of excavation skill is what this skills passport if for. They assume that skills are implied by being given responsibilities, which seems to be fair enough.
There are a lot more than three grades in councils. The IfA structure is intended to be more like the RICS accreditations where there are several layers of accredittation (and indeed different pathways to accreditation) but only the company director/15 years of expererince people are actually chartered. An in/out structure along RICS lines would mean an even tinier and more unrepresentative organisation.