CHARTER: Professionalisation of the European Cultural Heritage Sector

CHARTER (Cultural Heritage Actions to refine Training, Education, and Roles) is one of the projects co-funded by the European Union Erasmus + Blueprint initiative, which has been focusing on creating new strategic approaches and cooperation for concrete skills development solutions within industrial ecosystems, with the heritage sector representing one such ecosystem.

The project sought to produce a lasting, comprehensive sectoral skills strategy to guarantee Europe has the necessary cultural heritage skills to support sustainable societies and economies, including transversal competences such as digital/technological and green/blue economy skills. The strategy that can be rolled out at national and regional levels, bridges gaps between education and vocational systems and employers’ needs, and proposes training and curricula for the development of new skills for heritage professionals.

ICOMOS was co-leader of Work Package 2, alongside the European Confederation of Conservator-Restorers’ Organisations (ECCO), whose results provided a critical foundation for CHARTERS’ final recommendations by mapping the cultural heritage ecosystem and identifying key competences, occupational profiles, and skills gaps to ensure the recommendations were evidence-based and forward-looking.

ICOMOS was represented in the Consortium of 47 partners, through ICOMOS Headquarters and expert Bo Anders Lagerqvist (ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Training and ICOMOS Sweden) as Lead Scientific Coordinator.