Recommendation 12 of the Chitty report (Chitty 1999), "That the ATF work with other organisations assessing training and development needs in archaeology, including IFA and ADS, to direct future resources for training to areas where skill shortages and the priority for professional update are clearly defined" has led to the ATF receiving proposals for the endorsement of short courses. Where courses have been recognised as meeting an identified need for training within archaeology, ATF endorsement has been given, and in some cases this has led to these courses receiving a subsidy from the EH Archaeology Commissions budget in order to make them more affordable. In 2001-02, the programme of IFA and ATF endorsed courses, subsidised by EH, was run in the Continuing Education departments of the Universities of Oxford and Leeds and included courses in vocationally specific subjects such as "archaeological development control reports', 'the Treasure Act for archaeologists' and 'using sites and monuments records".
"TORC is going to be an invaluable reference resource - with the prospect of linking from the occupational standards directly to courses that provide them"
In terms of information and access to training, Chitty Recommendation 7 was for the establishment of a comprehensive online information service, providing details of archaeological training course content and availability. To meet the requirements of this recommendation, the Council for British Archaeology (CBA) has established the Training Online Resource Centre for Archaeology - TORC - a comprehensive database which will contain data on all available courses in the UK. As well as including information on lifelong learning courses and university degrees, it will also incorporate details of specialised professional training. TORC is going to be an invaluable reference resource - with the prospect of linking from the occupational standards directly to courses that provide them.
Last updated: Tue Sep 10 2002
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