Training in the Conservation of Paintings - Calouste Gulbenkian ...

5. Conclusions
Lack of a complete Advanced Course
65. We have compared the training available today in the United
Kingdom as described in Chapter 4, with the scheme of desirable
training which emerged from the evidence which is summarised
towards the end of Chapter 3 (paragraph 54) in order to estimate
the extent to which recognised training, as distinct from the unknown
possibilities of private teaching and apprenticeship to independent
restorers, is at present available to cover the eight years
from school-leaving to the final award. This comparison shows up
the lack of a standard advanced course of mixed apprenticeship and
theoretical instruction, to which a basic course could lead, and which
would itself lead to a final award. Such a course is vitally needed, in
our view, not only to provide a long-term substitute for the Government
Temporary Training Scheme (paragraph 24) and to increase,
as necessary, the number of students in training, but to provide a
link between the present diverse centres of training and supplement
their facilities and to establish a recognisable final award which
could be made available externally, on suitable evidence of skill and
experience, to students trained in these other courses (paragraph 56).
Numbers involved
66. We take it as a certainty that more restorers must be trained in
addition to those who, whether in the public institutions or in independent
studios, are being trained by restorers with whom they
intend to work. How many more, however, cannot be estimated with
any certainty. The number must, at any rate, be sufficient to replace,
on a permanent basis, the total of nine restorers of paintings and
drawings covered by the Government Temporary Training Scheme.
Correlated with the proposed five year course this would mean two.
or three additional qualified restorers a year from the end of the
first complete five year course. The need may well prove to be greater
than this, but it would not be realistic to count on immediately
securing the services as master restorers of more than the number
of fully trained restorers needed to undertake this amount of additional
training without hindering the work on which they are now
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