With it being National Apprenticeship Week, we wanted to share the apprenticeship programme here at CA, which we offer in collaboration with Cirencester College. Our scheme takes attendees up to a grade of Archaeological Technician Level 3, and currently we have three apprentices working towards this – Alex, Horatio, and Rory, who are enjoying learning in the field alongside their classroom-based study.

So what is an Archaeological Technician Level 3 apprenticeship? It’s a full-time job, working with us to learn the practical skills of a field archaeologist, alongside learning archaeological theory from lectures and coursework at a College. A typical working week for one of our apprentices will consist of four days on site learning how to recognise, excavate, and record a variety of archaeological features, whilst also starting to understand the basics of how an archaeological site is run and what happens during the post-excavation stage. One day a week is spent learning background knowledge on various topics in college lectures, which cover British time periods, research resources and techniques, and more archaeological theory. There’s even the chance to go and visit some archaeological sites within Britain.

Our current apprentices are enjoying the experience so far, and were attracted to an archaeological apprenticeship that provides a hands-on experience to learning, while also working. They said this apprenticeship stood out as it was completely different to everything else advertised on the apprenticeship website. When asked what they particularly like about the apprenticeship so far, Rory preferred “learning with hands on experience instead of just learning about archaeology in textbooks.”, Horatio likes the fact there are fewer deadlines and coursework, with “more of a full structured day than being given coursework/classes and being left to learn around it”, and Alex likes the practical experience and “finds it interesting even when he’s covered in mud” – fairly essential for a future archaeologist!

We are hoping to offer more apprenticeships in the near future but, in the meantime, there is always the option of volunteering. If you would like to know more about volunteering please contact Caroline Adams, our Outreach and Community Engagement Officer at: caroline.adams@cotswoldarchaeology.co.uk.

Sian Reynish