Help us ensure the future of craft includes the very best makers by joining our campaign and sharing your career insights with the next generation.
We’ve teamed up with the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) to invite those working in craft and making or conservation and restoration to volunteer and help showcase to young people the exciting opportunities available within the sector. Whether you’re a stonemason, a weaver, a blacksmith or a horologist – we need skilled makers working in different materials and traditions to get involved.
Why we need your help
Craft is a thriving sector in the UK, generating more than £3 billion for the UK economy each year, despite this, we know that exposure and access to the sector is a problem for young people. Without contacts in the industry and with the recent drop in creative subjects in the school curriculum, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for young people to break into craft and making careers.
Our Making the Future campaign aims to address this issue head-on. By going back to school to talk about your career, you can help young people across the country gain insight into jobs they might not be aware of – or believe they have a place in.
With your help, our campaign will:
- Tackle the stereotypes and assumptions that many young people have around craft and the career opportunities available
- Inspire young people from diverse backgrounds to consider careers in craft and making
- Support Britain’s cultural heritage, sustain vital skills, and inspire innovative approaches to traditional and contemporary crafts
Who is QEST?
QEST is a charity that funds the training of talented and aspiring craftspeople through scholarships, apprenticeships and partnership programmes, creating a pipeline of excellence in craft. QEST is also committed to ensuring diversity in UK craft and conservation to strengthen the future of the sector. In addition to their existing grant giving, QEST is supporting campaigns like this one to make a real and immediate difference to the opportunities available for the next generation of professional makers.
QEST is committed to ensuring that all young people have the opportunity to meet inspiring makers through their local schools and colleges, and to find out more about the incredible array of careers that use hand-skills and creative thinking. We know that craft and making skills open the door to a range of fulfilling and sustainable professional pathways, but it can be difficult to find out about these opportunities. Through the Making the Future campaign, we encourage colleagues across the craft, conservation, and manufacturing sectors to share their stories and experiences with young people.
Deborah Pocock LVO, CEO, Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust
Sign up to volunteer today and inspire young people to consider a future in craft.