A UK charity has pledged £29m to train thousands of young people in heritage skills.
The cash injection comes from the Hamish Ogston Foundation, which said it was the largest single commitment to the cause ever made.
The funding will pay for up to 2,700 new young people in the UK and across the Commonwealth to be trained in heritage conservation, with the aim of combatting a decades-long global skills shortage.
Beneficiaries of the scheme will include English Heritage, Historic Environment Scotland, Commonwealth Heritage Forum and Cathedrals’ Workshop Fellowship.
The charity said £11.2m of the donation would go to English Heritage to establish The Hamish Ogston Foundation Heritage Craft Skills Resilience Programme, which will train young heritage skills apprentices.
This £29m is part of a larger figure of £43m donated by the Hamish Ogston Foundation.
Nineteen different Commonwealth nations across five continents will benefit from the funding, including Fiji, Bermuda, Pakistan and Ghana.
Hamish Ogston, founder of the Hamish Ogston Foundation said: “A sustainable, future-facing ecosystem of heritage conservation expertise is what is needed to solve the chronic skills shortages and gaps in the heritage sector, and to ensure the survival of some of the greatest historic buildings around the world.
“With this new funding, we hope to establish such an ecosystem, so that more young people, no matter who they are or where they come from, can access the unique opportunity of a career in heritage conservation through one of our skills training programmes.
“We aim to inspire the industry and to establish a coherent and accessible training infrastructure for those looking to learn skills in heritage conservation.”
The Hamish Ogston Foundation is a UK-based grant making organisation supporting third-party projects in relation to health, heritage and music in the UK and abroad.