1st May 2012, 02:00 PM
Is it just me who sees that there is glaring problem with this - in a time where archaeological jobs are becoming harder and harder to come by is it a responsible practice to effectively remove yet another position that should be paid from the job pool. A single person/ more than one people could be trained and paid towards a role in curatorial which often requires HER experience. Our graduates can not enter the profession with their level of debt and find themselves volunteering as there are no paid jobs. We have a responsibility towards the next generation and it is things like this that are effectively pulling up the ladder after us.
We must not forget that the trusts receive funding to maintain the HER's and if they are unable to manage these resources then they need to seriously consider ways other than volunteers to plug the gaps. The units have a massive commercial advantage in that they have free access to the HER whenever they need it and surely moving digging staff into these roles when work is slack would be a much fairer way of ensuring the work is done.
If we keep using more and more volunteers in roles like this then surely we risk losing more and more paid positions within the profession and we reach a point where there is no value placed on our skills. This is the tip of the iceberg but it's huge and looming below the surface. Is it more cost effective in the longrun to keep spending a staff members time reteaching and rechecking over and over again or to train someone who will stay within the profession and use what they have learnt.
But if the work to compile Archwilio is being done by volunteers then why should commercial companies not have free access? If we are paying for access then what we pay for access to the resource should be paying to perpetuate the work.:face-stir:
We must not forget that the trusts receive funding to maintain the HER's and if they are unable to manage these resources then they need to seriously consider ways other than volunteers to plug the gaps. The units have a massive commercial advantage in that they have free access to the HER whenever they need it and surely moving digging staff into these roles when work is slack would be a much fairer way of ensuring the work is done.
If we keep using more and more volunteers in roles like this then surely we risk losing more and more paid positions within the profession and we reach a point where there is no value placed on our skills. This is the tip of the iceberg but it's huge and looming below the surface. Is it more cost effective in the longrun to keep spending a staff members time reteaching and rechecking over and over again or to train someone who will stay within the profession and use what they have learnt.
But if the work to compile Archwilio is being done by volunteers then why should commercial companies not have free access? If we are paying for access then what we pay for access to the resource should be paying to perpetuate the work.:face-stir: