22nd December 2012, 05:53 PM
There's one or two apprentices, mainly with the big units. I had one when I worked for Oxford a long time ago, and he's now a pot monkey at the MoL. The IfA Bursary Scheme has funded at least one that I know of (Hi Ben!) - the bursaries are one of the few useful things the IfA has done. I wish they'd stick to doing things like that and stop pretending that they're maintaining standards. That way, we'd all start making progress. I learned my craft back in the days of Council Units in the early 80s. I had some very basic training from a field archy who'd done pot for a bit, then got the bits which I couldn't identify and trotted off to show them to experienced specialists working for other units and the big museums, and the MPRG - Alan Vince at (then) DUA taught me loads over the course of an entire day, one-to-one, for free - he even bought me lunch! But that was in the days when we weren't competing with each other. Now, a trainee working on their own for a commercial company couldn't do that now as it'd be too expensive for them (time and travel), and why should anyone train a business rival's employee for free, which would add further expense.
\"Whoever understands the pottery, understands the site\" - Wheeler