A Chartered profession: CIfA and the next generation
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2015-01-16

Amanda Forster

The Chartered Institute for Archaeologists will be launched in December 2014 after 32 years developing the professional body for our sector. We have just over 3,200 members, of which 2,200 are accredited professionals and around 500 are student members. Recently we have been focusing our attention on early career archaeologists with a new IfA network for new generation archaeologists (NGSIG) – an umbrella which encompasses students, graduates and those archaeologists on the first few rungs of their career ladder. Following the development of National Occupational Standards (NOS), the setting up of an NVQ in archaeological practice and the HLF-funded Workplace Bursaries Scheme, IfA has provided a framework for graduate training which we feel has not yet been taken up as fully as we would like by industry partners – or perhaps not understood in this capacity. Our most recent practice paper (An introduction to providing career entry training in your organisation) sums up this approach to structured workplace learning and our hope is that – on the back of economic recovery – archaeological organisations will look seriously at developing much-needed graduate training to bridge the gap from student to archaeologist.
Our next focus will be in supporting students before they enter the industry. As we move a step closer to having the option of one day being a chartered archaeologist, we know we have to develop pathways towards professional accreditation as early as possible. This means helping students identify which departments will best prepare them for a career in archaeology, helping them take control of their own professional development at an early stage in their learning and providing mentorship through those early stages. Professional institutes have an important role to play in supporting our future archaeologists and we want to help those forging a career in archaeology by ensuring they begin their career as they mean to go on – recognised as professionals with a future in archaeology.