The Staff Exchanges in European Cultural Heritage Trusts (SEECHT) project offers opportunities for professionals from within the National Trust movement to share their learning and contribute to a more open and welcoming European heritage sector. The project delivers a system of secondments for Europe's future leaders of heritage trusts, offering on-the-job training by shadowing their contemporaries in other European contexts. Having learnt from their neighbouring trusts, participants will deliver projects that broaden access to all segments of the European public, whilst also welcoming members of heritage trusts from other countries as part of the reciprocal visiting programme. A toolkit, to be shared widely among European heritage organisations and policy makers, will capture the incredible strength of variety possessed by European heritage trusts, and provide the blueprint for continued collaboration between project participants.

Cultural Heritage (CH) is in the focus of the European Union as motor for employment, economic drive and development. In order to guarantee longevity & usability of European Heritage it is inevitable to keep up with the requirements of society like new technology and digitisation.The Covid19 crisis added some urgency to the issue as training organisations strongly suffer from restrictions and new rules, which are threatening traditional education and training activities. Especially in regards to hands-on-training, where instructors need to get really close to learners in order to teach practical skills.The consortium of VI-TRAIN takes on the challenge of developing innovative training for traditional/threatened crafts and handling of building damages, which will boost the digitisation of training in (built) Cultural Heritage. A big focus is given to crafts that are almost nowhere trained any more. Lots of those crafts do need a lot of experience and guidance by experienced craftspeople. This training in particular will be boosted by various digitisation support.The anticipated objectives of VI-TRAIN are:•to identify appropriate means of distance learning for the training of craftspeople (manual work),•to identify appropriate means of online cooperation in training, regarding functionality, GDPR and data security•to derive success criteria for highly accepted digital solutions•to develop and test a virtual/3D-crafts training system by using sensors and VR/AR•to develop and test a virtual/3D-buidling damage identification training system•to investigate and test options overcoming restrictions, e.g. move sickness,•to develop a train-the-trainer system for application of selected tools in training of traditional craftsParticipants of the courses developed in VI-TRAIN can obtain a European certificate by undergoing an certification process provided by ECQA (www.ecqa.org), which is an internationally active organisation specialised in certification of skills and competences.VI-TRAIN nicely enriches the offer of The European Heritage Academy (EHA), which will be in charge of delivering VI-TRAIN training courses after completion of the project. EHA is situated at Charterhouse Mauerbach, the future EU Competence and Community Centre for Architectural Conservation, being set up during INCREAS – Innovation and Creative Solutions for Cultural Heritage, a Pilot project for Cultural and Creative Industries, Finance, Learning, Innovation and Patenting for Cultural and Creative Industries - (FLIP) for CCIs-2

Europe has a fascinating history and various historic sites, which demonstrate imperial glory and power, which attract tourists and students of different disciplines like architecture, building culture, but also cause serious concerns. In Austria, a vast number of buildings are considered of great historic value. On one hand each building causes costs for maintenance, on other hand they need to be kept in shape to fulfil the requirements of modern life and commercial needs. Staff of bodies looking after such historic buildings does need specific skills in order to ensure that Austrian sites, historic buildings of the UK and Amalfi coast villas are available for future generations – and at the same time can be utilised for several purposes to cover costs. Nowadays you find offices, flats, museums, shops, cafés and restaurants and many other ways of utilising those buildings and above all we can learn about environmentally friendly building techniques.The aim of “MODI-FY” - Maintaining Historic Buildings and Objects through Developing and Up-grading Individual Skills of Project Managers: Fostering European Heritage and Culture for Years to come” is to provide professionals with the required certified skills and competences to help Responsible Bodies (RBs) in developing innovative VET; this includes -recognition of previous learning and already available skills -establishment of a European certificate issued by ECQA-train-the-trainer education for experts in maintenance management of historic buildings and sites.The Aims of MODI-FY are:* Recognition of prior learning (non-formally and informally acquired)* Development of specific (holistic = containing various aspects of management of historic buildings as described above) training for employees and volunteers of RBs, their suppliers and subcontractors to include the evaluation of innovative teaching techniques;* Creation of new job opportunities for young people and securing the jobs of current staff* Establishment of a European training and certification system, linking into ECVET and Skills Passport, which allows transferability of skills into other EU countries* European Standards for assessing the state of preservationObjectives:* Assessment of prior learning in partner and associate partner organisation* Specific and individual needs analysis of staff and volunteers concerned* Research/Adaption of appropriate tools for recognition of prior learning* Development of specific basic blended training modules for people working in the field* Development of blended train-the trainer training material and training modules* Testing and modifying training modules for people working in the field and trainers (pilot course modules in Budapest, Vienna, Bilzen and Ravello)* Conducting training modules (real course module in Manchester)* Certification of learners and trainersBeing able to have prior learning and available skills recognised is an important motivation factor for staff, while it also is a tool to select appropriate partners, suppliers and sub-contractors for building projects. Annual budgets for managing historic buildings are likely to be reduced in times of crisis and cost effectiveness becomes more and more an issue for responsible bodies. Therefore the project managers are also under pressure for providing high quality work outcomes. This is only possible when project managers are excellently trained and educated and this was the ultimate goal of “MODI-FY”.The need for innovative VET for the target groups were met by developing a model of certified education for maintenance management of historic buildings and sites. In a blended training approach old and new skills and competences were merged into a standard requirement for current and future employees of the partner organisations as well as their suppliers and subcontractors.The consortium of MODI-FY consists of 9 organisations from 7 EU countries:5 responsible bodies (RB)3 training institutions1 certification body During the project duration partners established and developed-7 country reports on educational offers in the field-clear standards and terminology for VET of professionals working in/with historic buildings-2 curricula for VET of project managers of historic buildings and 1 for train-the-trainer called “Heritage Asset Management”-4 pilot course modules of “Heritage Asset Management” for the target groups-a certification procedure and online exam platform-1 real-time course module for project managers of “Heritage Asset Management”The project results are made available to other organisations around Europe and the World after completion of the project. By offering a certified training, acknowledged by ECQA, linking it into ECVET and European Skills Passport, “MODI-FY” helps responsible bodies to guarantee the survival of European historic treasures and protected heritage.

According to the climate change and energy policy of the EU, each member state needed to identify and develop a series of energy efficient goals and regulations, of which buildings are a key element, in order to reach the set goals. However, Europe has numerous historic buildings, which need permanent maintenance and refurbishment in order to fulfil the requirements of sustainability and use. When responsible bodies do spend money anyway, it seems logical and ecologically worthwhile to apply “soft” maintenance procedures, which save costs and also reduce energy consumption of historic buildings. Integrating these buildings into national climate change and energy policies seems therefore quite necessary and a challenge, as far as appropriate techniques and procedures are concerned, which can only be met through excellently trained craftsmen and apprentices of the crafts concerned. PRO-Heritage partners aim to offer initial and permanent education for professionals and craftsmen providing traditional competences and skills for built heritage, based on Best Practice of partner organisations. Additionally, PRO-Heritage is going to establish a structure and environment for regular journeyman's travel in Europe, in order to further support the exchange of competences and skills across Europe. Major needs addressed in PRO-Heritage are • to protect traditional competences and skills for built Cultural Heritage relevant for energy efficiency and renewable energy • the need to involve adequately educated and trained professionals and craftsmen in “soft” conservation, maintenance and ongoing care • the need to certify those professionals and craftsmen in order to give them recognition of their competences and skills Achieving better energy performance in historic buildings is a WIN-WIN situation for all – owners facing less energy costs, residents enjoying modern comfort at reasonable prices and society reducing energy consumption and CO2 emission.