Culture Minister Linda Fabiani today launched a new masonry qualification to meet traditional building training needs in Edinburgh and Lothian.

Details of the National Progression Award (NPA) in Conservation of Masonry was launched in the presence of HRH The Princess Royal during a visit to St Mary's Cathedral Workshop.

The NPA will be available at Telford College where trainees will be given bursaries to support them while they undertake the qualification. It is combined with on-the-job training at St Mary’s Cathedral Workshop and 80 people are expected to study the course at Telford College over next 18 months.

NPA was established by Historic Scotland, with £1m of financial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), in November 2007 at Glasgow Metropolitan where there are 36 bursary holders currently on the course with a further 44 to be registered by 2010.

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The Minister said: "I'm delighted to announce the expansion of the National Progression Award. We launched the NPA in 2007 in response to a significant shortage of workers with the knowledge and training to work on traditional buildings.

"We're beginning to meet that shortfall through such projects as NPA and by working with other bodies such as Telford College, St Mary's Cathedral and Glasgow Metropolitan. The introduction of the course in Edinburgh will further assist our development and training needs across Scotland."

Dr Ray Harris, principal at Edinburgh's Telford College added: We understand how important it is to have highly qualified professionals in this field and have recently opened the Construction School of Excellence which provides a state-of-the-art training centre in reaction to the growing industry need for more construction training in Scotland, especially within traditional skills courses."

Provost of St Mary's Cathedral, the Very Revd.Dr. Graham Forbes CBE, said for over 20 years St Mary's Cathedral Workshop has been training young people to become fully qualified stonemasons, and today's announcement adds a "new and important training dimension" for those involved in the care of the stone of our traditional buildings.

Nearly 50% of Scotland’s construction activity relates to repair and maintenance, but gaps remain in the availability of a broad range of traditional building skills. Now, with the NPA available across the central belt to close the gaps, Historic Scotland is looking to make this bursary scheme available across the country and is already out to tender for colleges in the north to introduce NPA.

(GK/JM)