him win top apprentice in the UK and awarded the Silver and Gold Trowels - alongside exhaustive practical testing. Those original masonry publishers “were clearly holding on to craft se- crets and mysteries they didn't want to completely share,” he said. These skills and secrets were passed on from generation-to-generation through traditional apprenticeships. “When one signed an apprentice- ship deed, one agreed not to divulge the mysteries (secrets) of their art.” This limitation on knowledge-sharing served two purposes. It preserved the craft's prestige and safeguarded ca- reers for craftsmen. More importantly, he said, in a practical sense some of the advanced knowledge would only be useful after the mason had suc- cessfully mastered the basic craft skills, because a little of this advanced knowledge, learned too early, or passed to someone without formal training, could do far more harm than good. Lynch says he is pleased that a new generation of heritage masonry craftspeople are learning some of the best of the traditional craft knowledge and skills on Parliament Hill, through the high-level education and training being provided there, but he is gener- ally concerned about the basic process of training young masons, where expediency and production ef- ficiency, based solely on new-build with an accompanying and less than satisfactory emphasis on education, does not leave much room for more traditional or deeper, meaningful, level of craft knowledge. “We need what I term the 'holistic craftsman', taught to possess an all- around perception and ability within the craft, with knowledge of the old ways and modern techniques, that are in perfect balance and which can be called on as and when required,” he said. However, the trend today is for “ac- creditation on short, modular, courses” – training without the all-im- portant education. “People controlling budgets say it costs too much money (for a fully- rounded education and training),” he said. “They rationalize saying things like: 'Why can't we get these appren- tices and adult trainees in and out of the system quickly?'” The result: Modern tradespeople are not craftsmen, they don't possess 'crafting' skills only 'fixing' and 'assem- bly' skills, and lack an appreciation of their craft history, and so they “don't have any empathy with the historic structures that they find themselves working on . . . they won't ever have an appreciation of the traditional ma- terials and techniques, appropriate to that certain period of that building's history to work on it correctly; and un- able to answer any specific questions about this if someone picks them up enquiring on them.” These are at best semi-skilled ma- sons but as such are typical of those who, through lack of quality education and training in a craft, will use incom- patible or inappropriate materials, craft practices and an inadequate standard of workmanship; all of which will result in more harm than good, he said. “Throughout history no one ever made money in delivering quality ap- prenticeships,” Lynch said. “But when you fail to educate and then under- train people within their craft, their work eventually costs you a huge amount of money at some point in the future; and particularly so when that occurs on our precious stock of his- toric buildings. “Bad work costs an inordinate sum to correct. It's far cheaper to invest and do it right in the first place.” Courtesy of the Vancouver Convention Centre BUILDING LASTING CHANGE 2015 C a n a d J Join io n u us s at a t Canada’s ’a a s largest ts green building al r g e g r e en b iu ld ing c conference e o nf er en c » Industry y e education In d u ts r d uc ita on » Green n building g tours sr G er e b nidliu t o u » B2B meetings s B 2B me nite g » N Networking g e events s et w o nikr v e nt » 100 0 exhibitors 1 0 e x tibih ors V Vancouver r C Convention n C Centre, e , J June e 2-4 4 a nc o u v e o n v e n oit e n rt u n 2- R Register r n now w a at: t : w www.cagbc.org/blc2015 5 e e etsig o w w c. a g b .c or g /bl c 2 0 1 The Canadian Design and Construction Report — April-May 2015 – 5