On 1st October 2005 Heritage Malta was granted funding for a new European project under the Leonardo da Vinci programme. Thanks to this funding, over the next two years, five European partners – Istituto Palazzo Spinelli (Italy), Fondazione Kepha (Italy), Technological Educational Institute (Greece), Ecole d’Avignon (France) and Heritage Malta - will work towards the creation of standards in conservation education across Europe.

The new project bears the title “Defining common standards for vocational training in cultural heritage conservation skills. Developing an ECPL – European Conservation Practitioner’s License” and is better known by its acronym - ECPL. It builds on the concept of creating one internationally recognized accreditation. This notion was first introduced by the popular ECDL (European Computer Driving License) certification, which over the past years has become THE standard in gauging the IT skills of an individual.

Through its various activities, the ECPL project aims to create a benchmark in a sector of Vocational Education and Training (VET) which, at the moment, is extremely fragmented and regionalized. The project has three main objectives. The first objective is to survey the current provision of VET in the field. This will then help to define Minimum Common Standards of Competence in various materials across five levels – ranging from Operator and Skilled Craftsman to Conservation Professional – and to create model curricula for three of the chosen materials. Finally, a non-profit foundation or consortium of conservation institutes from all over Europe will be set up and given the responsibility of reviewing applications and granting the ECPL.

Just like its IT counterpart, once established, the ECPL license will allow its holder to instantly and accurately illustrate his/her level of competence in the cultural heritage sector. The license will thus allow conservation institutes, museums and cultural institutions to eliminate the current confusion created by the need to check the equivalence of qualifications coming from different countries before admitting a student to a course, or employing a person. As a result, it will help promote and facilitate mobility for professionals and students alike across Europe thus providing greater employment and training opportunities.

New ECPL website launched