What is the Historic Environment?
The historic environment can be hard to define, it can mean different things to different people. Generally, it’s the things we have inherited from the past that we can enjoy in the present and look after for future generations. The historic environment can give us a sense of identity and place, in our families, our communities, and our countries. It can range from physical things like castles and museum artefacts, to traditional crafting skills or stories from the past. Those who work in the historic environment sector care for all these things, and help the public to explore, enjoy, and connect with it in whatever form it takes.
Working in the Historic Environment
There is a huge range of job families across the historic environment, from tourism to traditional construction, there are many ways you can turn your skills and interests into an exciting career in the historic environment sector. Varied and large, Scotland’s historic environment sector offers over 68,000 jobs across many fields such as gardens and landscapes, museums, archaeology, or architecture. More than half of these jobs are in the tourism sector where over 35,000 professionals work to engage local people and visitors with Scotland’s heritage attractions. Construction is the second biggest sector for historic environment professionals, with over 17,000 jobs that enable our historic buildings and infrastructure to be restored and repaired. A further 2,700 have been created by heritage organisations, like Historic Environment Scotland, where there are opportunities to work in a wide range of fields, including marketing, policy, architecture, collections management, outreach, and even roles with a focus on caring for the environment.
There really is something for everyone!