BRIGHT FUTURE FOR OLD SKILLS

Staff and students from Edinburgh College’s Institute of Constructive Crafts, the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust and Historic Scotland are among those in St Andrew Square today and tomorrow as part of Scottish Apprenticeship Week.

Council staff are also on hand from 8am–6pm with information about Modern Apprenticeships.

Catching the imagination are displays of traditional skills such as sash and case window construction, joinery, roofing, cornice work (above), stone masonry (below) and specialist painting and decorating.

This young compositor – from the National Trust for Scotland's Robert Smail's Printing Works at Innerleithen – was making a case for hand setting and letterpress printing.

The examples below show the use of paint and glaze to imitate endangered oak and mahogany hardwoods and expensive Carrera marble.

Coordinating the St Andrew Square event has been Edinburgh Guarantee, a vision whereby all sectors of the city will work together to ensure Edinburgh school leavers leave school with the positive destination of a job, training or further education opportunity available to them. For more information and EG’s toolkit, visit here.