Succession Planning for the Heritage Sector: The Labour Market and Emerging Professionals

In partnership with the National Trust for Canada and ACO Next Gen, ICOMOS Canada has organised a panel discussion on perspectives from emerging professionals on the labour market and education in heritage.

The heritage sector struggles with succession planning. The next generation of workers struggles to connect with older generations, partly stemming from an absence of emerging professionals in spaces dedicated to addressing youth and student training and employment, leaving a critical deficit in information on the impact of current economic and social conditions on these individuals. This has contributed towards a lack of mutual understanding on the needs of emerging professionals’ (eg quality employment) versus the needs of employers (eg skill sets and expertise).

Bringing together four emerging professionals from different fields and three organisations with experience with data relating to the heritage sector’s labour market, this session will  identify and explore some of the biggest challenges facing emerging professionals today and the impact this may have on the future of the heritage sector. This session is designed to benefit employers, educators, and emerging professionals, and is formatted as a response to the absence of emerging professionals from discussions on the future of the heritage labour force.