Discover heritage careers.
But what is heritage?
Heritage is all about learning from the past
in order to inform how we live today.
Heritage for me is about monuments.
It's about artifacts.
It's about all the things that make Scotland, Scotland.
Heritage to me is something
that is yours, something that you're connected to,
or that you're proud of.
Heritage is everywhere.
It's our past and future,
the stories we tell, the homes we live in,
and the high streets we shop in.
Our iconic sites,
and our coastlines and gardens.
The heritage sector attracted 18 million visitors in 2018,
and generated 4.2 billion pounds for the Scottish economy.
It supports 66,000 jobs across Scotland,
jobs as diverse as construction, customer service,
hospitality, archeology, museum work, retail,
digital content production, and education roles.
Heritage is what makes Scotland, Scotland.
But what is it like to work in these roles?
- You're never gonna know when you leave school
what jobs are out there,
and so it's about giving lots of different things a try.
- I went on an excavation when I was about 17,
and I never looked back.
It involved working outside in Scottish landscape
in beautiful part of the country.
And once I'd done that once, that was it.
I knew that's what I wanted to do from then on.
- Being in school I never thought about heritage much
or even considered a career in it.
But I came here and I done my modern apprenticeship.
I got to learn all about it.
I got to work in all areas of the castle.
- My path into being a ranger,
it was a bit of a strangled one, actually.
I am qualified as a primary school teacher,
but then discovered outdoor learning
and fell in love with that.
Didn't like classroom teaching so much.
So eventually found myself working here as a ranger.
I'm coordinating outdoor learning here in Holyrood Park.
- In events, you never get one day the same.
It's never a dull day.
So we have gun salutes being fired
from the side of the castle.
We have people wanting to bring supercars in.
We have people wanting to put in a grand piano,
put on operas.
- My favorite thing, specifically,
about working at retail is the visitors.
There's so many amazing people we know,
a wealth of nationalities and ages
that come and visit the castle every day.
- I love working as a conservator
most in that everyday is varied.
I never know what I'm going to be doing.
I have lots of fun looking at lots of different objects.
- Skills for an archeologist
is a bit like being a detective.
You need a whole series of different skills
in terms of understanding written evidence,
understanding material culture, so objects,
things that people have thrown away and left in the past.
You need to be a good storyteller.
- You'd need communication skills,
teamwork, enthusiasm, confidence,
which I feel like I've expanded
all of those from working here.
- Organisation is one of the biggest skills that you need.
So there's a lot of diary management, and there's a lot
of different events going on at different times
which have different requirements,
so you really need to be organised.
You need to have lots of flexibility
and you need to have enthusiasm for putting on these events
and showcasing this castle to the wide range
of people that we get.
I don't think I could do my job
in just a hotel or a conference centre
I get to work in a castle every day.
So that's pretty amazing.
And people are always really impressed by that.
- I think there needs to be a real drive
to kind of, yeah, bring people
from all different backgrounds into the sector.
- I would say don't be afraid to try something
that you're not used to,
or that you don't know anything about.
Join us and let heritage be part of your story.