Skip to main content

Competence Framework for Cultural Heritage Management: a guide to the essential skills and knowledge for heritage practitioners

“Climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and other crises have created unprecedented challenges for cultural heritage sites and their associated communities. Confronted by these new realities, the heritage profession is increasingly under pressure to rethink approaches taken to site management. Safeguarding a heritage site today extends beyond technical conservation issues. Heritage site managers must also address various economic, social and environmental dimensions as defined by the Sustainable Development Goals. Heritage personnel need to upskill and reskill themselves to meet these new management challenges.

 

The UNESCO Competence Framework for Cultural Heritage Management is a new toolbox that defines the knowledge, skills and personal qualities for for both individual heritage practitioners as well as heritage organizations. It provides a benchmark in upgrading capacity and covers four areas of competences: Core Competences (e.g. working with communities and mobilizing heritage for local development), Managerial Competences (e.g. strategic planning and financial management), Specialized Technical Competences (e.g. defining heritage knowhow) and Personal Competences. Academic institutions are also invited to use the Competence Framework in planning and evaluating their education and training programmes.”