The four INNOVARCH Intensive Courses took place between April 2016 and Mai 2017 in the four partner countries of the project [Barcelona (ES) – April 2016, Warsaw (PL) – June 2016, Kalmar (SE) – November 2016, Heraklion/Rethymno (GR) – Mai 2017]. Students of every partner university have attended to all the 6-day courses. In total, 80 students have participated directly in the courses, with different training level (undergraduates, master students and PhD candidates), background and research and professional interests.
The common guidelines for the courses were: (1) to obtain an overview of Public Archaeology issues and projects in each country; (2) to get in contact with Public Archaeology practitioners, both academic and non-academic, as well as to meet stakeholders involved in archaeology and heritage public projects; and (3) to familiarize students with specific projects on the field. Therefore, 60 researchers, curators, educators, stakeholders and representatives of interests’ groups have collaborated as trainers and speakers in the courses and have been with us in our visits to more than 25 heritage sites, ranging from Palaeolithic camps to contemporary heritage complexes.
The assessment of the courses has shown the need of incorporating non-archaeologists and non-academics and stakeholders in training schemes for Public Archaeology and also the existence of important gaps of relevant skills, specially, at a graduate level that should be compensated by introducing a general training in core Public Archaeology topics and widening the skills oriented training. Finally, the mixed composition of the student groups points to a necessary gradation of Public Archaeology contents in Higher Education as specified in the Outline of a European Public Archaeology Curriculum: from a basic, general training in Bachelor studies to an applied research oriented training for PhD candidates.
