Heritage Skills Academy

Limited places left on next weeks course - sign up now

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/evening-course-classic-car-restoration-autumn-2022-tickets-411276377717

Our 3rd cohort of Coachbuilding Apprentices were wheeling and TIG welding last week on steel E Type wings and we now have a set ready to fully weld and metal finish in upcoming blocks 🤗👏🏻 Work on repairing and restoring the Spitfire chassis also continued with some nicely fitting components coming together! 👊🏻

Weather forecast is looking nice for the weekend! An interesting collection of cars already on show at

Ready for

Emilia Brown is presented with the first Heritage Motorsport Apprentice Award. Congratulations Emilia, well deserved. The formal presentation will be made later this afternoon by His Grace, The Duke of Richmond.

Delightful morning - just starting the third and final day, and now to warm up !

Good morning from The Goodwood Revival

More great progress from our apprentices on Saturday at the - stay tuned to see if we can have this Model T restoration project running and driving by this afternoon! 🥳

We are proud to announce the inaugural winner of

‘The Simon Diffey Heritage Motorsport Apprentice Award 2022

After a month of discussions, deliberations and interviews with employers, the Award Patron, Simon’s wife, Sarah Jane Adams-Diffey, and the Directors of the Heritage Skills Academy (HSA) are
delighted to announce that Miss Emilia Brown, an apprentice and employee from Jim Stokes Workshops Ltd (JSWL) has been selected as the worthy inaugural winner of ‘The Simon Diffey Heritage Motorsport Apprentice Award’.

Emilia met the judge’s four-point criteria with aplomb, demonstrating: engineering skills; passion;
enthusiasm; and exceptional commitment as a team player during their apprenticeship.

Emilia, aged 26, joined JSWL and began her apprenticeship with Heritage Skills Academy in September 2018. She completed her apprenticeship as a ‘Heritage Engineering Vehicle Mechanical
Technician Engineer’ in April 2022 and is now awaiting final assessment.

Emilia has shown herself to be an outstanding young engineer committed to engineering excellence. Emilia will remain at JSWL, specialising in early Alfa Romeo restoration, preservation and race
preparation, following completion of the apprenticeship and continue to develop her skills, knowledge and experience.

Sarah Jane Adams-Diffey explains

“Emilia met Simon at the Goodwood Revival in 2021 when she was attending as an apprentice, working promoting the HSA on the Worshipful Company of Coachmakers and Coach Harness makers
stand at the Make do and Mend village. Simon was my Consort as I was the Coachmakers Immediate Past Master and he was an enthusiastic supporter of the work of the HSA.

“At the Revival he organised the HSA apprentices to push the 250F Maserati that he was due to race, down from the paddock to the collecting area, hoping for a photo opportunity for them to promote the HSA cause. In true Simon style he then regaled them with stories about the 250F. He loved young people and was always inspiring them. When it was time for the apprentices to return to their stand, there was one who did not - Emilia. She asked if she might stay and help Simon and me, both on the pit wall and in the collecting area. Simon was thrilled. It was pouring with rain, they all got thoroughly soaked, but Emilia stayed until the very last, helping me and waiting until Simon was back in parc fermé, safe and sound.

“This is what Simon loved in life. People who stepped up. Who
went above and beyond. He would greatly approve of Emilia as the inaugural recipient of this award."

https://www.facebook.com/jimstokesworkshops

Our Mechanical and Coachbuilding Apprentices made such great progress with the Model T Project yesterday and we are excited to see what they can achieve today! We had lots of visitors and we love talking to you so do swing by and see what they’re up to in the Restoration Yard ⚒

Good morning from The Goodwood Revival where we are in the restoration yard. We have our heritage apprentices restoring a model t speedster with mechanical and coachworks apprentices working on site over the three days to create a running car for Sunday. We are in the eBay supported restoration in the middle of the track. We look forward to welcoming you.

Model T Ford Register of Great Britain Bicester Heritage Brooklands Museum Ranalah The T Service Tuckett Brothers

After lots of hard work the rescued David Brown tractor/tug finally runs ! It's been a bit of a project but hats off to the apprentices in all the group's who have worked through a number of issues. Well done to all.

Our newest group of Coachbuilding apprentices have been introduced to metal finishing this week at our Brooklands workshop and each made their own flipper ⚒ We also had a visit from and who showed some of the fillers and cosmetic processes used on metal finished panels in the automotive industry - thank you for your time and skills! 👏🏻 We hope the students are looking forward to Welding next time they’re with us in October🧑‍🏭

Our Mechanical and Coachbuilding Apprentices have been working hard on our collaborative Goodwood Model T project, and with the big weekend fast approaching (3 weeks time!) we thought it’s a good time to give you all a bit of a progress update! ⚒🛞

A huge Thank You to Claire who came in for 3 days this week as Guest Trim Tutor and taught our HSAC1 cohort introductory trimming skills 🧵 Each apprentice had a go on 2 different sewing machines, created their own piping, made a pleated seat pad, shaped door card corner, carpet binding and started a sunvisor project 🪡 The apprentices enjoyed these tasks and were all surprised by what they achieved in the short amount of time, as trimming seemed daunting at first, but Claire was amazing and they all produced good examples of each task! 🥳 Progress was also made on the Land Rover interior, by fitting a seat retrim kit and finishing the door frame repair and removing the door skin. ⚒

We are at The Classic - Silverstone today promoting Heritage Skills Academy and selling stickers for a fantastic initiative. The Simon Diffey Heritage Motorsport Apprentice Award. If you are here then stickers are available at garage 11c at the formula junior stand and also at the project shop stand. If you can't make it then please head to https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/simondiffeyheritagemotorsportaward?utm_term=B5XprMwJd Thank you !

Quick update on our model t project. You'll see two chassis at our two training sites at Bicester Heritage and Brooklands Museum - we have our mechanical based apprentices working on the chassis and engineering and we have our coachworks apprentices manufacturing a new bonnet and seats and battery box, fuel tank. Steady progress, we hope to have it running shortly at a highly prestigious event. Watch out for updates as the project continues to progress and develop.

Model T Ford Register of Great Britain

Last week our HSAC3 Apprentices had a “wheely” good time (excuse the pun! 🤣) learning to use the wheeling machines and undertaking a range of tasks 👏🏻 Progress was also made on the Spitfire and Model T projects along with shaping steel and aluminium panels to sweeps and using different annealing methods ⚒

Our HSAC2 cohort of apprentices have had a week of Trim tasks down at Brooklands which included removing and refitting a headlining in the Morris Minor, removing and refitting direct and indirect glazing along with an introduction into seat refurbishment. 🧵Our Goodwood Model T project also got underway and students have got the chassis set up and started aluminium seat fabrication. Other groups will be getting involved with this project as and when they come in so we look forward to showing you their skills and progress along the way ⚒

_max.houghton_ is one of HSA's apprentices from Coach 3 who works with Somerford Mini Ltd. Max is working on an unusual project producing a Mr Bean replica vehicle and this is one of his first whole project cars. Work last year here Brooklands Museum on the the mini restoration working together with British Motor Heritage Limited has given him the necessary skills and experience. We like the colour Max, and if anyone can explain the significance of 3 washer wiper jets then we'd appreciate this !

Coachbuilding group 3 have been introduced to finishing techniques at our Brooklands site this week including body filing, filler work, lead loading and hot shrinking. Their main task was to learn the process of applying filler and rubbing down the sill section they fabricated in an earlier block. Not to forget, also being great ambassadors for the HSA with communication skills and enthusiasm during a visit from The Elms School - Well Done and Thank You! 👏🏻

NEW DATES FOR AUGUST

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/heritage-skills-academy-33692923991

Limited places are still available
August 20th and 21st

A weekend training course to enable you to really understand your classic and increase your confidence.

Bicester Heritage Wearescramblers

Inspiring future generations with a school visit today from the The Elms School - tour of Brooklands Museum and some hands on demonstrations from our coachworks apprentices from coach3 - excellent communication skills - thank you

Good morning from a glorious at the - drop in and see us at building 90 opposite

This week we’ve introduced Chassis Alignment as the main topic to our HSAC2 group of apprentices. 📏 Tasks involved plumb bob measuring, using a Shark 2 beam system, setting up sill clamps and Dozer for straight pulls and fabricating custom jig brackets for the Triumph Spitfire joint project car with our Brooklands Mechanical groups. 🧑🏼‍🏭

Simon Philip Diffey 11.06.64 - 14.05.22

Simon was a strong supporter of ‘Heritage Skills Academy’, and a passionate ambassador for inspiring young people to begin their Engineering careers as Apprentices within the Historic Racing and the classic vehicle restoration and preservation industry.

As recognition of this, Simon’s family have a chosen ‘Heritage Skills Academy’ as one of the beneficiaries for donations from friends wishing to celebrate his life.

‘Heritage Skills Academy’ is committed to preserving the skills and knowledge essential to maintain classic vehicles. We will work closely with Simon’s family to ensure that donations are used to celebrate Simon’s support for Historic Racing, the classic vehicle industry and continue to encourage young people’s careers in it.

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/inmemoryofsimondiffey?utm_term=z3YANwbPB

https://scramblers.bicesterheritage.co.uk/post/remembering-simon-diffey

Heritage Skills Academy (HSA) is celebrating publication of its first Ofsted Report where HSA was awarded an overall grade of ‘GOOD’ with Outstanding being awarded in two main categories.

The report can be found here - https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/33/2577253

This follows HSA’s successful monitoring visit in March 2021. This is a significant milestone in the independent training providers history having been founded in 2016 at its original location at Bicester Heritage. Since opening HSA now delivers training on two sites at Bicester and at Brooklands Museum. There are 141 apprentices currently being trained, 112 on the mechanical option and 29 apprentices on the coachworks course.

The Ofsted report looks at overall effectiveness and also breaks down into four main categories. HSA is delighted to be awarded ‘OUTSTANDING’ in the following two categories – Behaviour and Attitudes and Personal Development. The report acknowledges this.

‘Apprentices are exceptionally motivated and display very positive attitudes to both their training and their job roles’

The report also highlighted the strong partnerships that exist with employers and how this benefits their training.

‘Leaders and managers have a clear and purposeful rationale for the apprenticeship they offer, which is to provide high quality training to replace the ageing workforce in the classic, vintage and heritage vehicle industry. They have established strong links with employers and organisations in the industry to plan and teach a curriculum which is relevant to their needs’

Brooklands Museum Bicester Heritage Association of Heritage Engineers

Always a pleasure to see one of our HSA Apprentices with their own classic. This is Adam with his Hillman Imp, quite a rarity these days but running nicely following a lot of work, mechanically its all running nicely, now for the body which needs a little TLC.

For our 200th Instagram post it seems fitting to be a celebration that Rob collected his Mini from us today! 🥳 This has been a hugely educational and fun project vehicle for all 3 of our current Coachbuilding groups to be involved with and all our apprentices have enjoyed the experience! We wish Rob and Petra all the best and can’t wait to see the Mini painted and finished!🚘

A big Thank You to British Motor Heritage Limited for giving our HSAC3 Coachbuilding Apprentices a tour around their amazing production site on Wednesday 👏🏻 The apprentices saw the construction of MK1 Mini shells and panels… then came back to Brooklands and deconstructed the Triumph Spitfire project car further onto it’s next stage! They’ve custom fabricated jig brackets and cross bracing to add to their skillsets of planning jobs and ensuring important reference points are kept in position🛠

Brooklands Museum celebrated 100 years of the World Land Speed Record today at their Centenary of Speed Event and it’s great our HSAC3 Coachbuilding apprentices were on site this week to experience some of the festivities! An historic photograph was recreated with the 350hp Sunbeam on the circuit and steam-train on the parallel track above. 🚂Check out Brooklands Museum’s social media for more information!

Engines everywhere! ⚙️ Paul, our mechanical tutor at the Brooklands site, has been keeping the HSA12 group busy this week with disassembly, measuring, assessing and rebuilding different engine types 👊🏻 Check out our Instagram story and Spitfire highlight on our profile to see the chassis strip down progress they’ve made this week too 👏🏻

Heritage Skills Academy updated their info in the about section.

Heritage Skills Academy updated their info in the about section.

A few photographs showing progress with the Mini project this week as it’s now come off of the rotating spit and onto a pallet ready for the last few jobs then collection soon! 👏🏻 Also, a few more from our HSAC2 Coachbuilding group who’ve been down at Brooklands this week working with aluminium - they’ll be back in June for Introduction to Chassis week 🤗

Owain, our Development Director, visited the Brooklands site today and it’s always a pleasure and privilege to see the Heritage Skills Academy apprentices at work. Learning new skills and growing in confidence all the time. Our second cohort of Coachbuilding Apprentices are 14 months in on programme and they are doing some 'tasty' stuff, excuse the non-technical term. Working with Aluminium week includes improving and refining gas welding, TIG welding and wheeling skills. 👨‍🏭

Our 8th Cohort of Mechanical Apprentices have been at our Brooklands site this week working on manual transmissions ⚙️ The gearbox was removed from the Triumph Spitfire project which is going to be jointly completed by Mechanical and Coachbuilding Apprentices, so it’s great to have made a start on stripping the chassis down further this week. 👊🏻 We will keep adding to the highlight on our profile so there’ll be a permanent story from now until the end of the Spitfire project 🤗

Photos from Chiltern Hills Vintage Vehicle Rally (Classic Car)'s post