Historic England’s Emerging Talent Programme provides paid opportunities to those underrepresented in the heritage sector.

Our training placements are for young people aged 18 to 30 years old across three audiences: 

• Black, Asian, or ethnic minorities 
• Disabled people 
• People who are disadvantaged by their social and/or economic background or circumstances 

Historic England holds a variety of detailed data sets containing information about the historic environment. Similarly, external partner organisations also hold relevant data sets associated with the natural environment, socio-economic contexts and funding priorities. There is an acknowledged process for sharing and using data between organisations for use within the spatial GIS environment.   

By manipulating the data sets, Historic England’s regional teams are able to gain a spatial understanding of a place, its heritage and the contextual environment. The London and South East Region has identified a need for an exploration of the data sets available and a means of creative data manipulation to develop a spatial dashboard tool that will inform future working.   

The dashboard tool will be used to help focus Historic England engagement and resources in order to achieve the objectives in Historic England, as well as providing an important spatial snapshot of a place at any given time.

What you will be doing 

• Using your curiosity and problem-solving skills you’ll be exploring the availability of internal and external datasets relevant to the historic environment. This will include liaison with internal Historic England officers from across the organisation. 
• Increasing your knowledge of the historic environment and Historic England and Government priorities, and how this data is collated and presented. 
• Building on your understanding and learning more about GIS, ArcGIS and equivalent platforms. 
• Using your IT skills and creativity you’ll be producing a dashboard tool incorporating the relevant data sets within GIS and other appropriate platforms to identify and highlight those areas of need, current activity and opportunity. 
• With your growing confidence you’ll be demonstrating to colleagues how best to use the dashboard tool and its insights.   
• With your understanding of the dashboard capabilities you’ll be presenting the findings to the host team, along with recommendations. 

Events and meetings 

We will be hosting an in person Welcome Event for all Emerging Talent Placements in July.

Meeting with regional officers either face to face or online. Partnerships team meetings and outline regional meetings and team office days. Regular meetings with the project team either face to face or online. There will be an opportunity to develop a programme of site visits tailored to the placements interests if appropriate. 

Why complete a placement with Historic England 

Our placements will enable you to gain valuable hands-on experience of working in the heritage sector, developing skills to enable you to take the next steps in your career. 

Once you have completed your Emerging Talent Placement you will be eligible to apply for a 6 month Step-Up placement. These are paid training roles, based within a team for six months full time (part time will be considered). They are specifically targeted for people who have undertaken one of our Emerging Talent Placements over the summer, either this year, or in a previous year. 

These placements are designed to give you that “step up” into a longer paid work in the heritage sector. 

They will also help you develop your essential skills, improving your employability. 

Historic England want all of our candidates to shine in the recruitment process. Please tell us what we can do to make sure you can show us your very best self. You can contact us by email at EmergingTalent@HistoricEngland.org.uk if you have any recruitment queries.  

Behaviours we are looking for: 

Discovery - You love finding out new things and developing yourself 

Detail – You focus on the small details to ensure accuracy & can work to defined boundaries 

Innovation – You enjoy coming up with new and different approaches to a task 

Problem Solving - You enjoy analysing situations and investigating practical solutions 

Target Start Date: June/July/August 2026