The Goldsmiths' Company and the Goldsmiths’ Centre call on government, industry, and educators to collaborate to revitalise the silver allied trades for future generations
Heritage Crafts has announced today (Tuesday 13 May 2025) that the silver allied trades have been added to its Red List of Endangered Crafts for the first time – the bi-annual report listing traditional craft skills in the UK at risk of disappearing.
Heritage Crafts has added the silver allied trades to its Red List of Endangered Crafts for the first time.
A 68% drop in Design & Technology GCSE entries over the past decade has contributed to a shortage of skilled workers, leaving UK businesses struggling to recruit and train craftspeople. Vital trades that support national heritage and economic identity could disappear.
The Goldsmiths’ Company and Goldsmiths’ Centre are urging government, industry, and educators to collaborate on funding, training pathways, apprenticeships, and public awareness to preserve and revitalise the silver allied trades for future generations.
Commenting on the announcement, on behalf of the Goldsmiths’ Company, Peter Taylor, Director of the Goldsmiths’ Centre, said:
“The silver allied trades – which incorporates precious metalworking skills such as lost wax casting, wire drawing, buffing and polishing – have today been collectively classified as critically endangered skills for the first time. These precious handmaking skills, dating back to the bronze age, have almost vanished from our school curriculums and higher education programmes in the last decade. ”
Entire industries embedded in national identity could be lost
“A lack of structured training pathways, of qualifications, and of government funding in recent years has led to an alarming skills gap. According to research by the Design & Technology Association (2024), there has been a 68% decline in GCSE level Design & Technology students over the past decade, which would typically include training in skills which are transferrable to silversmithing. This means that UK businesses and employers across the trade of both silversmithing and jewellery are struggling to find people with the skills they need; quite simply young people don’t know that the silver allied trades are career paths open to them.
“This dearth of skills is putting the entire UK supply chain at risk – with increasingly more of the work requiring these skills going overseas. Without urgent action, we risk losing not just individual crafts, but entire industries embedded in our national identity and economy.
Hidden in plain sight
"The craft and art of silversmithing and its allied trades is hidden in plain sight, from the F1 trophies hoisted at races throughout the season, to the teaspoons in our kitchen drawers, the silver jewellery we wear, and the striking sculptures that grace Britain's train stations and public squares such as Cutting Edge outside Sheffield Station, crafted by some of the UK’s most skilled artisans (Chris Knight, Brett Payne, and Keith Tyssen), and Infinite Accumulation (Yayoi Kusama) at Liverpool Street Station in London. The hand skills required to create each of these pieces quietly permeate our daily lives – we just don’t realise it."
Calls to action
The Goldsmiths’ Centre and Goldsmiths’ Company are calling on the Government, industry and educators to work together to address the challenges. They are calling for:
Industry-led investment in research to understand the full scale of the skills crisis in the silversmithing and the allied trades, and where the opportunities are.
Industry-wide collaboration and a cohesive approach to apprenticeships, training and other routes to support careers in silversmithing and the allied trades.
New, accessible, well-promoted and well-funded training and development pathways into silversmithing, from Year 9 (ages 13-14) onwards.
Government funding for businesses and employers working in the allied trades who want to train and develop people to have careers in the silver allied trades.
An industry-wide public awareness campaign to understand how the art and skill of the silver allied trades contribute to British craft, culture, innovation, and design.
Peter adds, “The Goldsmiths’ Company and the Goldsmiths’ Centre have collectively dedicated decades (and centuries!) to supporting vocational skills, training and development of silversmiths and those working in the allied trades, from apprenticeships to foundation programmes for those starting out and professional development for master crafters. Most recently, the Company’s charity, the Goldsmiths’ Foundation, awarded a grant of £500k to support the establishment of Aston University Goldsmiths Institute, training the next generation in skills and techniques of the silver allied trades, including its pioneering Jewellery T Level.
We also promote public awareness of silversmithing through partnerships and a year-round programme of events and exhibitions, from the founding partnership with the London Museum which will include a Goldsmiths’ Gallery, to the UK’s leading selling event for handmade jewellery and silver, Goldsmiths’ Fair.”