Zoe Collis – paper maker

Winner of the 2018 HCA/The Arts Society Heritage Crafts Bursary

Alex Langlands, Zoe Collis and Alison Galvin-WrightZoe Collis has received HCA/The Arts Society Heritage Crafts Bursary of £1,500 to continue her training at Two Rivers Paper in Somerset.

Zoe, a former participant in the Ernest Cook Trust funded HCA Countryside crafts pre-apprenticeship programme was matched with Two Rivers, who were looking for a young person to help secure the future of the business in 2017.

Zoe showed great promise and was accepted as one of only a few successful applicants only the national paper making Trailblazer apprenticeship scheme. Zoe’s bursary will be used to help pay the costs associated with her qualification which is only partly covered by the government.

Zoe says:

“My parents were adamant I went to college, but I never thought it was something I wanted to do. I was more interested in hands-on stuff… A lot of my friends are miserable because they can’t get a job or they’re doing something they don’t want to do. I definitely feel better off than that… My future is brighter now I have this apprenticeship. Before, I was just seeing dead ends.”

Photo: Zoe Collis (centre) receiving her HCA/The Arts Society Bursary certificate from HCA Patron Alex Langlands and Alison Galvin-Wright from The Arts Society

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