With a few honourable exceptions the building professions are split between a majority who work on new construction and a small minority who specialise in historic buildings. Time and again SAVE has found that this is one of the biggest threats to historic buildings because those advising owners often do not have any understanding of the different methods of construction and properties of materials, or of imaginative means of reusing them. Perhaps this is not surprising, because very often architects, engineers and surveyors can complete their education without any training in historic building techniques and issues. We do not suggest that every one should be trained to be an expert in conservation - those that want to should continue to go onto postgraduate courses as they do now. What is needed, however, is that a reasonable element of conservation education should be mandatory in every degree to ensure that those qualifying do at least have an understanding of the issues and philosophies, a knowledge of listed building procedures and where to turn to for advice and an awareness that, for example, you can't approach the repair or conversion of an eighteenth century house in the same way you would a 1960s one.