In a disrupted job market people are turning to heritage crafts such as bookbinding, metalwork and boatbuilding
It’s a bleak moment for young people entering the workforce for the first time. For decades, a university degree seemed to promise a stable career – but entry-level white-collar jobs across almost all sectors are being disrupted by AI. Budding accountants, software engineers and junior lawyers increasingly find themselves displaced by cheap automation.
Even creative fields are struggling against AI tech that can produce artwork, lengthy prose or complex design briefs in seconds.
But many young workers have responded by turning to what they see as “AI-proof” heritage crafts. These are the centuries-old, hands-on jobs, such as boat-making, metalwork or bookbinding, that require specialist knowledge built on creative judgment and dexterity, skills not yet mastered by AI.
Eryn Lawley, a 27-year-old politics graduate, said future-proofing her career meant walking away from the digital world. She is now a second-year bookbinder apprentice at Ludlow Bookbinders in Shropshire, learning a trade whose core techniques have not changed for centuries.
“Even just staring at a screen too long was bad for me,” she said. “I always wanted to do something more material, and I think there is something more inherently valuable to something when it is made by a person.”
The work at Ludlow is slow, detailed and tactile. The bookbinding process is almost entirely by hand, using Victorian-built presses, foil-blocking machines and glue brushes.
“People are discovering that, as everything is already decided for you by a computer or algorithm, being able to make or own something physically is good,”
Lawley said. “And it is very satisfying to repeat a task to perfection. It is meditative as a job so it is extremely low-cortisol.”
Paul Kidson, Ludlow chief executive and a fourth-generation bookbinder, said an influx of interest from young people represented a lifeline for a rapidly shrinking industry. He estimates there are now fewer than 50 handcraft-operating bookbinders in Britain today.
“British bookbinding has a terrific reputation across the world, but like so many things in the 50s, 60s and 70s, the training just started to dry up,” Kidson said. “All the formal apprentice schemes collapsed in the early 1980s, and the industry got no training at all.
“We have to train our own people because you can’t recruit at volume because there aren’t any [courses]. Fortunately there is now a desire among a lot of people to want to have the satisfaction of actually making something.”
There is no lack of commercial demand. High-end publishers are betting that shoppers will pay a premium for objects that are crafted by human hands. Joanna Reynolds, chief executive of the Folio Society book publisher – which partnered with Ludlow for a limited edition release of a Game of Thrones book – said the company rejected generative AI tools in its creative processes.
“We do not use AI in terms of our art,” she said. “We believe in the importance of supporting the creative world, and we know there is huge pressure on them at the moment. Their skills and their abilities need to be supported by as many people as possible.”
The number of young people hoping to fill these creative posts is growing rapidly. Cox London, a design house that specialises in artistic metalwork, started its apprenticeship scheme last year. Nicola Cox, a co-founder, said this year the company received more than 160 applications for two apprenticeship places.
