Field work training is an important aspect of any archaeological degree. A variety of training excavations and other fieldwork training projects are offered by universities and commercial field schools all over the world. However, professional standards for archaeological fieldwork training seem not to have been widely adopted as of yet, despite some professional organisations having published codes of practice or even offering an accreditation system for field schools. The uptake of accreditation is also very slow. As a result there is a wide variability of what kind of training is on offer and neither students nor future employers can assess whether the training received in fieldwork was suitable to prepare the participants of a specific field school for a professional career.
In this paper we will compare and analyse existing codes of practice and accreditation guidelines for fieldwork training like those of the EAA, CIfA and RPA and make suggestions regarding a universal code of practice and an international accreditation system. Such an international system would benefit students, future employers and the archaeological profession as a whole.