Working Group Sessions
Culture Syndicates received CRF Round 2 funding to support our workforce development activity. As part of this work, we have been running weekly working group sessions with our current Heritage Assistant team to tailor the support that we offer. The meetings are exploring barriers and enablers at the entry level in the museum and heritage sector.
One point of discussion was ‘what is an entry-level job’? Does entry-level mean your first position within a sector? If so, then why do many museum and heritage sites ask for experience and qualifications and why are there so few jobs advertised that offer full training? Giving full training in an entry-level role is common practice within most industries, such as retail, where it is normal to employ someone who has little or no experience. This is especially the case when the word ‘assistant’ is used in the job title. All too often in our sector the title ‘assistant’ is used for jobs requiring extensive experience.
The Heritage Assistants also recognised that visitor assistant and catering assistants posts are a common way into the sector, but that they still seem to require a large amount of proof of prior experience in heritage. Not only this, but they are also often expected to accept a short-term contract and minimum wage due to restrictive budgets. All of the above are discriminating factors that alienate many bright people from even trying to get paid work in the sector.
But if you are a museum manager short on time and paid staff, can you afford to take a chance with an unqualified, inexperienced entrant? The nature of museum funding means that things move so fast that managers spend most of their time keeping up with legislation and chasing pots of money and offering training to a museum novice seems like a full-time job in itself. We fully understand the difficulties faced by museum managers. However, there must surely be creative ways of tackling such issues to provide a fair chance to a talented pool of prospective museum workers?
The change should be sweeping and we think that one solution could be a national training standard for all museums and heritage sites that provides a standard of required skills and knowledge that can be learned on the job. Probationary periods should be utilised to allow sector entrants to ease into the industry and gain modules of training that can then be assessed and allow for progression. Training in museums and heritage needs to be democratised; there exist many training schemes, but these are often provided by membership organisations which you must pay to join before you pay for the training. Pay barriers are off-putting for those who are not able to afford even reduced rate fees.
It is commonly acknowledged that the industry is oversubscribed because heritage jobs are so desirable, even to the point that many people volunteer their time and work at museums and heritage sites for free. As museum lovers ourselves, we understand why people want to be in a beautiful place with fabulous objects. However, the reliance on volunteers to provide skilled services means that the industry does not have to try very hard for its paid roles. It is no secret that the current system is unfair, but we would go a step further and say that it is too discriminating for sector entrants and relies on privilege, the ability to work for free, or a willingness to spend years in education only to be rewarded with short term zero-hour contracts and accept low wages.
Culture Syndicates exist precisely to ensure that sector entrants gain valuable experience and are rewarded for their work and supported on their journey into their first roles. Take a look at our website for more information. http://culturesyndicates.co.uk
For further reading on this subject read this from the Museums Association is this report: Power and Privilege in the 21st Century Museum Tactics for change from the Museums Association Transformers programme.
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