Always dreamed of working in a museum? MGS paid internships could be your chance

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The names of 20 Scottish museum and galleries who successfully bid to host one of twenty paid internships offered by Museums Galleries Scotland have been announced. The 20 one-year placements are now being advertised nationwide. The internships are an opportunity for graduates to gain valuable experience and will allow them to develop their career path.

Museums Galleries Scotland, the organisation responsible for the strategic development of Scotland’s museums and galleries, created the Interns Programme with funding from the Heritage lottery Fund Skills for the Future scheme. The Interns Programme aims to help the industry address sustainability issues around skills sharing that could face the sector in the future and help it diversify the workforce in future. At its heart, it encourages the passing on of skills and knowledge essential for the successful management of museums and galleries. Each internship is tailored by the host organisation to play to its strengths and so provide a first-class learning opportunity.

One internship, hosted by the new Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in Alloway, offers an opportunity to learn how to provide education services based on a world-class museum collection. Another internship hosted by Glasgow Life’s museum service at the Collections Resource Centre in Nitshill, Glasgow will focus on learning how to coordinate volunteer programmes. As the workforce of the Scottish Museums sector is more than 50% volunteers gaining experience of how to co-ordinate volunteer programmes in museums will be hugely beneficial for somebody who wants to work in the sector.
Inverness Museum & Art Gallery will host an internship that will offer a range of opportunities to learn core museum skills. From the onset the intern will be involved in assessing the condition of archaeology items, creating a library of digital images, cataloguing a photographic collection and research for an exhibition of portraits from the art collection. Later on, they will have the chance to help with mounting and taking down exhibitions and to catalogue, store and pack archaeological material in the collection.
Jane Robinson, Head of Museums Development at Museums Galleries Scotland, said:
“Although we did anticipate huge interest from the sector, we were impressed by the high quality of internships being offered by museums and galleries all across the country. The host museums have thought deeply about the learning experience that they could offer. The response demonstrates how keen the sector is to welcome young people with fresh ideas and, in exchange, experienced, long-time museums professionals being able to pass their specialist knowledge on.”

“We are just about to start recruiting the interns and we know we will receive a lot of interest from graduates. It is encouraging to know that through our work to create the Interns Programme we are opening up exciting career opportunities for 20 people across Scotland.”

Joanne Orr, Chief Executive of Museums Galleries Scotland said:
“We are delighted to reach such an important stage of our Intern Programme. Knowledge and skills transfer is such an important area and there is nothing better than actually learning from an experienced person in the workplace. At Museums Galleries Scotland we believe that this type of programme is essential for the sustainability of our sector and we want to encourage more ways of working like this in the future.”

“This is as much an investment into developing Scotland’s people as it is an investment into the museums and galleries sector. The skills that our interns learn will be of great benefit to them as they continue to develop their future careers.”

Dr Alison Burke, Learning Manager at the National Trust for Scotland’s Robert Burns Birthplace Museum said:
“We are delighted to be one of the successful venues to host one of the Museums Galleries Scotland interns. The scheme offers a wide range of benefits: it gives staff the chance to pass on their skills to a new generation, allows the service to reach a wider audience, and, most importantly, welcome new talent into the museum workforce. Interns bring with them fresh ideas and creative thinking, which is exactly what is needed to keep museums and heritage locations preserving and interpreting the past without being stuck in the past!”

Recruitment is now underway to fill the 20 internships. Internships are for one year and will commence by October 2011. Preference will be given to people from less affluent backgrounds and people with disabilities or from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds.

*Notes for Editors:*• Internships are for one year and will commence by October 2011. Preference will be given to people from less affluent backgrounds and people with disabilities or from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds. Interns will receive a tax-free bursary of £15,000 and travel costs will also be covered. There will be learning and training opportunities provided by Museums Galleries Scotland and the host organisation throughout the year including events that encourage career development and networking opportunities.
• Museums Galleries Scotland represent over 340 museums and galleries across Scotland. The sector that welcomes over 25 million visitors and drives over £800 million to the economy. Museums Galleries Scotland, at the request of the Scottish Government, is currently developing, in collaboration with the sector, a national strategy for Scotland’s museums and galleries.
• As part of the Interns Programme Museums Galleries Scotland will seek to work alongside other successful HLF partners in the industry to benchmark, exchange knowledge and create new professional networks.
• The Heritage Lottery Fund’s Skills for the Future programme is supporting heritage organisations across the UK to create new training places. Grants range from £100,000 to £1million for a number of traineeships with an emphasis on high-quality work-based training. The programme will help equip organisations to engage with the widest possible range of people and inspire them to get involved with heritage.
• Heritage Lottery Fund Using money raised through the National Lottery, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) sustains and transforms a wide range of heritage for present and future generations to take part in, learn from and enjoy. From museums, parks and historic places to archaeology, natural environment and cultural traditions, we invest in every part of our diverse heritage. HLF has supported 33,900 projects, allocating £4.4billion across the UK and more than £1/2billion across Scotland. Website: www.hlf.org.uk. For more information please contact Katie Owen, HLF press office, on tel: 020 7591 6036/07973 613820.

Host organisations and internship positions
1. Almond Valley Heritage Trust: Digital Resources Development Intern
2. City of Edinburgh Council Museums and Galleries: Collections Trainee
3. Dumfries and Galloway Council, Nithsdale Museums: Museum Intern
4. The McManus, Dundee: Collections Intern (Numismatics)
5. Discovery Point and Verdant Works, Dundee: Education Intern
6. Collections Resource Centre, Glasgow Life: Volunteer and Placement Intern
7. The Open Museum, Glasgow Life: Outreach Intern
8. Inverness Museum and Art Gallery: Museums Collections Intern
9. Robert Burns Birthplace Museum (The National Trust for Scotland): Learning Intern
10. The National Trust for Scotland (HQ and various properties): Volunteer Management Intern
11. Scottish Borders Council Museums & Galleries Service: Museum and Gallery Trainee
12. Scottish Fisheries Museum Trust: Reserve Collections Intern
13. Scottish Maritime Museum: Collections and Digitisation Intern
14. National Mining Museum (lead partner): Volunteer Co-ordinator Intern
15. Black Watch Museum: Collections Intern
16. Gordon Highlanders Museum: Volunteer Coordinator Intern
17. Orkney Islands Council Arts, Museums and Heritage Service and The Pier Arts Centre: Museums and Gallery Intern
18. University of Aberdeen, Marischal Museum: Museum Intern (Volunteering)
19. University of Edinburgh Collection of Historical Musical Instruments: University of Edinburgh Collections Intern
20. The Hunterian, University of Glasgow: Collections Intern

For further information on all the internships and how to apply see The Programmes MGS Interns

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Published
6th May 2011

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