Highlands Museums - Skills Development and Exchange

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This collaborative project allowed for the widespread delivery of training in the Highland museums and is a project that MGS were delighted to support given it fitted with the devlopment of training beyond that of the MGS Training Programme. This project provided MGS supported training delivery beyond the central belt. The training programme was generated to suit the wide ranging learning and development needs of the museums and provided a range of training menthods for some 23 Highland Museums.

The project aimed to: – Increase the capacity of Highland independent museums by improving the skills of volunteers, staff and board members – Offer high quality training in the Highland area. – Enable independent museums to gain new skills and fresh ideas in local venues. – Encourage museums to share their knowledge and experience with other museums in Highland – Meet the needs expressed by out members regarding provision of training by MGS

In total representatives from 23 Highland museums took part in the training programme. The programme consisted of:
Highland Museums Celebration Event – Three Highland independent museums delivered presentations on the highlights and challenges of the previous year. Focusing on the huge volunteer contribution to museums, experimenting with free entry and a failed HLF grant bid! The event also launched the skills exchange project with a presentation from the Co-ordinator and workshop sessions.
Introduction/Refresher Museum Board Member Training – Arts and Business delivered the half day seminar which examined the roles and responsibilities of museum board members. Attended by 11 participants representing 5 museums.
Open to All Training: Mental Health and Social Inclusion Awareness Training for Museums and Galleries- Led by Jim Campbell and Jenny Pope from Open to All. A 2 day training to raise awareness of issues and support staff to promote social inclusion and work more effectively with people with mental health problems. Attended by 12 participants representing 8 museums.
Code of Ethics for Museums – An introduction to museum ethics with an opportunity to explore how the code of ethics relates to real issues. Attended by 15 participants representing 9 museums.
Skills Exchange Project – 20 museums contributed to the data base and agreed to pass on information by e-mail and telephone. 11 museums offered to pass on their expertise through a presentation at a Forum Meeting and 19 museums offered to host a visit.
7 visits were arranged from October – March. Staff and volunteers from 10 museums participated in visits. The following museums were visited:
Caithness Horizons 2 visits (Looking at Education provision and displays generally)
Dunbeath Heritage Centre 1 visit (Focusing on Genealogy and visitor experience)
Highland Folk Museum 1 visit (Visitor experience)
Inverness Museum & Art gallery 1 visit (Teachers’ CPD)
Tain Through Time 1 visit (Teachers’ CPD)
Timespan 1 visit (Finding out more about the museum’s capital and project development)

• New and existing board members became more aware of their roles and responsibilities. For example, as a result of the training Board members from one museum are reviewing their Constitution.

• Greater awareness of Mental Health issues among volunteers, board members, front of house staff and curators who attended the training session. Front of house staff/volunteers are more aware that personal prejudices may influence how they behave towards visitors. A number of participants have created project plans for outreach projects and events which will aim to be more inclusive.

• Museum staff and board members gained a greater understanding of the Code of Ethics for Museums. A number of those taking part, plan to share their understanding of the Code with Board members and ensure the Code is adopted by their Boards.

• Museums gain awareness of skills and knowledge available locally
New networks of shared interests/skills are currently being set up. Eg.: (i) A group of museums are keen to progress an Education/Outreach network. (ii) Sustainability group – the Highland Museums Forum are considering the feasibility of supporting a network/working group for board members and curators/managers involved in making decisions about building management, fund raising and income creation.

This method of training provision not only suits the individual organisations by meeting specific learning and development needs, it also supplements the provision of training offered by MGS. Furthermore, the geographic spread of training supported by MGS is widened. In this case, the Highland museums were able to attend training which met an expressed need and were also able to exchange experiences and knowledge with likeminded organisations. The learning that has taken place during the training is being shared via networks and groups on an ongoing basis. A real appreciation of the broad range of training methods, eg sharing skills and experiences is now in place amongst the participating museums.

It was promoted through independent museums support officer email networks and at HMF meetings. Training programme flyer was posted to all Highland independent museums.

The short term impact of the training programme and skills exchange has been measured using evaluation forms, informal feedback and follow up discussions. The longer term impact will be recorded during Service Delivery Agreement monitoring visits.

For further information
Lorna Cruickshank
Independent Museums Support Officer
Education Culture and Sport Service
Castle Street
Dingwall
IV15 9QN
Tel. 01349 868206
Email. lornacruickshank@highland.gov.uk

Category
Workforce Development

Project Start
1st Sep 2010

Project End
1st Mar 2011

Published
7th Nov 2011

Who Led?
Lorna Cruickshank, Highland Council Museums

Who else took part?

Members of the Highland Museums Forum

Who Paid?
MGS and Highland Council

How Much?
MGS £2892