Media

Oxford museums to offer new training opportunities in heritage education

8 June 2010

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has awarded the University of Oxford's Museums and Botanic Gardens a grant of more than £400,000 to fund placements for people who want training as education officers in the heritage sector.

The grant, awarded under its Skills for the Future programme*, will provide anyone with a degree the opportunity to gain broad experience of working in the education departments across the University's museums and Botanic Garden.

This new training opportunity aims to provide graduates from a range of backgrounds with an opening into the heritage industry. Although it is an important and growing sector, it is one that is often difficult to break into.

The HLF's grant will fund 18-month work-based training placements, providing 12 trainees with experience of working with collections, volunteer management and understanding heritage interpretation. They will also use new media and technology, which plays an increasingly important role in the way museums and heritage sites communicate with their visitors.

Dr Christopher Brown, Director of the Ashmolean, said: 'The Heritage Lottery Fund's continued support of the University of Oxford's Museums and Botanic Garden is very important. We have, in Oxford, world-class collections; excellent museum and botanic garden facilities; and museum and botanic garden professionals who are leading experts in their fields. The HLF's Skills for the Future Programme will enable us to offer great opportunities to trainees who want to work in heritage education in the future, and to continue our work in making the collections, as well as the teaching and research of the University of Oxford, available to the widest possible audience. The training will draw substantially on the innovative work of the Museums' education officers, currently supported by the Museums Libraries and Archives Renaissance programme to reinvigorate regional museums.'

The trainees will all undertake their training at three of the five different sites across the University: the Ashmolean Museum, the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, the Pitt Rivers Museum, the Oxford Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum, and the Museum of the History of Science.

Louise Allen, Curator at the Oxford Botanic Garden, said: 'This project will enable us to provide wonderful training opportunities for people who want to work in heritage education, but who need to gain experience. We believe that training across several of Oxford's collections will equip trainees with a good understanding of different types of collections and the skills required to communicate effectively with a wide audience. We are offering a bursary to trainees to cover their living costs while they undertake their placement, and hope to encourage applications from people who have the potential to become excellent education officers.'

Information about the first placements will be advertised in autumn 2010 on the University's museums and collections websites. Trainees will begin their placements from spring 2011.

The award to Oxford's project called 'Keeping Heritage Alive!' is one of 54 awards made through the Skills for the Future programme to organisations across the country.

For more information or photographs of education groups, please contact the University of Oxford Press Office on 01865 280534 or email press.office@admin.ox.ac.uk 

Notes for Editors

Oxford's award under the Skills for the Future programme

The Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded the University of Oxford's Museums and Botanic Garden a grant of £410,500 under its Skills for the Future Programme. This grant provides 90 per cent of the funding for the project.

Education Services at the University of Oxfords Museums and Botanic Garden

The University of Oxford's Museums and Collections Education Service promotes a range of programmes for community groups, schools and students, adult learners and the wider public. Recent work has included the Museum of Natural History's 'Bug Quest' school project, which engaged school children from 40 primary schools. Oxford's Botanic Garden and the Harcourt Arboretum run a free schools programme for more than 10,000 primary and secondary students every year. With leading support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Ashmolean Museum underwent a £61 million redevelopment, which created 39 new galleries and a dedicated Education Centre. The Pitt Rivers has developed a service for secondary school art visits, supported by online resources and a new publication The Art Handbook. Across the University Collections the Education Service runs programmes for the John Radcliffe Hospital, the mental health charity MIND, the Oxford Night Shelter, numeracy, language and literature programmes, and a range of community groups.The Campaign for OxfordThis is the latest major pledge to support the museums and collections of Oxford as part of 'Oxford Thinking - The Campaign for the University of Oxford', which aims to raise a minimum of £1.25 billion to transform the University for many generations to come. The fundraising campaign, which celebrated the second anniversary of its public launch last

*Skills for the Future

The HLF'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.

The 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, they invest in every part of our diverse heritage. HLF has supported 33,900 projects, allocating £4.4billion across the UK. Website: www.hlf.org.uk.  For more information please contact Katie Owen or Vicky Wilford, HLF press office, on tel: 020 7591 6036/6046 or mobile: 07973 613820.