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HI Dom (and All)

As someone who has the Museums Diploma (the AMA), gained a good few years ago now, I have serious reservations about the utility of this, and similar qualifications, as my experience suggests that once people have gained them they forget about most of the stuff they've learned and just carry on much as before. So the motivated and professional carry on being motivated and professional and the rest just muddle along as they did before, too.  In theory the MA is supposed to maintain a check on professional standards, but it has never, to my knowledge censured a  professional member for failing to behave in a professionally competent manner.

There is maybe some merit in having some kind of entry-level qualification for science communicators, but I really don't think there's much merit in having any kind of professional qualification. Broadly speaking science communicators generally sit  with people like journalists, and live performers, and teachers. There are courses that you either can do or have to take in order to enter these occupations, but they don't lead to a 'professional' qualification with the regulation of standards that this implies.

This is not to say that I don't believe in continuing training - as a regular organiser of sessions at the BIG Event I certainly do- but I'm not sure that wrapping this continuing training up into some form of qualification actually achieves anything useful.

Another point to ponder - the Museums Association adminsters the AMA qualification. It has about 6000 members, and they pay about £50 a year each to be members. The MA also has corporate members who, although fewer in number pay rather more each per year. This income maintains a  central London office and a small staff.

If we create some kind of professional qualification for science communicators who do you envisage running the scheme? There isn't any single body in our business which could do this at the moment. So do we create yet another organisation to stand alongside BIG and ECSITE UK and the BSA, or do dragoon one of these into running the scheme. And who pays?

I'm all in favour of training, and wish there was more of it offered as this would largely meet Anabella's requirements, but I can't see any merit in a professional qualification, I'm afraid.

Hope this helps

Cheers


Richard.

 
Richard Ellam
L M Interactive
Science Shows and Hands-On Stuff
[log in to unmask]




On 18 Aug 2010, at 11:27, Anabella Gale wrote:

Hi all,

I think the Museums Association Scheme looks like a good model to
start with. It may be difficult to set up to begin with as there is
still an issue with how you accredit people with 20 years + experience
in a meaningful way, but once established it could be really useful.

Personally, I would like training that gives opportunities to work
with new aspects of science communication that part of my current job.
I often meet and work with people who have skills that I would really
like to learn. The ideal way would be to work on a project together,
but to collaborate you need to bring a useful skill, and even then you
don't necessarily learn what you hoped to.

I think a scheme like this could be a great way for someone entering
the industry to gain a range of skills, but for those who are more
experienced it could allow them to branch out and try something new.

Bella Williams


On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 4:57 PM, Dominic McDonald
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hi again everyone

Many thanks for all your comments so far about the idea of a qualification for science communicators which might look a bit like the Associateship of the Museums Association scheme (http://www.museumsassociation.org/careers/associateship-of-the-museums-association).

I think there are a couple of really interesting issues that have been raised, and I wondered if I could stimulate some further discussion around the two questions that Suzanne asked, namely:
What training would you like to help you do whatever you do better?
and
What training do you need before you can start doing what you'd like to do?

Please believe me when I say that I don't need a fully worked up syllabus! All comments are incredibly useful in terms of helping us to get a flavour of what people want and/or need, and would they would actively fight against...

Yours in anticipation

Dom

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