May I take this opportunity to thank all those who got back to me with
their opportunities, both old and new, for the two lists. The response was
encouraging, with a number of new entries on both lists, and many respondents
commented on the positive impact the lists have had on their recruitment for
both voluntary and paid work experience placements. The intention is that the
lists will now stay as they are until this September, when I will once again be
seeking out new submissions and alterations. In the meantime, if anyone has any
additions or corrections to either list, please get in touch and I will see what
I can do. On a related note the Starting Out section of the Society's website
(
http://www.archives.org.uk/content.asp?id=269)
is due for an overhaul and I was hoping to get some volunteers for both case
studies in how they became archivists, records managers and archive conservators
as well as a couple of examples of what a typical work day, if there is such a
thing, involves. Ideally I would like examples from across the domain, both in
terms of employing organisation as well as career level.
Finally, to add to the points raised by Jan, I believe TNA have a
positive action traineeship that is linked the UCL programme and the MLA has
begun to get involved with PATs in archives. Last year's conference discussed
diversity in a number of presentations and had one particular presentation by
two bright trainee archivists who were working on an MLA West Midlands funded
project entitled 'Connecting Histories', which had built into it two PATs with
places on the Aberystwyth distance learning programme. Furthermore Jenny Moran
only recently posted an e-mail to this mailing list about a diversity group she
is to set up that will discuss how to set up some sort of funding initiative to
help people who have difficulty in affording by themselves the time and cost it
takes to become a records professional. I am sure there are more efforts
being undertaken that I do not know about and it would be good for those people
who are involved in such work, either as a developer or as a beneficiary, to
take advantage of this thread and let list members know about their efforts.
There are moves out there to help address the diversity issues that the
profession faces. It is just that, at the moment, they are relatively new,
unknown and few and far between - hopefully that will change in the
future.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2007 2:16
PM
Subject: Archive Traineeships
Not directly in response to Judith's original question, but something
I've been thinking about. The Museum I work for last year took on a
Museums Association Positive Action Trainee (http://www.museumsassociation.org/ma/9521).
In discussions with my Senior Manager about staffing in the archive
section, about the same time, he asked whether there was anything similar in
the archive profession - not necessarily limited to a positive action
placement, but something we could tap into that would enable us to employ
someone and support them as they carried out the archive diploma by distance
learning. The only way we, as an employer with a limited salary budget,
could have done something without financial support, would have been to
convert a permanent qualified post to a traineeship. (The post in
question had been vacant for a year by that point - two years on, it's still
frozen - guess who wishes she'd said 'Yes' now...!)
As Judith's case shows, I had to say that we don't, as a profession,
have anything equivalent to the Museums Association scheme. I also had
to say that, in terms of the amount of support provided to a trainee, a small
archive team like ours doesn't have the staff to provide such support,
particularly not if it's at the expense of one of the posts that would
help provide the support.
Having worked in local authority record offices as well, I know that
staffing in a larger organisation can also be tight and prevent such
placements being made available.
While I know that the distance learning courses available through LUCAS
and Aberystwyth are an improvement on the Society's own distance learning
Diploma (one of my current members of staff is a recent graduate of the LUCAS
distance learning course), I think that as a profession we need to give more
consideration to the people we're missing who might not have followed the
formal education route, or who might be too crippled by debt to spend another
year studying for a masters, otherwise we're not being an inclusive
profession.
I also know that, in comparison with the Museum profession, we're
better at controlling our intake of potential archivists so that market demand
more often than not meets market supply, and maybe we don't want to create
archivists when there are no jobs for them to go on to. But there must
be a way of balancing the two - why don't we have a bursary scheme like the
University of Leceister's Museums Studies scheme?
I think it's a shame that there are people out there who want to
contribute to the profession but can't find a placement or job that will
support them through distance learning and who can't afford to follow the full
time route.
This year's conference is on 'Differing Directions: Challenging
Communities', and (with all respect to the organisers) everything on the
programme is about either buildings, collections or users - with the exception
of Jenny Moran's session (I'm assuming that the title is a hint that she
doesn't wear cardigans, have her hair in a bun, etc, etc,
etc...)
Maybe we need to spend some time thinking about the people who make up
our profession and how we diversify, challenge and revolutionise the way we
train the archivists of the future.
Or maybe it's just me. God knows I don't get out
enough.
Jan
Jan
Hargreaves
Senior Archivist
Tel : 0161 606 0115
Fax :
0161 606 0186
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I 'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who responded to my
request for career advice. Your kind replies have given me a lot of food for
thought and I have realised that perhaps I may be able to eventually get into
archive work after all, though not necessarily at this point in my life.
In response to some specific questions:
I am based in the North West and have quite strong roots in the area. I
am prepared to move for work, but would have to be convinced both that I could
afford to do so and that such a move would have genuine and long reaching
benefits.
I focussed on my age, not because I am concerned about being to old so
much as I am concerned about how long I can continue to live an entirely
hand to mouth existence, whilst accumulating more and more debt. I
started full time work when I was 26, have no pension and am likely to have to
work well into my sixties and beyond. Recently, I took some financial advice
and was told that I was unlikely to ever earn enough to pay of my debts.
IEarning well has never been a major element of interest for me in terms of
searching for a career but I do find the continual worries over
money very wearing. I know that many other people of my age have entirely
given up on any hope of financial security, but I still retain (possibly
foolish) hopes that I might, one day, drag myself out of the red.
I am aware of funding throught the AHRB but having applied to them on at
least 4 previous occaisions with no result. Being fully aware of
how arduous the application process is, I have been somewhat discouraged from
pursuing this avenue of funding. I haven't given it up as an avenue, I just
take it with a pinch of salt.
My current course of action is to continue to look for archive jobs that
might have a 'foot in the door' potential of getting me where I want to be. I
think that the majority of graduate placements are not going to be much use to
me because of the idea that you then go on to do your qualification
afterwards. In my case, the bottom line is that I would do the placement but
still not have the money to afford the course afterwards, which would leave me
back at square one.
Once again, many thanks for your kind support, it is nice to know that I
might still be able to make use of my skills one day.
Many thanks,
Judith
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