Laura Drane explores the need for professional development in the voluntary arts sector, and considers how appropriate provision can be made.
Who are you calling an amateur? Given that the word was derived in the 18th century from the Latin ?amator? meaning ?lover of?, all of us in the arts should be proud to be ?amateurs? in that sense. However, in both the voluntary arts sector (where the word often draws scowls and indignation) and the professional sector (where it can engender scorn and pity), we should all remember that behaving in an amateurish way is never a thing of which to be proud.
The difference between an amateur and a professional is certainly an age-old debate in the arts. Informal definitions might be based on the time commitment of an individual to their work, levels of funding, experience and skill, and perhaps even peer recognition. However one defining factor that comes up time and again is training. In the professional arts, more and more employers are providing budgets and allocating time for training as employee incentives. Yet although central government, local authorities, and other strategic agencies and funders are all increasingly aware of the diversity and quality of the voluntary sector generally, until fairly recently the training and development needs of the voluntary arts sector have been largely ignored. Now that they are starting to be recognised, two key questions must be answered. What types of training needs are evident and what styles of training are most appropriate? In attempting to answer these questions, I have drawn especially on my pilot programme for Making Music as the North West Training and Development Officer, and my report on voluntary music sector training, both funded through Arts Council England, North West.
Training needs
Workers at all levels in the arts need training, for all the usual reasons: learning new skills and improving existing ones; giving a new dimension for and input to creative thinking; garnering advice; sharing best practice; networking; and accessing new information from external agencies. Other voluntary sector-specific reasons as to why training is necessary include passing on changes in best practice from the professional sector or strategic agencies, and receiving and giving peer-led support for projects and events. The relevance of certain skills across the broadest spectrum of artforms, and indeed the widest range of voluntary sector activity, is amazing. Many of the same skills are relevant whether we are considering an after school drama club, a local fundraising organisation, or a concert promoter?s society. Yet there is very little provision for appropriate training in the sector as a whole, and especially in specialist areas like music.
What they want
My research in the music sector reveals an overwhelming interest in exploring pragmatic skills for the running of an effective organisation (more so than specific music-based skills). There is also evidence that, having attended one basic seminar, attenders wanted more surgery-style sessions with professional advisers and a range of more advanced courses. There is, however, demand for basic courses to be repeated in different geographical areas and at staggered intervals.
More specifically, my research findings indicated that marketing and PR/media are in demand from almost 50% of respondents, and funding/fundraising from nearly 30%. These three are the most requested training areas. Participants also place great value on attending events where they can network, often stating that this is one of the best parts of a training session.
Time for training
As for styles of training and development that are most appropriate in the sector, there are several distinguishing factors that make this significantly different from current professional arts training provision. Firstly, the styles needs to be as varied as the sector, to reflect diversity in possible application, location and budget. Although there are key areas of convergence between the needs of the voluntary sector as whole, this diversity needs to be reflected in specialist provision for distinct areas. Take sport and the arts, for example. I would imagine that holding a training course for junior football referees on a Saturday morning would be like trying to hold a marketing seminar for a concert promoter on a Saturday night! My research found that weekday evenings are the most preferred time, and Saturday daytimes are OK, but only if planned anything up to and sometimes more than 6-8 months in advance. It is a widespread misconception that the voluntary sector is largely made up of people outside of the commercial marketplace. Many of Making Music?s members, for example, work full or part-time, so any training provided for these voluntary workers had better not reflect the common professional model of a one- or two-day programme held on consecutive weekdays. Only 7% said that they could commit a whole day to such an event.
I also found that people within the voluntary arts field are usually willing to travel quite long distances to receive appropriate training, although they are generally not able to meet the costs that professional arts managers would expect to pay for training. 63% of people said they would drive up to 30-40 minutes to attend a suitable course, but almost all said that costs of more than £6 per session would be prohibitive, since often they can?t reclaim the cost like professionals can.
More support
Generally, it is the case that professionals require and demand a more thorough overview of a topic or skill than is needed in the voluntary sector. A general introduction and overview of an issue will suffice for volunteers, followed up by specialist advice or support if a request is made. After training has taken place, follow-up is important, to see how ideas are being turned into action. How many of us have attended conferences and workshops and returned to our desks fired up with ideas, only to be worn down on our first day back by the pile of messages and the size of our inboxes? Support for implementation is key and this is no less true in the voluntary sector than it is for professionals. Making Music always makes sure that delegates receive a pack of information sheets, handouts, relevant literature and contact details so that they have a resource for the future and can contact other people and organisations for further help and advice.
So, regardless of whether we have the privilege of being paid for work in this sector, or the opportunities, resources and passion to share skills and experience voluntarily, we should all be willing to be ?amateurs? in at least one sense ? that we are doing this, not for the love of money, but for the love of the arts. Better training will serve to make the heart grow fonder.
(AP_51_06.jpg}
Laura H. Drane manages her own arts and media project management and events company e: l.drane@laurahdrane.com. Email her for a full copy of her research report. For more information t: 07957 622623.