Last year I wanted to do some external training that would help me widen my knowledge in the museums and arts field, writes Hamish MacGillivray. My employer, Croydon Council, has a good job review system but that tends to focus more on the Council?s objectives rather than on the individual?s wider learning needs.
I looked at part-time further education courses, but I couldn?t afford to do a Masters course given work restrictions and the lottery that is rail commuting. Then, galloping towards me came the Associateship of the Museums Association (AMA). For £190 registration (and £260 on completion) the Museums Association (MA) offers 2 years of ?training? with a mentor. It fitted the bill perfectly.
At first it felt like a mixture of joining the Beano comic club, combined with a dating agency. The MA gave me some A3 blank ?personal action plans? (alas no club badge) and instructions for developing my own Continuing Professional Development (CPD) plan. I also received a huge directory of possible voluntary mentors. The directory contained museum and gallery professionals both young and retired, all of whom had undergone mentoring training by the MA. It took me a couple of hours to work through the list to find my potential mentor. I was a bit choosy as I wanted somebody other than those who had a passion for writing strategy documents.
In the list I found Anthony Richards who is the Operations Manager of the Interactive Galleries at the Science Museum, which appealed to my interest in interactive exhibits. Anthony agreed to be my mentor and last November a couple of draft CPD plans bounced via email between Croydon Clocktower and the Science Museum. I have had some informal ?tutorials? from Anthony to help me write the CPD plan. I also have a log book to track my CPD activities every month (a total of 10 days over 2 years). The aims of the CPD neatly dovetail into my Croydon Council job review aims.
Looking at my AMA at this stage it does feel as though it?s a correspondence course and I have to be very proactive. A feeling of isolation could creep in, but there are AMA support groups. There appears to be no pressure from the MA so far to check my work. However there is a review after 12 months and at the end, an interview review with senior museum professionals. Doing the CPD seems to make me more focused and thanks to discussing ideas with Anthony I have done more external activities involving networking. These include creating a seminar about science and arts (part of the MA Brighton conference on October 8, 2003) and also organising a customer care training day at the Science Museum for Clocktower front of house staff. So far the AMA looks like a good move, and by the way, writing this wee article has helped me meet one of my CPD aspirations - writing for an arts magazine!
Hamish MacGillivray is Exhibitions Officer for Croydon Museum and Heritage Service at Croydon Clocktower t: 020 8253 1025. The Museums Association is the professional organisation for museums. It is involved in many fields including best practice, ethics and training. w: http://www.museumsassociation.org