Museums training programme

The National Army Museum offers virtual and physical training opportunities for museums throughout the UK and internationally.

All of our training programme is offered at no cost to Regimental & Corps Museums (R&CM) in the UK and our international partners in our effort to support these museums through encouraging skills development and exploring the benefits of sharing expertise. Museums outside of this network are also welcome to book onto our programme for a fee.

The National Army Museum also has a YouTube channel that lists recordings of previous training sessions as well as video series on various subjects in Army history and collections.

Previously uploaded sessions include topics such as emergency response for museums, contemporary collecting, an introduction to medal identification, care and display, as well as sessions on uniforms and British auxiliary forces.

New content is generally released weekly. If you would like to find out more or access these training videos, please contact Kelsey Loveless (kloveless@nam.ac.uk).

Upcoming training

Introduction to Modes

Wednesday, 24 February 2021, 10.30am – 12.00pm – FULLY BOOKED
Thursday, 4 March 2021, 10.30am – 12.00pm – FULLY BOOKED
Wednesday, 24 March 2021, 10.30am – 12.00pm – FULLY BOOKED

This live training session will be held on Zoom and will be an introductory/refresher course for both novice and existing Modes users working with military collections.

The session will cover a brief overview of using the Modes collections management software, searching in Modes, documenting medals and photographs (creating a record about an object with an image) and will also include a Q&A session. The session will be delivered by Nick Pearce-Smith, Modes Customer Support Manager, and you are still able to join the training even if you do not currently have access to Modes working from home.

If you are interested to be put on the training wait list, please contact Kelsey Loveless (kloveless@nam.ac.uk).

Modes Advanced

Thursday, 11 February 2021, 10.30am – 12.00pm – FULLY BOOKED
Thursday, 25 February 2021, 10.30am – 12.00pm – FULLY BOOKED
Thursday, 11 March 2021, 10.30am – 12.00pm – FULLY BOOKED
Thursday, 25 March 2021, 10.30am – 12.00pm – FULLY BOOKED

This course is for experienced Modes collections management software users and will cover designing grid layouts, storing element groups, global editing groups of records, and creating new templates for consistent and appropriate documentation of the collection.

If you are interested to be put on the training wait list, please contact Kelsey Loveless (kloveless@nam.ac.uk).

Collections Hazards for Army Museums

Session I: Wednesday, 3 March 2021, 10.30am – 12.30pm – FULLY BOOKED
Session II: Wednesday, 10 March 2021, 10.30am – 11.30am – FULLY BOOKED

We will be running a Collections Hazards for Army Museums virtual course which will be delivered by Pieta Greaves from Drakon Heritage. This will be a two-part virtual training programme and attendees will be asked to please attend both sessions. Prior to the training, pre-reading will be provided to the participants.

Session I will include the following:

• General overview of hazards in collections, handling, identification and what to look out for, your responsibilities and who you can ask for help. This will particularly cover asbestos, arsenic, controlled drugs, firearms and explosives, lead, heavy metals, mould, nitrate film, radiation, spirit collections, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs).
• How to carry out an assessment on a collection or object where you suspect or are unsure if it contains hazards.
• Example object discussion (using objects commonly found in army museums).

Session II will be a structured discussion where people can talk about, or demonstrate by photos, objects in their own collections and ask specific questions. Attendees will be given the opportunity to send questions in advance and case studies of different hazards and how the issues were dealt with will be provided as a part of the discussion. Please note that this course is limited to 15 places.

If you are interested in attending this course, please contact Kelsey Loveless (kloveless@nam.ac.uk) and you will be notified if additional sessions are scheduled.

Regimental Curators’ Course

Monday, 26 April – Thursday, 29 April 2021

The Spring Regimental Curators’ Course will take place virtually over Zoom during the last week of April. This is a full week of training that covers a variety of topics that are particularly relevant to staff working in UK Army museums. Sessions include an introduction to preventative conservation, learning services, marketing for museums, fundraising, collections management, uniform and photo identification, community curation and much more.

This training week will also include virtual attendance at the annual National Army Museum Regimental & Corps Museums Open Day, a conference covering topics in museum best practice and sector updates.

It you would like to find out more information about the course, or see a full schedule of training and conference topics, please contact Kelsey Loveless (kloveless@nam.ac.uk).