Museums training programme

The National Army Museum coordinates training opportunities in best practice for museums throughout the UK and internationally.

Working with a network of over 140 UK Regimental & Corps Museums and international partners, we deliver an annual training programme that encourages skills development and explores the benefits of networking and sharing expertise in working with Army collections. Museums outside this network can also book onto our programme for a fee.

Introduction to Communications

Tuesday, 7 March 2023
National Army Museum, London

Gain an understanding of how marketing, PR and social media work together to form external museum comms. Providing an overview of the different communication types available to museum professionals and some of the costs involved, including:

• Earned – online press, newspapers, radio, tv, podcasts, influencers
• Owned – website, social media channels, e-news
• Paid – outdoor and digital advertising, print adverts, partnerships 

There will be a chance to explore a real-life case study of how these elements work in practice and to explore content creation ideas as a group. Advice will also be given on how to get stakeholder buy-in from senior management and how to demonstrate and measure success.

Regimental Curators’ Course

Monday, 17 April – Friday, 21 April 2023
National Army Museum, London

The National Army Museum will be running the next Regimental Curators’ course in person here at the Museum in London. This five-day training course covers various aspects of museum best practice and working with Army collections and is open to staff, volunteers and trustees working in Regimental & Corps Museums. Topics covered during the week include an introduction to preventative conservation, learning services, marketing for military museums, research and archives, photo identification, exhibitions, collections care and management and much more.

Public Records

Wednesday, 10 May 2023
Zoom

This virtual training 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.

Army 101

Wednesday, 17 May 2023
National Army Museum, London

If you’re new into the world of military museums, if you’ve never known the difference between a regiment and a battalion, or why officers are promoted along one track and other ranks along another, then this is the course for you. We will examine the basics of army structure, uniforms, weapons, and medals, and try to break down the myriad of military mysteries during this full-day course.

Imperial Legacies: Curating Your Colonial Collections

Wednesday, 31 May 2023
National Army Museum, London

This full-day workshop is aimed at helping museums interested in developing the interpretation and display of their colonial collections. Focused heavily on practical work, the session will look at how to create co-production projects based on shared heritage and the telling of contentious histories. Delivered by Chris Berriman and Freya Samuel.

Introduction to Modes [FULLY BOOKED]

Monday, 5 June 2023
10.00am – 12.00pm
Zoom

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.

Modes Advanced

Monday, 12 June 2023
10.00am – 12.00pm
Zoom

This virtual training 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.

Introduction to Hazards in Collections

Wednesday, 21 June 2023
Zoom

This half-day session will provide an introductory overview of hazards in collections, from identifying various types of hazards to understanding the risks posed by them and how to mitigate these through good documentation, object care, and safe handling. This will cover toxic metals, pesticides and preservatives, moulds and fungi, asbestos, radioactive materials, chemicals, poisons, controlled drugs, firearms and physical hazards.