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 a free annual training programme that encourages skills development within the sector, and explores the benefits of networking and sharing expertise in working with Army collections.

While our training is free for those working or volunteering in Regimental & Corps Museums, our courses are currently charged at £50 for a half day, £100 for a full day, and £450 for our week-long Regimental Curators’ Course, for those wishing to attend from outside the sector.

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.

Managing Our Information: Archives, Libraries and Information Management

Wednesday, 5 July 2023
London

Join us for a full-day workshop looking at the information held in many formats within museums. With a mixture of shared experiences, good practice and behind-the-scenes tours, the National Army Museum team will cover archive, library and information issues, ranging from information security and data protection, to archive and library management, to displays and providing access.

Governance Training for Curators

Thursday, 20 July 2023
Zoom

A two-hour online workshop delivered by Hilary McGowan exploring museum governance for directors, curators or managers.

By the end of the session, you will:

• know what good governance should look like
• and how to create a Change List to help your Board to improve;
• understand why open recruitment is so important,
• why you need to adopt a Succession Plan, and the challenges this can pose,
• and be able to create and implement one.

What you will take away:

• a checklist of what a good Board looks like
• a toolkit to support open recruitment
• and a template for a Succession Plan.

Governance Training for Trustees

Wednesday, 9 August 2023
Zoom

A two-hour online workshop delivered by Hilary McGowan exploring museum governance for museum board Trustees.

By the end of the session, you will:

• know what good governance should look like
• and how to create a Change List to help your Board to improve;
• understand why open recruitment is so important,
• why you need to adopt a Succession Plan, and the challenges this can pose,
• and be able to create and implement one.

What you will take away:

• a checklist of what a good Board looks like
• a toolkit to support open recruitment
• and a template for a Succession Plan.

Writing a Fundraising Strategy

Tuesday, 5 September 2023
London & Zoom (hybrid)

This training course is designed to give you the tools and understanding to put together a fundraising strategy for your museum that matches your resources and skills. It includes practical ideas and approaches to fundraising from public and private sources, and working with your museum trustees, staff and volunteers to put the strategy into practice. The course is aimed at those with limited experience, or who are new to fundraising.

Introduction to Museum Learning

Wednesday, 13 September 2023
London

This full-day workshop is aimed at museum staff with a responsibility for running learning activities at their museum or site.

We will look at why museums offer learning activities and the range of options that a museum may wish to consider such as school workshops, family learning activities, trails, handling objects and digital resources. We will use examples from the National Army Museum’s learning offer and there will be opportunities to get hands-on with our handling collection and learning resources throughout the day.

Radiation Safety in Museums

Tuesday, 19 September 2023
London

This course is delivered by Defence Science Technology Laboratory (DSTL) and is a full day of training on radiation safety for museums. The course will provide an introduction to what radiation is, help raise awareness and provide you with resources for safety measures for museum staff and visitors, as well as to protect collections.