Museum Work.
Museum Work.
The Museums Association has a list of jobs (click on jobs and careers on the left). This will give you an idea of available jobs and salaries.
If you want to work in a museum as a curator, a conservator or educator you will need a degree in a relevant discipline, a usually a postgraduate museum qualification and unfortunately will probably also have had to work in a museum as a volunteer. There are a growing number of universities which now offer museum courses, or you could work for the Museums Association Associateship qualification (AMA, or Museums Association Diploma. For the link to this follow 'jobs and careers' and then 'continuing professional development'). Some prefer the diploma and others the university courses, some professionals even have both.
Of the university postgraduate courses, some are very good, others not so good. The Museums Association provides sound advice on suitable courses.
As there are far more museum studies graduates than jobs available, so it is important that you choose the right course. You need to carefully check out the courses as not all MAs are regarded as of equal status by prospective employers. Additionally only those approved by the Museums Association allow the shortcut to the AMA.When choosing you may like to consider the following: are the people teaching you trained in museum work; is the course practical or theoretical? Remember, those teaching may be specialists in disciplines such as archaeology, social history, etc., but do they have museum qualifications and/or recent experience in a wide range of museum work? Sometimes students complain that those teaching them do not understand 'real' museum work, perhaps because lectures have only worked in narrow areas of museum work, and/or because they have no museum qualifications. Do the courses cover the areas which you will need for working in museums? Have the courses been approved by the Museums Association? You may want to talk to students who have already completed courses and/or museum professionals already in work.
Remember also that you may need to consider different courses depending on the areas which interest you. For example, if you want to work for a national museum, they may be more interested in academic discipline qualifications than museum work as such. This is partly because large institutions need specialists in narrow, particular fields. Small institutions need people who are more flexible. Talk to the professionals in the areas in which you are interested. Particular courses may be geared towards particular aspects. Think about if you want to go into documentation work, managerial work, a subject discipline, etc.
Unfortunately, since there is so much competition you will also most certainly also need to have completed a certain amount of voluntary work. You can contact your local museum about this (Egypt Centre also takes volunteers).
If you are interested in museum work you might also like to visit the Leicester University Research Centre for Museums and Galleries.
Good luck.
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© University of Wales Swansea. 15 August 2009. UWS Web Team.