Tuesday 15 Jun 2010 @ 13:35
National Archives
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Heritage Lottery Fund invests in heritage skills with The National Archives

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The country’s written heritage gets a major boost, as The National Archives is awarded over half a million pounds from the Heritage Lottery Fund as part of their Skills for Future programme.
Thanks to a £580,900 grant The National Archives project Opening Up Archives for the 21st Century will create 26 new traineeships. The project will work across England to tackle skills shortages in archives and strengthen and broaden the appeal of the archive sector. This is in line with the priorities highlighted in the new government policy Archives for the 21st Century and will encourage more people to pursue a career in archives.

Opening Up Archives for the 21st Century was among 54 heritage projects across the
UK awarded a total of £17million in grants for skills training to improve access to the
country’s written heritage and support vital heritage skills, from traditional conservation, landscape surveying, and managing volunteers to digitising archives, skills which are central to preserving the rich heritage of the country.
 
Under the project, trainees will be given opportunities to develop their archive expertise. They will receive access to practical on-the-job training through placements in the archives sector and learn about four key areas for developing the archives workforce of the future including: 
Community engagement
Digital preservation
Online engagement and digitisation.
Interpretation skills to make older documents accessible to modern audiences
 
Melinda Haunton, Programmes Manager, The National Archives commented:  opportunities and make a career in archives readily attainable to those who previously thought it was not, is fantastic news.

“User expectation is constantly increasing, particularly around the amount of information available online so more than ever there’s a need for a huge range of skills, both new and traditional. Opening Up Archives for the 21st Century project combines skills to help archives offer more to more people"
“Working with archives is incredibly rewarding, so to have the chance to open up opportunities and make a career in archives readily attainable to those who previously thought it was not, is fantastic news"
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“User expectation is constantly increasing, particularly around the amount of information available online so more than ever there’s a need for a huge range of skills, both new and traditional. Opening Up Archives for the 21st Century project combines skills to help archives offer more to more people.”

The National Archives project is being supported by the Museums Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), Archives & Records Association UK & Ireland and Lifelong Learning UK. The majority of the training will be delivered through one-year workplace training placements in archive services around the country, including West Yorkshire Archives Service, London Metropolitan Archives and Birmingham Archives and Heritage.

Notes to Editors

A further Training Plan for Opening Up Archives for the 21st Century to be developed
by October 2010.
Trainees will be recruited in two annual rounds once the Training Plan is in place.
The first round begins in April 2011.
Trainees will be trained under the scheme for one year.  The following archives will be hosting trainees. Some are working in partnership to deliver the traineeships:

Borthwick Institute for Archives, University of York 
Birmingham Archives and Heritage
Gloucestershire Archives
London Metropolitan Archives
Manchester Archives and Local Studies with Greater Manchester County Record Office
Northumberland Collections Service with Tyne and Wear Archives 
Nottinghamshire Archives
Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland
Surrey Heritage
Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives
West Yorkshire Archives Service

Skills for the Future

The Heritage Lottery Fund's, Skills for the Future programme is supporting heritage organisations across the UK to create new training places. Grants range from £100,000 to £1million for a number oftraineeships with an emphasis on high-quality work-based training. The programme will help equip organisations to engage with the widest possible range of people and inspire them to get involved with heritage.

The National Archives www.nationalarchives.gov.uk is a government department and an executive agency of the Ministry for Justice and is at the heart of government information policy. The National
Archives is the UK government’s official archive, containing 1,000 years of history. It is at the forefront of developing archival services for the public and plays a key role in leading and advising the archives sector. The National Archives and Museums, Libraries & Archives Council (MLA) are working together to help the archives sector deliver Archives for the 21st Century, the Government policy on archives.
For more information about The National Archives training programme, please contact Melinda Haunton on melinda.haunton@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk.
Archives for 21st Century
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/aft21c/archives-for-the-21st-century.pdf

Heritage Lottery Fund
Using money raised through the National Lottery, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) sustains and transforms a wide range of heritage for present and future generations to take part in, learn from and enjoy. From museums, parks and historic places to archaeology, natural environment and cultural traditions, we invest in every part of our diverse heritage. HLF has supported 33,900 projects,
allocating £4.4billion across the UK. Website: www.hlf.org.uk. For more information please contact
Katie Owen, HLF press office, on tel: 020 7591 6036/07973 613820.

MLA
Leading strategically, the MLA promotes best practice in museums, libraries and archives to inspire innovative, integrated and sustainable services for all. Visit www.mla.gov.uk
 
 

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