Learning and development process for Cultural trusts: guides, technicians and coordinators
Cultural staff learn through the work, but exhibitions and festivals leave little time for planned learning. A small calendar tied to quiet periods makes it happen.
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Share your requirementsWhy learning and development process matters in cultural trusts
A new guide shadows two tours and is then on their own. A technician learns the lighting board by watching. A coordinator picks up grant reporting from last year's file. These are good ways to learn but they vary by who happens to be around, and they stop when the season begins.
A small plan changes this. List what each group needs to know, put training in the quiet weeks between programmes, and use people inside the trust and its partners to teach. Record who has learnt what. A short session on handling objects or on speaking to school groups pays back in every tour that follows.
How to set it up
1. List what each group must know
For guides: the collection story, handling and safety, visitor groups. For technicians: equipment and set-up. For coordinators: budgets and reporting.
2. Place learning in quiet weeks
Mark the calendar for low-activity periods and book sessions then. Avoid asking people to learn during an opening week.
3. Use insiders and partners as teachers
The curator teaches handling, a senior guide teaches tours, a partner museum or college provides a workshop.
4. Add a short test of the skill
A practice tour, a set-up under watch or a draft budget reviewed. Record the result against the person.
5. Keep a learning record
One sheet listing sessions attended and skills signed off. Use it in reviews and when planning cover. See training consulting for building a wider plan.
Check these first
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These take an afternoon and use your own records.
- Ask new guides what they wish they had been taught before their first solo tour.
- Check the calendar for quiet weeks and whether any training is planned in them.
- List the skills only one person has and whether anyone is learning them.
- See whether records exist of who has been trained to handle collection objects.
GullyHR can do this with you. Read how we approach learning and development process in general, or share your requirements and we will tell you where to start.
Questions owners ask
Most of it can be done inside the trust or with partners at little cost. Plan sessions in quiet weeks and use the curator, senior guides and visiting teachers as trainers.
Yes, where their tasks need it. A shared handling or visitor session builds consistency between paid and unpaid people, and shows volunteers that their work is taken seriously.
Observe a tour or set-up after the session, and ask for visitor or colleague feedback. Simple checks are better than long surveys.