Over the Rainbow: What happens when you get your dream job? - Mary Cook

The Skills for the Future Traineeship did exactly what it said on the tin.  It helped me to push through previous barriers, including the lack of a postgraduate degree, to join the ranks of Museum Learning Professionals.  I am now Lifelong Learning, Outreach and Access Officer for Steam Museum and Lydiard Park in Swindon.  Here are my reflections on arriving at my destination, Steam - Museum of the Great Western Railway and beautiful Lydiard Park in West Swindon.  Lydiard Park is a Georgian Mansion in landscaped grounds. Steam is a museum of Engineering and Victorian Social History on the site of the Great Western Railway factory.  It also includes a replica of a World War II public air raid shelter with objects sourced from the local community which is used for delivering experiential learning to schools. 

Mary (right) during her Skills for the Future training

When Neil Stevenson, Skills for the Future Traineeship Co-ordinator asked me what I wanted in a museum learning role, I told him this:

“I think I will be hard to place. Unlike other trainees I am tied to home, I cannot relocate or commute longer distances at the moment. “ He pushed me to spell out what I wanted, so I did.  Here is my wish list: 

1. Variety -  engaging audiences across a range of subjects. 
2. I really want to work in an outdoor as well as indoor site - either more than one site or variety of environment at the same site. Either is good, but both is better. 
3. Ideally, I would like telling the story of the site to be as much of a priority as learning from the objects.  I enjoyed that so much on placement  at the University Museum of Natural History.
4. I want to engage with a wide range of audiences rather than just one audience sector - whereas others tend towards specialism I find I really enjoy all audiences at this stage in my career. 
5. Outreach has to be a priority. 
6. Opportunities to develop and deliver formal and informal learning programme 
7. Not more than 45 minutes from home, it needs to be a part time, rather than full time role but with flexibility to increase hours as my children get older.

Neil seemed very pleased with himself when he presented me with the advert for the role I have now.  When I saw it, I was very pleased too.  Naturally, I did not presume that I would get the first job I applied for, but I could see it genuinely ticked every single one of these boxes.  It seemed almost too good to be true, but it was a perfect fit.  I was very anxious though, as I really wanted the role and had previously not been successful at interview for similar roles prior to Skills for The Future training.  Once at interview I found the staff I met to be warm and engaging. When I was offered the role, I knew it was perfect for me.

Mary's new place of work - Steam Museum, Swindon

Three months in is it still a perfect fit?  

In any role, there are challenges and achievements. I think it is fair to say I have already experienced both.  I enjoy problem solving. I find challenging situations rewarding as they require innovative thinking and provide opportunities for personal development.  Honestly, I found the initial orientation challenging.  I missed friends I had seen daily at the Oxford museums.  I also missed the I-Pad, which was a fantastic tool both for learning, instantly recording feedback, planning and communicating and made cross-site working much simpler. 

One of the great things about the traineeship is that it is well resourced and, by the design of the traineeship and by the nature of a university setting there are multiple layers of mentoring.  This begins within the team and extends to the Traineeship Co-ordinator to other trainees to the wider museums and university community. Peer learning was hugely beneficial and assisted with building competence and confidence whether in terms of working in schools or with a freelancer or even to develop IT skills such as publishing i-books (thank you, Anjanesh Babu!).   In my new role, I wanted most of all to convey competence, so despite all I said above about the value of peer learning, initially I was reluctant to ask for assistance.

Fortunately for me, I have new colleagues who have gone out of their way to help me feel part of the team.  It dawned on me that peer learning does not stop with the end of the traineeship. As professionals, we continue to grow by learning from others, in fact if anything since starting this role my peer learning network has grown.  In-house, I have been fortunate to share my role with Lizzie Hares who has a great understanding of the needs of primary schools and an encyclopaedic knowledge of the handling collections. Alongside her, I work with Lucy Kender the informal learning lead who brings understanding of a range of audiences and a shared ethos regarding participatory museums.  Both are incredibly supportive, but also expect I will contribute effectively to the team, so have included and involved me from the beginning.   

 

Mary (back left) and her new colleagues at Lydiard House

Our line manager Nancy Heath also shows real faith in all of us to deliver, so there is considerable freedom to bring new ideas for consideration.    This is a positive and collaborative atmosphere in which to work.  Here are my highlights from our team’s work in the past three months:

• Collections Management training and networking with representatives of South West Museums and Liz Neathey Museum Development Officer for SWFED at Calne Museum.
• The opportunity to work with Events team colleagues to devise and deliver informal learning activities inspired by  Museum of History of Science astrolabes and Pitt Rivers Need, Make, Use balloon rocket powered cars.  Especially enjoyed encouraging the events team to invite my former colleague Rod Hebden from the National Trust to present at the event which all helped make a cloudy star gazing night a success none the less.  It was great to deliver to a different audience at an evening event at Lydiard and all of it was well received.
• Designing and developing Detective Boxes for 7’s to 11’s, which have shown a good level of sales since their launch in February half term.  Using a choose your own adventure style story line, children must solve clues to a crime which relates to an object from the museum.  It extends access by raising awareness of objects not on display as well as encouraging observation in the museum. These continue to sell.
• Facilitating World War II object handling in Steam Museum on the theme of codes and detection.  Enjoyed engaging with people who found the objects resonated with their experience of the War. Also enjoyed meeting people who were grateful for the opportunity to reminisce about their  family connections with the GWR factory - the sense of community ownership for this place is humbling.
• Developing a specification for an under-fives interactive at Lydiard Park, contacting suppliers and currently looking for community partner in the FE sector  to work on the carpentry.
• Storytelling and Seed Planting at Lydiard Park.  Enjoyed helping visiting under 7’s to connect with the purpose of a site and help them learn a little science outdoors in the sunshine.  They enjoyed meeting puppet Frederick Fox Cub a reminder of some of the other residents of Lydiard Park too.
• Supporting the delivery of “We’ll Meet again” an immersive World War II experience for school children  

Frederick Fox and seed planting

 In the near future, I will be working on:

• Developing a Swindon Heritage Learning blog 
• Partnering with former Skills for the Future Trainee Kelly Smith Community and Learning Officer Stowe House Trust to share ideas for working with schools at a Georgian Mansion site 
• Outreach and cross promotion with Swindon Borough Council colleagues from Libraries 
• Planning and delivering refresher training to casually employed education officers in best practice for object handling. 
• Co-creating an evaluation strategy that will provide evidence of what different audiences value and what would make our offer even more effective.

I am so incredibly grateful for this opportunity.  Thank you to the Heritage Lottery fund for the vision to make it possible for people to make up for lost time by creating such an innovative and relevant training opportunity.

Thank you to the team at Lydiard Park and Steam for being willing to take on someone like me who is always asking, “Why do we do it that way?  Could we try this?” 

 

Every member of staff and each of the fantastic volunteers care so passionately about these unique and fascinating sites, it is an honour to work as part of the team.