Museums and galleries rely heavily on volunteers; in some cases they would be unable to open without them.

Fortunately, the cultural sector suffers no shortage of people wanting to benefit from volunteering, from retired people wishing to stay active and utilise their skills and knowledge, to students and graduates looking to improve their job prospects.
 
Many museums and galleries have well-established volunteer schemes and volunteering also acts as a major route into working in the sector.

The recession, however, has brought funding cuts, redundancies and recruitment freezes, and museums and galleries have been hit hard. Museums have reported large increases in the numbers of enquiries from would-be volunteers, but are not necessarily in a position to accommodate them.


The National Trust, for example, has seen an upsurge in enquiries about volunteering, with more than 20,000 hits a month on its website volunteer pages and an increase in people contacting properties direct.


"People are often bringing high-level project management skills," says Mark Crosby, head of volunteering at the National Trust. "But it's difficult for us to generate new volunteering opportunities. Good volunteer management is having the time to see what the individual has to offer.

"The quality of experience is essential, so we don't want to disappoint people's expectations around training development and support. We are, however, looking at our internship programme to see how we can attract a broader age range."


"Not cheap labour"


There are no statistics available to show how many people have enquired about volunteering in museums, or details about their ages, background and experience or why they are enquiring.

But 87 per cent of local volunteer centres report increases in the number of enquiries about volunteering, many of them seeing increases of 50 per cent and more.


However, statistics show a slight decrease in the percentage of people who have volunteered at least once in the past year, from 43 per cent in 2007/08 to 41 per cent in 2008/09.


Mike Locke, director of public affairs at Volunteering England, the national development agency for volunteering, thinks this is because while enquiries and applications are on the rise, opportunities are not.


"It is a perplexing picture - the reduction in levels of volunteering seems to contrast with what we know about huge increases in enquiries about volunteering.

"The statistics record the number of volunteering opportunities people have taken up, and we know there are difficulties in placing volunteers in some organisations."


It is also too soon to know how successful government programmes to combat the effects of the recession have been, points out Locke, referring to initiatives such as Real Help for Communities and the Volunteering Brokerage Scheme, which encourages unemployed people to volunteer.

And, he says, volunteers should not be seen as cheap labour.


Duties to volunteers


"There are costs to managing and organising volunteers, and, of course, volunteers should not displace paid workers," Locke says. "We need to recognise the value of volunteering for our society as a whole and for the volunteers as well as for the services they help provide."


Adele Finley, volunteer coordinator and In Touch project manager at the Manchester Museum, says there has been an increase in the number of volunteer applications from newly unemployed individuals since May.


"They approach the museum to try something new, now they have the time, and to keep busy," she says. "They talk of keeping their skills, not necessarily gaining new ones, and staying within a working environment."


Finley has also been approached by BTCV, the company given the contract for the Volunteering Brokerage Scheme.

"The issue for us isn't so much about capacity in terms of role, but capacity in terms of financial resources - the newly unemployed and long-term unemployed need their expenses reimbursed on the day, which limits what we can offer," she says.


Manchester Museum has a number of volunteer roles available in public programmes, object handling and gallery/exhibition interpretation. "We have four object-handling tables in the museum, which run two sessions each day," Finley says.

"At each session we like to have two volunteers. So, in this one area, to provide the service fully, we need 112 volunteers. We recently ran a recruitment and training programme for this role and were able to engage a number of local people, including newly unemployed, long-term unemployed and retired."


Activity and experience


Claire Holden, volunteer Coordinator at Nat-ional Museums Liverpool (NML), has also seen an increase in the number of people approaching the museum about volunteering.


"We have held a number of open days and drop-in sessions, and many people who attended told us that they have recently lost their jobs or have had to take redundancy," Holden says.

"This is also the case with our volunteer programme that targets 16-25 year olds. The main priority most of them have is to gain skills or experience for employment, not necessarily in the museum sector."


NML is developing more volunteer projects and trying to attract a wider range of people, adds Holden. "We also try to ensure that the volunteer roles we offer involve training. We have noticed the need to be more flexible, as volunteers often need to fit their roles around going to job interviews or attending the job centre, and we need to be supportive of that."


Andrew de Courtenay-Wellum, outreach manager at Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, has had a similar experience. 

"While we wish to maximise volunteering opportunities, we also seek to ensure that our volunteers have the best experience possible, and so limit the number of opportunities to those that we know we can support," he says.

"Our volunteer programme is extensive, thanks to the support from Renaissance in the Regions, with over 500 volunteers taking part each year."


Tyne & Wear also operates a further programme called Culture Track as a pilot with North East Volunteers supported by One North East, the Regional Development Agency. This promotes employability through volunteering for people facing economic exclusion. All volunteers can ask for a reference.


Realistic expectations


But most museums don't monitor their applicants, says Kate Bowgett, hub volunteer management adviser at the London Museums Hub. "The impact of the recession is much less on the traditional volunteer groups of older people," she says.


"I've been contacted by a lot of back-to-work schemes looking to place people in museums. Volunteers in museums are for the most part self-managing.

"They rely on the retired or the constant flow of student or graduate interns who are bright, young and motivated. Museums are not set up for the support that the long-term or the recently unemployed need."


Museums are behind the charity sector in this respect, adds Bowgett. "Traditionally they've not needed to recruit, but the downside to this is that they've not had the impetus to develop their volunteer programmes."


If museums had to pay volunteers the average hourly wage, she says, they would think more carefully about selection procedures, and ensure roles and management structures are clearly defined.


"There needs to be more resources for volunteer managers," she says. "They need to think about how they advertise and recruit to encourage diversity. For example, asking for a CV from someone who has been unemployed for years is not helpful.


"They should also consider legal issues such as duty of care not only to the volunteers, but also to the public, down to the wording on volunteer agreements or how you pay travel expenses," Bowgett adds.


Both sides could benefit in the recession, she believes. "It's an opportune time to work out how to use volunteers more productively. It should be seen as an opportunity to diversify the paid workforce because, after all, volunteering is the major route into museum work."


Deborah Mulhearn is a freelance journalist.



"At last my life was getting back on track"

Shaun Bennett


Former volunteer Shaun gained employment at the Manchester Museum as a visitor service assistant. In March, he was promoted to visitor service supervisor, a full-time post.


"After being made redundant, I was very demotivated. The In Touch programme was brought to my attention at my local Job Centre. Once I was accepted on it, nothing else seemed to matter. I couldn't wait for the next session.


"At last my life was getting back on track, going over skills I already had and learning new ones. The training I have received has helped me regain my confidence and prepared me for my role as a volunteer. I have also gained a literacy qualification through the programme and am now doing a customer service NVQ."


Cathy


Cathy [not her real name] got a placement at Seven Stories: the Centre for Children's Books in Newcastle through Gingerbread, the single-parent support group. After volunteering for a couple of months, she got a part-time job as a customer services team member at Seven Stories.


"I was looking for a way back into work after being a full-time mum for ten years. I felt really well looked after. I was given a timetable and knew where I had to be and what was expected of me.


"I shadowed workshop leaders, helped prepare for, and run, sessions. I helped maintain galleries and answered enquiries. The hours were family-friendly, Being a volunteer has opened doors in ways that CVs often don't."