Last month the Creative and Cultural Skills (CCS) finally got its licence to operate as a sector skills council. Two of its priorities over the next five years will be leadership in the cultural sector and opening up the creative industries to young people from a range of different backgrounds.
What does that mean for museums? Well, at the moment, if you want a career in museums and don't fancy higher education and the £15,000 debt that comes with it, you would be hard pressed to find a route into the profession.
Does that matter? It does if it means museums are missing out on talented young people that either can't afford or choose not to go to university. And it matters if museums want a workforce that represents the population whose collections they hold in trust.
Of course, young people from less-advantaged families do go to university (18 per cent according to the Department for Education and Skills). But even then, the pressure to get on and start earning doesn't make working in museums an attractive option. This is not helped by the fact that fees for most university courses will go up to £3,000 a year in 2006.
There are some answers though. The CCS plans to set up creative apprenticeships for the cultural sector with pilot schemes starting next year. These could provide high quality work-based routes into the sector with options to go on to higher education and learn while you earn.
At the moment, it is the education system that determines who ends up working in museums, not employers. Museums have to be more pro-active if they want a wider pool of talent to draw on. There is no reason why museums shouldn't take more responsibility for entry-level training; in fact there is funding out there to support such training.
Museums should also look outside the traditional routes into the sector for suitable candidates - other employers are quite willing to accept that experience is often worth as much as a postgraduate qualification.
And museums could work more closely with museum studies courses to determine the kind of skills they want from graduates. Most of all, they need to engage in the discussion about what they want as employers.
One place where there seems to be no shortage of initiatives, and at last some cash to back them, is at the leadership end of the equation. Last month the government announced a new £12m cultural leadership fund, which will probably be administered by the Arts Council England with some input from CCS.
This comes on top of the Clore Leadership Programme and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council's leadership and management skills programme.
Museums and the bodies that represent them have recognised and begun to address the leadership deficit and the lack of career progression in the sector. But that will count for nothing if we don't have a new layer of dynamic and diverse young people champing at the bit to work in museums.
What does that mean for museums? Well, at the moment, if you want a career in museums and don't fancy higher education and the £15,000 debt that comes with it, you would be hard pressed to find a route into the profession.
Does that matter? It does if it means museums are missing out on talented young people that either can't afford or choose not to go to university. And it matters if museums want a workforce that represents the population whose collections they hold in trust.
Of course, young people from less-advantaged families do go to university (18 per cent according to the Department for Education and Skills). But even then, the pressure to get on and start earning doesn't make working in museums an attractive option. This is not helped by the fact that fees for most university courses will go up to £3,000 a year in 2006.
There are some answers though. The CCS plans to set up creative apprenticeships for the cultural sector with pilot schemes starting next year. These could provide high quality work-based routes into the sector with options to go on to higher education and learn while you earn.
At the moment, it is the education system that determines who ends up working in museums, not employers. Museums have to be more pro-active if they want a wider pool of talent to draw on. There is no reason why museums shouldn't take more responsibility for entry-level training; in fact there is funding out there to support such training.
Museums should also look outside the traditional routes into the sector for suitable candidates - other employers are quite willing to accept that experience is often worth as much as a postgraduate qualification.
And museums could work more closely with museum studies courses to determine the kind of skills they want from graduates. Most of all, they need to engage in the discussion about what they want as employers.
One place where there seems to be no shortage of initiatives, and at last some cash to back them, is at the leadership end of the equation. Last month the government announced a new £12m cultural leadership fund, which will probably be administered by the Arts Council England with some input from CCS.
This comes on top of the Clore Leadership Programme and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council's leadership and management skills programme.
Museums and the bodies that represent them have recognised and begun to address the leadership deficit and the lack of career progression in the sector. But that will count for nothing if we don't have a new layer of dynamic and diverse young people champing at the bit to work in museums.
