How to get ahead in ... museums and heritage

Lloyd De Beer started his dream job last summer when he was appointed project curator of medieval alabasters at the British Museum. He took up the post just six months after joining the museum's Future Curators Programme, which is designed to create the next generation of curators and collection managers.

"I am an objects person – I like to think of history through objects and how they visualise the past. I'd always wanted to be a curator at the British Museum working on its medieval collection but I also knew it was a difficult thing to achieve," he says. "I thought the Future Curators programme would be a great opportunity for me to develop my skills and network. It was a unique opportunity".

The programme is run by the British Museum in partnership with other regional museums, many run by local authorities. It is part of the Heritage Lottery Fund's Skills for the Future initiative, set up to help pay for trainee bursaries and projects which address fill skills gaps in the heritage sector which includes museums. Since 2010, £60.7m of heritage lottery money has been invested, creating 3,000 placements.

The British Museum has funding for 15 trainees under the scheme – with the final cohort of five due to begin their 18-month programme in October. The graduate trainees spend six months on placement at the British Museum and then 12 months at one of the partner museums, learning the core skills of curatorship and collection management. They receive a maximum annual, non-means tested £15,000 bursary in London dropping to £13,000 outside the capital.

Maria Bojanaowska, programme manager, says: "The programme is designed around the collection areas most in need of curatorial support at each partner museum. Each trainee is responding to a knowledge gap in the museum sector.

"With fewer and fewer entry level curatorial opportunities available in the sector, this programme is seen as one of the only ways to get the necessary experience to start a curatorial career."

Mark Taylor, director of the Museums Association, says the programme is unusual as it is work-based scheme similar to an apprenticeship, helping to create a new generation of curators who are crucial to the success of museums: "There is a feeling that you can't lose curators – it's like having a firm without any research and development; we can't not have people who know about collections. It's a really good scheme, it's hands on and is giving people a range of skills."

The British Museum scheme comes as museums continue to cut jobs. The latest cuts survey by the Museums Association revealed that 83% had their budgets reduced last year, of which 10% had to reduce their staffing. Taylor says: "It's right that museums are not recruiting; all I can say is that I believe statistically of the people whom have gone on to Skills for the Future, a significant number end up in a job. It may mean that if you are in there and of value somehow the money can be found to appoint you."

Fiona Talbott, head of Museums, Libraries and Archives at the Heritage Lottery Fund, says an evaluation of the first cohort of museum trainees showed that three quarters went on to paid work.

"That is quite encouraging," she says. "There are fewer jobs in the sector but the jobs are still there. One of the drivers for the initiative, and it is still there, was the need to create a more diverse workforce to get a broader range of people — not just around ethnicity diversity — but also people returning to work or changing career."

The present intake will be the last under the Skills for the Future initiative but it is likely that other skills development programmes will follow. Talbott says: "We will have a bit of a breathing space to evaluate the two intakes. Our board of trustees and chair are still committed to it and want to put more into skills development and it's likely that something will continue."

Not already a member? Join us now for more comment, analysis and the latest job opportunities in local government.