Work experience placements
Archives/Records Management Placement Lists
Two lists of organisations in the UK and Ireland that offer placements to graduates seeking work experience prior to the Diploma/MA in Archives and/or Records Management are available below in PDF. One list is for traineeships that are offered as formal paid employment, the other is for unpaid volunteering opportunities. Hard copies of these lists are also available from;
| Membership Administrator |
| 20 Canon Street, |
| Taunton, |
| TA1 1SW |
| membership@archives.org.uk |
Please note that the two lists are of regular placements that the Careers Officer is aware of. There may therefore be more ad-hoc or temporary placements available in your area that are not in either list. You can find the contact details for your local archive and records management services via the ARCHON Directory.
The Society's Office in Taunton also maintains a list of people who are interested in obtaining work experience, as, on occasion, employers approach the Society looking for volunteers. If you are interested in submitting your details to this list please follow this link to the online form. If you are an employer looking for volunteers or trainees then please contact the Society's Office using the details provided above.
Note for Organisations with Placement Opportunities
Please contact us using the link at the bottom of the page if you have a work experience placement opportunity, paid or voluntary, that you would like to add to one of the lists. If you are already on one, or both, of the lists but your details have changed, or are going to change in the near future, then please inform us as soon as possible. The lists do get reviewed at least twice a year in April/May and August/September but we are keen to ensure that the details in them are as up to date as they can be.
Work Experience Advice
To increase your chances of obtaining one of the work placements listed, you would be advised to read the descriptions of opportunities offered carefully, and apply only for those which offer the type of experience you are seeking in locations where you would be prepared to work. Feedback from employers suggests that they view such applications much more favourably than those from people who have sent generic speculative emails to every organisation on the two lists. This is especially true with the providers of paid work experience placements, who will often not accept speculative CVs outside of the time period allotted for recruitment to the post they are looking to fill.
A document called "Guidance to applicants seeking, and organisations providing, pre-course work experience in archives and records management" (see bottom for link) has been produced by the Forum for Archive and Records Management Education and Research, and offers advice on getting the most out of your work experience placement. The crucial point to bear in mind is that the quality of the experience is more important than the quantity: a couple of months volunteer work where you experience a range of different tasks and gain exposure to different areas of the work will serve as better preparation for the course than a year in a very routine role. Furthermore, competition for paid work experience placements can be strong so any previous and relevant voluntary experience can make a difference in an application for such employment.
Archive assistant/temporary posts are also advertised in local newspapers and via the archives-nra listserve, which was established in 1995. The archives-nra list homepage allows users to view and search past messages sent to the list and includes instructions on joining and leaving the list. A similar list for Records Management is the RECORDS-MANAGEMENT-UK listserve.
Records Management
The UK Records Management Society posts job advertisements for records managers at all levels in the UK on their website. Whilst their job section does not separate advertisements into levels of experience required, there are often a number of assistant or junior roles on the site that can act as traineeships or entry-level posts. For more details, see their website at; http://www.rms-gb.org.uk/jobs
Conservation
Work experience placements in conservation departments is possible for those who would like to find out more about the career and especially for those currently enrolled on courses. Contact either national or local organisations directly to find out if they have an in-house conservation service and if they offer placements for specified periods. The Society itself offers training in book and archive conservation - the Certificate in Archive Conservation. More details on this can be found on http://www.archives.org.uk/content.asp?id=215.
The Institute of Conservation, formed in 2005, is the principal body representing conservators in the UK and Ireland. It covers many conservation disciplines and between them the 'Photographic Materials' and 'Book and Paper' groups encompass most types of archives. The Institute can provide advice on many aspects of conservation as a career and organises a series of annual internships to encourage career entry. For more details please follow this link.
Last modified 23/06/2008
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