Manchester Museum and the Faculty of Life Sciences are currently piloting a ‘student curator’ scheme for a cohort of life sciences students.

This initiative was developed to give students a great informal learning experience – gaining key curator skills- and to give them insights into a less obvious career for science graduates.

The scheme is based on themed two-hour hands-on workshops, which run monthly from November–May. These are on Saturdays (they’re keen!) to ensure all of the participating students can take part, and are led by the Museum curators who explain the rather esoteric practices involved in preparing, looking after, and making use of museum specimens. Skills learnt on the Saturday workshops—from taxidermy to pressing plants on herbarium sheets—can then be applied by the students when they come into the Museum to volunteer throughout the rest of the week.

Students acquire specific collections knowledge and an extensive range of curatorial and transferable skills. This is a very effective scheme for the Museum as it helps ensure students have the correct skills to work as a valuable addition to the volunteer programme. The curator scheme is recognised through a ‘passport’ that records curator skills gained during the training. This is the first year of this scheme, and it is envisaged that it will build into a three level ‘bronze, silver, gold’ awards.

Professer Amanda Bamford, Associate Dean for Social Responsibility, said: “This unique and exiting programme offers students the opportunity to develop their own curatorial expertise and a chance to put them into practice using the Museum’s valuable collections. Importantly, it gives them a real insight into the important role of Museum curators.”