New Opportunities for Young People to Work in Heritage!

Strengthening Our Common Life Programme

The National Museum of the Royal Navy is participating in a skills training project, "Strengthening Our Common Life" (SOCL), offering 12 paid placements in top heritage organisations around the UK including the Southbank Centre, Historic Royal Palaces and Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives.

SOCL aims to increase workforce diversity by offering opportunities to individuals in sections of the population currently under-represented in the heritage sector. Placements offer a rich variety of skills and experiences that enable trainees to gain a Diploma in Cultural Heritage (QCF Level 3) and help them pursue a future career in heritage. The project is supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Skills for the Future programme and is devised and managed by London-based arts and heritage charity, Cultural Co-operation.

Our new SOCL trainee, Kiri Anderson is now in post and will train at the Museum for one year, covering specific areas such as collections research and management, learning and interpretation activities and community outreach events.

One of Kiri's main priorities within this project is to shed light on the untold histories of Black and Asian minority ethnic (BAME) groups and highlight their roles in modern naval history through detailed research of hand-selected objects. The cultural significance and historical stories of these pieces will run as ‘threads’ within the new exhibitions for the Storehouse 10 project.