Conservation jobs in United Kingdom

Chiltern Open Air Museum (COAM) is an award-winning independent outdoor museum and charity in the Chalfonts, Buckinghamshire that welcomes around 46,000 visitors a year. The Museum has a collection of 37 rescued historic buildings that were either the homes or workplaces of ordinary people. The Museum is set in 45 acres of beautiful Chilterns landscape and has a working historic farm, livestock, traditional cottage gardens, orchards and woodland.

Due to a recent National Lottery Heritage Fund grant, COAM are looking to recruit two paid Pathways to Heritage Trainees:

1. Marketing and Visitor Experience
2. Collections and Interpretation

Each Trainee will support COAM's 4-year Pathways to Heritage project to improve accessibility and inclusion on-site and across the organisation.

Trainees will obtain broad heritage work experience and each Pathways to Heritage Trainee will leave the scheme with a legacy of tangible development, a range of real achievements through work experiences and training courses, and a strong platform for developing a future career in heritage.

As a Trainee, you will be offered a supportive learning environment, with a close working relationship with an experienced Supervisor and a Project Coordinator, an individually tailored training programme, and a wide range of ways of developing your chosen skills and applying them to the museum and heritage sector.

During your placement, you will receive support in developing employability skills including a learning portfolio, CV preparation, interview techniques, tailored support in short-listing potential employers, and guidance on accessing heritage opportunities.

COAM Trainees will:

1. Be encouraged to try new things and be a part of a creative and fast-paced organisation
2. Gain parallel experience across multiple departments
3. Develop new skills throughout the Traineeship
4. Learn and understand the breadth of work needed to run a popular visitor attraction
5. Learn to understand and communicate with different audiences
6. Work with a number of experienced heritage professionals
7. Receive 1-to-1 mentoring and wellbeing support throughout the Traineeship
8. Have an individual training course budget
9. Have an 18 month paid internship
10. Have a budget to run a small project at COAM
11. Have support in applying for roles within the sector at the end of their Traineeship.

We ask that candidates have an interest in working in the museums and heritage sector and are committed to completing the Traineeship programme.

Key Responsibilities:

1. All aspects of collections management and documentation, in line with policies and procedures, including: acquisition, cataloguing, deaccessioning, audits, object movement, digitisation projects, environmental control and monitoring, integrated pest management, housekeeping, conservation cleaning, records digitisation, and information retrieval.
2. Developing an understanding of the collections, documentation and their potential.
3. Developing and completing a small-scale project, including undertaking research, developing plans, preparing objects, writing interpretation, installation, launch and evaluation.
4. Contributing to the development of displays and other projects that use objects, undertaking research, and writing interpretation.
5. Provide content for the Museum's blog, website and social media.
6. Assisting with the supervision of any volunteers supporting collections work to ensure their contribution is focused and recognised.
7. Helping to ensure the Museum's collections remain accessible to all.
8. Ensuring familiarity with relevant legislation (Access, health and safety, GDPR etc.) and committing to good practice and adherence to COAM policy.
9. Assist in ensuring the site and activities are accessible to everyone.

Key Responsibilities:

1. To support the administration and delivery of marketing activities
2. To support the preparation, delivery and de-rig of events
3. With assistance, create family trails and activities for school holidays
4. To assist in ensuring the site and activities are accessible to everyone
5. To assist the Front-of-House Team in providing excellent customer service
6. Developing and completing a small-scale project.

Hours of Work: 30 hours/week for 18 months. Will include some weekend working.

Salary: £19,047.60 (actual salary) £25,396.80 (full-time equivalent)

To apply please complete the designated application form that can be found on our Careers Page. We are also happy to accept video or audio applications providing the content only answers the questions set out in the application form. Audio and video format should not exceed 15 minutes. Please supply audio as an MP3 and ensure any video content is compatible with Windows.

Please contact us via email or (phone number removed) and ask to speak to either Kayleigh Bateman or Helen Light if you have any questions about the role.

We would particularly like to encourage applications from people with disabilities and candidates from minority groups. We have an inclusive environment. If you have any accommodations then please let us know when you apply for a role. Candidates that are invited to interview will be supplied the interview questions in advance.

Application deadline: 9am 28 April 2025

Interviews: Week of 5 May 2025