Oxford museums get £400k training grant

The museums and botanic gardens arm of the University of Oxford has been awarded a grant of more than £400,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

The grant will provide placements for graduates to train as education officers in the heritage sector.

Twelve trainees will spend 18 months working with collections, in volunteer management and understanding new media and technology.

The grant is part of a £17m windfall for heritage projects in the UK.

Dr Christopher Brown, director of the Ashmolean, said: "We have, in Oxford, world-class collections; excellent museum and botanic garden facilities; and museum and botanic garden professionals who are leading experts in their fields.

"The HLF's Skills for the Future Programme will enable us to offer great opportunities to trainees who want to work in heritage education in the future, and to continue our work in making the collections, as well as the teaching and research of the University of Oxford, available to the widest possible audience."

The trainees will all undertake their training at three of the five different sites across the university: the Ashmolean Museum, the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, the Pitt Rivers Museum, the Oxford Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum, and the Museum of the History of Science.

Trainees will begin their placements from spring 2011.