In a pithy vodcast Work Inspiration describes the challenge ahead. By 2020 there will be 3m fewer low-skilled jobs than today, yet half our workforce doesn’t progress beyond A-levels. China has more students in its talented and gifted pool than we have students; the top 10 in-demand-jobs of 2010 did not exist in 2004; today’s children are being prepared for jobs that haven’t been thought of; and they will have had 11 jobs by the time they are 38. UK PLC needs a skilled, adaptable, flexible and creative workforce, but are we doing enough to make sure that museums are part of the solution?

Across the North West, digital, science and ‘green’ industries are predicted to grow sharply in the coming decade and there is unmet demand for highly skilled workforce. Today’s mantra is all about enterprise with myriad business and education partnerships attempting to address young people’s lack of

A Culture for Opportunity:

“ Economic participation is the heartbeat of a healthy community. Across the North West museums, galleries and collections were founded on the spoils of industrial wealth. This philanthropic zeal and civic ambition leaves a powerful legacy of social purpose. Museums have the tools to help tackle deep-rooted inequalities, build a workforce fit for the future and support economic recovery, let’s use them. John Inch, The National Waterways Museum

1

readiness for the world of work. The suggestion is that the education system is flawed – too focussed on subject-learning; limited on providing direction; failing children who almost universally set out wanting to do well.

With 64% of young learners believing they do their best work outside of the classroom, we have a responsibility to meet their expectations and throw-off run-of-the-mill experiences. We need to rethink the educational packages on offer to education providers to support their ‘triple A targets’ (attainment, aspiration and attendance). Progressive partnerships between museums, teachers and training colleges really can improve educational attainment as shown in the well-documented MAGPIE project. Manchester City Galleries has taken this model further, working with clusters of schools to help engage parents and carers in their children’s classroom learning, giving them confidence, ideas and interest. It has challenged the Gallery to think differently, to give its established family offer new purpose and to reach into new settings with a greater sense of achievement for everybody involved.

Less familiar perhaps, is how we might help create the ‘net-generation’: technically skilled for the knowledge economy, highly literate in STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths), and caring enough about the environment to want to meet the growing demand in the low carbon industries. A further 325,000 more scientists and engineers will be needed by 2014, and industry leaders want them here in the North West, in rural areas as well as in the city-regions. Can we help boost the region’s competitiveness, with new educational services and awareness raising? Build on the Curiosities natural science network to tune eco-minded young people into careers in the environmental sciences? Apply lessons learned from the Real World Science project to develop and retain academic talent? Roll out the expertise at MOSI to plug collections and expertise gaps across the region, in partnership with the STEM network, and maybe involving the Science Museum as a national exemplar?

Cultural learning is important in its own right, and creativity is also a lever for future prosperity. Britain has the largest creative

2

sector in the EU with over 2m people making their living out of ideas, design and cultural expression. Young participants in Global Threads: Stories of the World North West are blogging about their journey into the region’s rich textiles heritage and appreciating the diverse career options in the contemporary fashion industry – showing how museum collections are a rich resource to inspire ideas and careers across the creative industries spectrum.

There are the other growth industries, like adult social care, where we have a positive role to play in skills development and recruitment, or working with our local tourism partners (accommodation providers, food, agribusinesses and outdoor experiences) to develop packages, jointly market, spread good customer care, and develop and sustain the local supply chain, like at the Eden Project which puts economic sustainability at the heart of its mission.

No-one needs to tell museum professionals working in the North West that work revolutions can be socially divisive – the rise, fall and renewal of our industrial and commercial fortune is one of our major stories. A 2010 recession resilience survey for the BBC confirms that Liverpool still has the highest number of deprived areas of any Local Authority in the country. Inequality is evident across the region, with, according to the study, many communities deeply vulnerable to recession. Long term worklessness has done untold damage to local communities. Most fall below national averages in key indicators and many perform really badly showing some of the lowest educational results in the country (Burnley, Manchester, Knowsley, Barrow); highest levels of teenage pregnancy (Manchester, Blackpool, Salford, Halton), self-harm and suicide (Carlisle, Copeland and Barrow) amongst the indicators.

(All these figures and others like them can be found at the Office of National Statistics. The Guardian has an online ONS page which features new reports with added journalistic analysis. Well worth bookmarking to keep up to date with data and needs analysis. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/office-for-national-statistics)

3

The sector’s usefulness in getting people back to work through volunteering programmes is vital. Volunteering can have a big impact on individuals and their families and is done best in direct partnership with referral agencies as in the award-winning intouch volunteer programme involving Imperial War Museum North and Manchester Museum. A relationship between West Cheshire College and The Boat Museum delivers a practical City & Guilds BTEC diploma in skills in short supply in the local labour market, and gets maintenance jobs done around the site for free. At Norton Priory learning disabled adults are gaining NVQs in a programme funded by social services, and at the same time providing a much-needed cafe for visitors. But it is also long-haul, as MEAL’s Social Return on Investment report shows.

We need to match third sector and training partner interests with volunteer programmes. Working together digitally we can pool this expertise to offer a wider portfolio of opportunities, portable ‘modules’ and progression routes. Vinspired is a great online model, working with over 500 charities and community organisations making it easy for young people to find information about 1million volunteering opportunities. NML’s Discovery Volunteers have recently won a vinspired award, but on the whole museums are largely underrepresented on this and also on the Get Britain Working national database.

Ensuring that museums are seen as places where business and community interests can come together will have a profound impact on our own workforce needs and skills. We need to recognise that our FE and HE training programmes are out of date, that there are aching gaps in digital expertise, partnership, business enterprise skills which we need to fill, and museum professionals will find their own entrepreneurialism tested as they shift to flexible contracts, go freelance or establish specialist businesses.

4

So here are some next steps to help progress the enterprise agenda:

One: Be part of it.

Explore how your collections might be used to support the STEM subjects and prepare young people for work in the region’s digital, low-carbon and science industries. Identify what you can do to nurture talent in wealth generating creative industries, tourism and mainstream business. Recognise that your day to day business decisions have a positive impact on the local economy.

Two: Retune your educational offer

Adopt the right language. Today’s educators are focusing on creating learning programmes that motivate pupils; create leaders; foster critical and creative thinking; promote ethical, sustainable values, and encourage decision-making. Keep close to the trends and bookmark www.futurelab.co.uk.

Three: Do it in partnership.

With adult and children’s services, school clusters, trainers, business networks, third sector and referral agencies and each other. Learners, volunteers, partners and educators want responsive, rich and rewarding programmes, created with them not for them.

Four: Adopt your partner’s values.

We need to adopt the good practices and standards that our partners value – for example volunteer programmes that offer real pathways to progress and are accredited, or work placements and internships that follow the work-inspiration guidelines.

5

Seeded question:

If, in the current climate, there is an opportunity for genuinely ambitious and groundbreaking collective thinking, then might it be here, at a door marked work and enterprise? Can we pool our collections and expertise for a Museums into Work initiative, to inspire people about their potential and prospects, and aggregate resources from museums, business, education and enterprise agencies? A door to start knocking at might be the University of Lancaster, which just acquired The Work Foundation.

Five: Model it.

Skills in problem-solving, creative thinking, adaptability, partnership and flexibility – are as relevant to our own industry as they are to the work we do with schools, business and educators.

In a paper for The Good Work Commission Richard Donkin describes the first tools of 3.m years ago as the defining moment of humankind - how work shapes us most as human beings, establishing purpose, extending our creativity and ambition and building communities. Museum collections as the inspirational motif for work, enterprise and society, let’s build on that.

6