We offer training to develop skills, knowledge and understanding within the archives sector. Our training sessions are relevant from both an organisational and individual perspective. Please email us if you would like more information about any of our sessions. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, our events and training moved online and some of our events remain digital, alongside our e-learning courses.
Most of our training sessions are free, and bookings are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. If you’re unable to cover the cost of travelling to one of our events, please get in touch and we’d be happy to discuss this. We have a limited number of spaces available at each session. Because of this, please only book if you are able to attend, and contact us if you can no longer attend.
Upcoming events
Apprenticeship training programme for employers
The National Archives is running a series of online workshops to help employers understand how apprenticeships work and how to introduce them into your organisation:
- Introducing an apprenticeship to your archive (10am – 12pm, 12 March 2024)
- A guide to recruiting an apprentice (10am – 12pm, 19 March 2024)
- A guide to onboarding and mentoring an apprentice (10am – 12pm, 26 March 2024)
- Community support session for employers (11am – 12pm, 24 April 2024)
These events are suitable for all employers within the archive sector, regardless of whether you have run an apprenticeship programme before. Please note that the guidance provided is relevant to archives in England and each country will have its own apprenticeship principles and standards. You are welcome to attend any of the sessions that are relevant to you, although please be aware that the workshops have a limited capacity.
This series is not suitable for prospective apprentices. If you’d like to find out more about becoming a Level 7 apprentice, please instead contact armapprenticeship@nationalarchives.gov.uk
Community support session for employers (online)
24 April (11am – 12pm)
This one hour session will reflect on the topics covered in the ‘apprenticeship training programme for employers’ series related to recruiting, onboarding and mentoring an apprentice and provide a forum for employers to ask questions about these topics. Regardless of whether you have attended any of the previous workshops, this session will be of interest to employers who are considering introducing an apprenticeship into their archive service but are not sure where to start and could benefit from further guidance.
Find out more and register to attend the community support session for employers
Digital Asset Register Toolkit Launch
15 May (1.30pm – 2.30pm)
This webinar will launch our first piece of new guidance released under Our Digital Century. We commissioned the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) to develop guidance and resources on creating and maintaining a Digital Asset Register (DAR). A DAR is a key management and advocacy tool for digital preservation and vital for all archives as they embark on developing their digital preservation capacity. We will hear from the DPC about developing this new resource and will also hear from Clair Waller, Digital Archivist, at the University of Kent on her experience of developing a DAR for her organisation. There will also be an opportunity at the webinar to begin thinking about your own motivations for developing your own digital asset register.
Find out more and register to attend the Digital Asset Register Toolkit launch webinar
MAPLE – new resources and support event (online)
15 April (1pm – 1.40pm)
The Major Archive Projects Learning Exchange (MAPLE) was set up in autumn 2007 to support organisations planning or managing large archive projects, primarily capital developments. This event will showcase the support The National Archives can offer through a new suite of webpages. We will also hear from Jess Hogg, Cultural Services Manager at Heritage Doncaster on the support given by The National Archives on their recent capital development project.
Find out more and register to attend the MAPLE – new resources and support event
Impact seminar – building an inclusive catalogue (online)
18 April (1.30pm – 3.00pm)
Join us to hear from archivists at London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) about their experience in working towards embedding inclusive cataloguing into their professional practice. Inspired by the work of Carissa Chew at The National Library of Scotland to decolonise the language of the heritage sector, the LMA staff have surveyed the discriminatory or prejudiced language towards people and communities in their own catalogue and have started working on how they should tackle this as archive professionals. The speakers will share the methodology they have developed to tackle the harmful, unnecessary, or inaccurate language in their extensive catalogue and collections and explore the challenges they faced, and the lessons learned.
Find out more and register to attend the impact seminar – building an inclusive catalogue
Valuing students’ union records and archives (in-person)
21 May (10am – 4pm)
This in-person event at UCL will highlight the importance of caring for and making accessible student’s union records. There will also be a workshop which will form the basis of future guidance. As part of the event there will be a tour of the exhibition ‘Generation UCL: 200 Years of Student Life in London’. This event has been organised by the Higher Education Archives Programme in partnership with UCL, supported by the British Academy Research Project ‘Archiving the Mixed Economy of Welfare‘. This event will be of interest to archivists, historians, students and students’ union representatives.
Conservation webinars for archive professionals
The National Archives is working with Victoria Stevens ACR to develop basic conservation guidance for archive professionals. This guidance will be delivered as 5 webinars between May and June 2024:
- Managing perceptions of damage (11am – 11.45am, 2 May 2024)
- Conservation for digitisation (11am – 11.45am, 16 May 2024)
- Storage and its environmental management (11am – 11.45am, 23 May 2024)
- Mould and hazardous materials (11am – 11.45am, 13 June 2024)
- Conservation documentation (11am – 11.45am, 27 June 2024)
The webinars are aimed at archive and heritage professionals working with collections who have little or no conservation experience. The webinars are not aimed at conservators.
To inform the development of the guidance, between February and April 2024, we ran 5 online knowledge exchanges for conservation professionals. This collaborative approach harnessed a wide range of professional expertise and advice to build a body of information that has been distilled into comprehensive guidance.
The basic conservation guidance for archivists will complement the work done by the Archives and Records Association to create a resource for archivists to care for their collections without direct daily conservation support. It will continue to firmly advocate for the use of conservators and is not intended as a replacement for professional expertise.
Managing perceptions of damage (online)
2 May (11am – 11.45am)
This webinar will focus on managing perceptions of damage. It will provide guidance based on themes explored in the knowledge exchange which included: damage and use – what we mean by damage, problematic damage and signs of use, who to consult in making decisions about use and interventions, and how does the whole organisation empower access?
Find out more and register to attend the managing perceptions of damage webinar
Conservation for digitisation (online)
16 May (11am – 11.45am)
This webinar will focus on conservation for digitisation. It will provide guidance based on themes explored in the knowledge exchange which included: why are we doing it and who for, how to advocate for conservation within this process, what questions and decision do we need to make for treatment, and how do we manage the relationship with many stakeholders in a digitisation process?
Find out more and register to attend the conservation for digitisation webinar
Storage and its environmental management (online)
23 May (11am – 11.45am)
This webinar will focus on storage and its environmental management. It will provide guidance based on themes explored in the knowledge exchange which included: conservation science surrounding environmental control and decision making, what is good enough and how do we achieve good enough (methods for mitigating historical/unfavourable environments), and how do we involve conservators in conversation about environment.
Find out more and register to attend the storage and its environmental management webinar
Mould and hazardous materials (online)
13 June (11am – 11.45am)
This webinar will focus on mould and hazardous materials. It will provide guidance based on themes explored in the knowledge exchange which included: identification, how it affects collections, how it affects humans, and how we deal with risk.
Find out more and register to attend the mould and hazardous materials webinar
Conservation documentation (online)
27 June (11am – 11.45am)
This webinar will focus on conservation documentation. It will provide guidance based on themes explored in the knowledge exchange which included: who and what are we preparing information for (audiences), controlled vocabularies (everyone using the same descriptive terms), documentation choices (one size does not fit for all projects).
Find out more and register to attend the conservation documentation webinar
E-learning courses
Data Protection Toolkit for Archives
This toolkit is for archive service staff involved in providing access to personal data found within an archive service’s collections.
The toolkit is hosted on Moodle, an e-learning service that The National Archives uses to host learning and development content for the archive sector. Following the link provided below, please fill out the New Account form with your details. Please enter your email address as your username and use the enrolment key: ‘Data Protection Toolkit’. Once you have registered, you will receive an automatic confirmation email from Moodle.
Sign up to the Data Protection Toolkit for Archives
If you already have an account, log in to the Data Protection Toolkit
Archive Service Accreditation e-learning course
This e-learning course is for anyone working with archive collections who wishes to find out about Archive Service Accreditation. It provides a general introduction to the scheme and will help participants take the first steps towards making an application.
Sign up for the Archive Service Accreditation e-learning
Fundraising for Archives e-learning course
This e-learning course covers fundraising strategy, financial planning, cases for support, building networks and supporters, crowdfunding, and measuring outcomes and evaluation.
Video tutorials and step-by-step guidance will introduce you to each topic and guide you through online activities, enabling you to put what you are learning into practice and tailor it to your archive service.
Sign up for the Fundraising for Archives e-learning course
Transfer to Places of Deposit (PoD) e-learning course
This online learning course explains the key points of the Public Records Act for public record bodies. It describes what a place of deposit is and the process public record bodies should follow to select, prepare and transfer records for permanent preservation to a place of deposit.
The learning objectives of this course are to:
- understand the content and scope of the Public Records Act and the ’20 Year Rule’ changes
- gain knowledge about the process of selecting and transferring records from a public record body to a place of deposit
- recognise the roles and responsibilities for managing records under the Act and what the public record body needs to do
- find out about the guidance and support available from The National Archives
Sign up for the Transfer to Places of Deposit e-learning course
Recorded events
Take a look at our recorded events on YouTube, which cover a variety of topics, services and networks including:
Training
- organisational impact
- advanced bid-writing
- crowdfunding and digital fundraising
- Manage Your Collections in Discovery
Events
- Digital Archives Learning Exchange (DALE)
- Manorial Documents Register Conference 2022
- Archives for Everyone 2023 – 2027
- Launching the Level 7 Archivist and Records Manager apprenticeships
Grants programmes
- Risk and Resilience grants programme
- Cataloguing grants programme
- Research and Innovation grants programme
- Archives Revealed cataloguing grants