Life as an Apprentice at London Transport Museum

My name is Georgia, I’m a 20-year-old museum professional at the start of my career in the heritage sector. I’m the Learning Apprentice in the Young People’s Skills team at London Transport Museum, and… I don’t know how to finish that sentence, because I’ve never actually got to the end of it. Usually, when I talk about my apprenticeship, I get cut off by abrupt questioning from somebody with a rather mystified looking face: “An apprenticeship at London Transport Museum? I didn’t know that you liked trains. What kind of work do you do in a museum anyway; is it like tours and stuff?”

To be fair, I do work on a lot of ‘stuff’. Sometimes, there is so much to do that when I have a new idea, a little voice in my head tells me that I clearly, categorically and without a shadow of a doubt should not take on anything more. But I ignore the annoying little voice because I don’t need that negativity in my life. I love doing stuff!

Explaining my work to friends can be difficult. The cultural sector is a world made up of very niche jobs, and I would say that mine is one of them. They’re the kind of jobs that you either fall into completely by chance, or you live and breathe museums your whole life just to get a foot in the door. London Transport Museum has held that door wide open for me, and this apprenticeship is giving me the skills, experience, and knowledge that it will take to go far in the heritage sector.

I have been in my role for just over six months now, and I have already learnt and done so much: I’m part of two working groups and a project management team within the Museum, I’ve worked on many Learning projects and events, and I have written around 17 newsletters. I’ve set up and attended countless training sessions and met with other museum professionals. I’ll stop the list here, as I could go on forever.

Over the past six months I have been settling into my new role and becoming a more confident me, so the fact that I still have a whole year left at the Museum makes me incredibly excited to see what I will end up doing.

I don’t just want to speak about the things that this apprenticeship at London Transport Museum is  doing for me. While sometimes organisations see apprenticeship programmes as a favour to young people, my team at the Museum recognise that I’m benefiting the organisation just as much as they are supporting my professional development.

Apprentices are innovative, creative, driven, and insightful people, we are the way forward - and when our ideas are taken seriously, we break outdated traditions, find new ways of working and advocate for inclusive approaches in recruitment, outreach, and delivery.

I exercise my creative thinking and supportive work environment to seek out my own opportunities and propose these ideas to my manager. If you’re an apprentice reading this blog, take one thing away from it. Ask. For. What. You. Want. This is your learning, so you should take ownership of it and go in a direction that is going to support your ambitions. You have great ideas, share them!

Happy National Apprenticeship Week 2022 to employers and employees. Be proud of your achievements, you’re doing amazingly!