However, with the latest virtual reality technology, we are now able to attend it virtually too. With the start of the new school year we also moved our school education sessions online.During our childhood days, whenever we want to visit the museum, we need to physically be there with our teachers or parents. This was not the beginning or the end of our virtual adventures. On my end, this meant that when I had an emergency we didn’t have to cancel the whole thing! I do not have to explain how important it is that we make unpaid opportunities flexible so that they fit around paid work. She could fit the placement around her other commitments which included a paid job. In true teenage fashion, for Lucy this was mostly in evenings and at night. We could both work from home whenever suited us. Normally, the presence of a work experience volunteer in the museum means an incredibly busy time for the Museum Education and Outreach Coordinator (MEOC), as volunteers need to be supervised at all times. This is where the key advantage of virtual work experience placements lies. The online nature of the placement meant obviously that we would both be working from home. We had quick check ins over google meet every other day, but otherwise I pretty much let Lucy run with it. We set up meetings with each member of the team, so our volunteer could find out more about museum careers and what we do. During our first meeting I explained how the Padlet works, and what the tasks are. We shared files using Google Drive, where you can set permissions levels that let a 3 rd party (volunteer) edit a file, without access to the whole drive. Working asynchronously meant that she could work on whichever of the tasks suited her, in whatever order she wanted to. I could create a Padlet that only I and our volunteer could see, and choose permission settings that would allow Lucy to take ownership of it, and move things around, make comments, create her own notices etc. Importantly, it has a variety of privacy settings. This free web tool works a little bit like a noticeboard, and allowed us to coordinate the different tasks and resources needed in one place. Lucy was still not a member of staff, so I couldn’t just give her access to our files. Therefore, online safeguarding was not an issue, and Lucy and I could have online meetings without the presence of a second adult with a DBS certificate present (as it is required for meetings with those under 18). We were lucky enough to have chosen a volunteer who was already 18. Why couldn’t a teenager experience what working in a museum is like online? You know how we have all been working from our homes for a while? Teenagers have been doing that for a long time! Online is where they complete their homework, where they look for opportunities and where they interact with each other. Give her a taste of all the different tasks and roles that make up a museum, and teach her some transferable skills while at it. Throughout the planning process I was very conscious of the fact that we need to teach this young person as much as can be learned in a two week online placement. In other words, a bit of each of our jobs. The mix of tasks allowed the volunteer to understand how museum catalogue entries look, how our social media presence works, and what the education service does. We identified three big tasks and a few smaller ones, all of which could be completed online based on resources already published on the web (including our museum catalogue). Without thinking too much about it, I asked our Curator and Museum Assistant if they had any tasks in mind that a work experience volunteer could complete without being in the museum. What Can a Volunteer do without stepping foot in the museum? If they can do it, why can’t we? So we did. These were totally different in nature and aims to our programme, but the basic principle still stood. There, Reading’s Ure Museum explained how they carried out their online internships. Over the summer I attended an event through the Classical Collections Network. We decided that in a year where everything is cancelled, we will not be cancelling this! Work experience placements in museums are already as rare as possible, we were determined to make this work. Throughout the spring it was unclear whether staff would be allowed into the museum, let alone work experience students. We advertised for it at the beginning of 2020, and by March had over 30 applications. The Museum of Classical Archaeology runs a work experience programme for A-level and university students every summer. Could a work experience placement work in the virtual world of the 2020 lockdown summer? We decided to find out in the best possible way: by putting our apprehensions away, and just trying to do it.
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