The Egypt Centre, based at Swansea University, has received funding from Jobs Growth Wales, administered by Talk Training, to employ three trainee Museum Assistants for 6 months.

Samuel Wale, Rosemary Freeman and Angharad Gavin fought off tough competition to win a placement at the Centre where they will gain valuable experience in the heritage industry to help them to apply for any future posts in this specialised area of work.

Competition for paid museum work is substantial and unfortunately without prior experience it is difficult to gain paid work in a museum. The jobs were advertised across Wales and 30 applications were received from young people aged 18-24 who were keen to get experience working in a museum. Sam and Rosemary are Swansea University graduates and Sam has an MA in Museum Studies from Leicester University and all three successful candidates are all ex-Egypt Centre volunteers.

Deputy Minister for Skills, Jeff Cuthbert said:

“Opportunities for our young people are being limited by the supply of jobs and the competition for those available. Jobs Growth Wales has been designed to tackle a key issue that young people face in their search for work, namely, how they can secure the relevant work experience employers require when they are recruiting.

“I am delighted that this successful programme has enabled the Egypt Centre to take on three participants and I wish them the best of luck in their roles.”

Wendy Goodridge, Assistant Curator said: 

“I am delighted to have Rosie, Angharad and Sam on board as part of our team here at the Egypt Centre.  This is a rare opportunity, giving them paid employment and museum experience, in order to gain skills in areas such as museum education, documentation and marketing, which will be invaluable in their search for full-time employment in the museum sector. They have already started working through their exciting work experience programme by organising a volunteer trip to St Fagan’s, learning how to deliver our hands-on activities and planning an out-reach teaching session to Woking College!“

Picture: (Left to right). Angharad Gavin, Sam Wale, Rosie Freeman.

• Jobs Growth Wales is a Welsh Government and European Social funded scheme. For more information go to: http://wales.gov.uk/topics/educationandskills/skillsandtraining/jobsgrowthwales/?lang=en
   
•  For more information about Talk Training go to http://www.talktraining.co.uk