Canterbury Museum leads the way in workplace training

Canterbury Museum was awarded the ATTTO Excellence in Workplace Training Award at the 2009 Museums Aotearoa Conference, hosted in Gisborne by Tairawhiti Museum.

Each year, ATTTO presents awards to acknowledge the important investment workplaces make in supporting their staff to achieve formal qualifications.

“Canterbury Museum has put a tremendous amount of effort in upskilling their staff on the job, and have invested in making workplace training work for them in the long term,” says Kath Burt, Industry Training Advisor.

To date, 7 of the 12 person management team have worked through the National Certificate in Museum Practice (Level 4), with Exhibition Manager Stephen Ruscoe becoming the first person in New Zealand to complete the qualification.

The Museum has also invested in upskilling staff to become Registered Workplace Assessors, which means that they can assess the work of their own teams (and other Museums) as needed.

"We were delighted to receive this recognition for our work in helping to promote the qualification,” says Lesley Colsell, General Manager of Museum programmes at Canterbury Museum.

“Not only have our staff enjoyed doing it and become very competitive in the process, but it has led to a much greater understanding of each other’s work within the Museum, and that has to be a good thing,” she says.

Canterbury Museum, Christchurch