Helping the sector thrive

More than ever, heritage organisations are looking to develop their use of digital technology so they can move towards a more resilient, creative future. Our £3.5million Digital Skills for Heritage initiative is designed to help them thrive.

We are supporting a range of activities and resources to reflect the varying needs, locations, sizes and levels of digital experience of heritage organisations. 

Two years of Digital Skills for Heritage

March 2022 marks two years of our Digital Skills for Heritage initiative. Since launching in 2020, we have supported 65 projects to help raise digital skills and confidence across the heritage sector.

To celebrate, we looked back at how the initiative has helped grantees so far. We also spoke to Lucy Crompton-Reid, Wikimedia UK CEO, about her top tips for inspiring and engaging digital volunteers – a critical skill for heritage organisations.

Keep up to date

Sign up to our newsletter and tick the ‘digital’ box to get the latest news about Digital Skills for Heritage to your inbox.

Opportunities to get involved

Digital training

The Heritage Digital Academy has two new courses coming up in September. They will take around 8.5 hours to complete:

• Making a plan for digital
• Designing digital services

Leadership development

Leading the Sector, run by Culture24, is helping trustees and executives from across the heritage sector expand their organisations’ digital capabilities. This year it is delivering six themed online discussion events and six in-person workshops at heritage venues across the UK. Register your interest for the next online discussion event on the Culture24 website.

The in-person workshops will help senior leaders and boards in the heritage sector understand what they need to know about digital maturity. Book onto your nearest workshop:

• Ulster Museum, Belfast, Monday 12 September, 3pm
• Glasgow Women's Library, Glasgow, Wednesday 14 September, 3pm
• People's History Museum, Manchester, Friday 16 September, 2pm
• Museum of London Archaeology, London, Monday 19 September, 2pm
• Museum of Cardiff, Cardiff, Wednesday 21 September 3pm
• University of Leicester, Leicester, Friday 23 September, 2pm

How we are helping you

Digital resource centre

Teams from Arts Marketing Association, University of Leeds and The Heritage Alliance have researched and consulted with the sector to find organisations' 100 most pressing digital questions. The answers are published on their Digital Heritage Hub.

Support with innovation, enterprise and business planning

Though their Heritage Digital Academy, Charity Digital Trust are helping heritage organisations use digital within strategic and operational planning. Check their site to join free training, webinars and events. 

Digital skills for leaders

A second round of Leading the Sector is running throughout 2022 (see opportunities to get involved, above.) The first round worked directly with 16 senior leaders. Read our interviews with participants and a blog written by Culture24's Anra Kennedy. A new leadership 'pathway' tool was also created to help other heritage leaders. 

Digital skills development

The Digital Heritage Lab and Heritage Digital programmes offered training, webinars and resources to help heritage organisations develop their digital capabilities across a range of areas – including marketing, content creation and data protection. Many great recordings and resources are available on their websites.

Networked communities and digital volunteering

We have funded eight networks to support communities of practice to pool resources and expertise around particular heritage areas. The networks will open up heritage topics to a wider range of people.

We have also funded 17 projects that will create hundreds of digital volunteering roles across the sector. The opportunities will be both online and in person, supporting volunteers to contribute – and develop – their digital skills. Heritage organisations will gain the perspectives and skills of people who may not have had the chance to volunteer before.

Learnings from these projects will be made available to the sector as they develop. 

DASH survey results

Explore the results from our second Digital Attitudes and Skills for Heritage (DASH) survey. This survey and report help us to understand and respond to the needs of the sector. 

Our digital guides

We have produced free digital guides to help heritage organisations get started in key digital areas:

• Making online content accessible to all
• Online security and privacy
• Working with children and young people online
• Getting started with online learning
• Working with open licences

Discover more digital resources, useful information, great digital projects and initiative updates below: