Digital skills training for the cultural sector
As an arts professional, you’ll know that keeping up to date with the latest digital developments and best practices is a challenge. There’s no shortage of training, articles, podcasts and videos but much of it is geared towards the private sector, which has a different relationship to revenue, budgets and funding.
Fortunately, there is digital training tailored specifically for arts and culture pros, if you know where to look. We’ve rounded up some of the best resources and courses.
Sector-specific digital training
Arts Marketing Association
Ubiquitous in arts organisations across the UK, the AMA delivers a broad portfolio of training and networking opportunities every year. You can become a member individually or as part of your wider team, which then offers discounts on courses and sessions. They have online resources in the form of CultureHive and the Digital Heritage Hub as well as one-off webinars and the annual two-day shindig at the AMA Conference.
Jisc
There’s a wide range of training available from Jisc, ranging from drop-ins to longer courses. The focus is on digital security, leadership and learning. Their full training catalogue is here.
Collections Trust
If you work at a museum you will benefit from the knowlege of the Collections Trust, an organisation dedicated to closing the gap between collections and audiences. As an Arts Council England Sector Support Agency they are well positioned to advise on how to improve access to collections.. Though UK-based, they operate internationally.
Culture24
An independent charity with a focus on upskilling arts and heritage organisations, Culture24 has a particular focus on leadership, resilience and enabling best practices within the sector around digital. Their regular Let’s Get Real conference has been going for over a decade.
Digital Culture Network
Arts Council England’s own initiative to raise the digital competency within heritage, arts and cultural organisations in the UK, packed full of resources and opportunities. The appointed ‘Tech Champions’ deliver regular sessions and qualifying organisations can submit questions directly. For everyone else there’s a newsletter and online knowledge hub.
The Audience Agency
Known especially for their Audience Finder tool, the go-to segmentation tool for cultural organisations, The Audience Agency also makes available extensive research papers and guides.
The Space
Established by the BBC and ACE, The Space delivers webinars and events covering digital activities including podcasting, live streaming and more, with a focus on audience building and adapting to new digital opportunities.
London Museum Development
London Museum Development have a selection of webinars, surveys and reports on their website, plus a YouTube channel full of interesting material.
VocalEyes
Useful information about making venues and digital content accessible for blind and partially sighted visitors.
One Further
Yes, this is us. Hello. Our blog is full of advice and techniques on digital analytics, usability and content strategy. We regularly host webinars and workshops, with recent topics including Google Analytics 4, Google Ads (including Ad Grants), SEO, digital content strategy and Google Tag Manager. We have three free newsletters for you to choose from, which drop content strategy, tech culture and other resources into your inbox each month.
If you have more specific needs we can design bespoke training for individuals and teams. Do get in touch to discuss what you’re after.
Coach
You can go a step further by joining Coach, our premium learning platform. The growing catalogue currently features three self-paced courses and over 10 hours of webinar content, all of which can be accessed with a single Coach Pro subscription. Alternatively you can join a specific course:
Other places to find courses
There is a wealth of training outside of sector-specific providers. Some of it won’t be relevant and it often assumes a more profit-driven approach but there is still much to learn. Certification is often a perk, which can help with your personal career development. The official training from the likes of Google and Meta have the added bonus of being up-to-date with the latest developments and changes.
What have we missed?
If you’ve done training that you’d recommend to other arts professionals, or if you’re a provider to the arts and cultural sector, please do get in touch to let us know what we’ve overlooked. We’ll be periodically updating this article so that it stays relevant and useful.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash