New role for at-risk costumed museum guides (From Dudley News)

New role for at-risk costumed museum guides

12:00pm Monday 8th October 2012 in News

THE majority of the Black Country Living Museum’s at-risk costumed guides could be redeployed as learning assistants it has been announced as bosses look at ways to save £250k a year.

The Tipton Road museum is looking to shift its focus on providing a more interactive and curriculum-relevant education service for the 67,000 students who visit each year.

The plans have been announced during a 30-day consultation period, which if given the go-ahead will also the museum closed on Mondays and Tuesdays during the winter months and up to 70 jobs affected.

The new educational role will see the guides leading secondary school groups around the site, but placing greater emphasis on using historical evidence to explore and evaluate the past.

Mel Weatherley, Black Country Living Museum’s Head of Learning, said: “The Museum proposes to draw upon our team of first-rate costumed guides to create costumed learning assistants, resettling many of the staff affected by redundancy into revised roles.

"The new costumed assistants will encompass everything the visitor loves about the museum’s traditional costumed guides – the change of title simply reflecting the museum’s commitment to education and its new enhanced interactive service.”

As part of the plans museum bosses are looking at setting-up interactive sessions for key stage 1 children, which will include toy handling and dressing up in Victorian costume, while key stage 2 students will be tasked with buying goods from a typical 1900s weekly shopping list using Victorian money.