Bridging the Digital Gap: technical traineeships in archives

This is an exciting time for people with technical skills to join the archives sector.

The archives of today are on hard drives, not paper. However, digital assets are surprisingly fragile. New approaches and technical people are needed to capture and preserve these vital items for the future.

The Bridging the Digital Gap programme aims to increase digital skills in archives by bringing in new people from different backgrounds to create a more diverse, inclusive, and skilled workforce. Through these paid traineeships, talented technical people are using their skills, energy and digital confidence to help preserve history and find new ways for other people to access and learn from that heritage.

Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the programme has offered three rounds of eight traineeships each at host institutions in Yorkshire, Norfolk, London and the South West. Trainees are employed by The National Archives and seconded to a host archive for their 15-month training placement.

Applications have now closed for the third and final round of traineeships, which will run from January 2021 to March 2022.

Bridging the Digital Gap: technical traineeships in archives
About the traineeships

About the traineeships

Find out more about the opportunities available.

Hear from our trainees

Hear from our trainees

Find out first-hand what it's like building a digital career in an archive.

Why work in an archive?

Why work in an archive?

Find out about the interesting technical work that trainees have done during their Bridging the Digital Gap placements.

The host organisations

The host organisations

Find out which organisations have collaborated to host our trainees since 2018.