What is the Level 7 apprenticeship?
The Level 7 Archivist and Records Manager apprenticeship will be a new technical training route into the archives sector and will be equivalent to the Master’s degree typically required to become an archivist. Apprentices will receive 80% on-the-job training at the archive that employs them and 20% formal training with a training provider.
Each apprenticeship will last 3 years, followed by a six-month end-point assessment period. Unlike our traineeship programmes, The National Archives will not run these apprenticeships. Instead, The National Archives is helping to launch the apprenticeship scheme and after that any archive across England will be able to choose to employ an apprentice independently.
What benefits will the apprenticeship bring?
The Level 7 Archivist and Records Manager apprenticeship will enable a wider range of people to join the recordkeeping profession. While the Master’s degree will continue to be the right path for some future professionals, the apprenticeship will provide an alternative path for people who would encounter financial or educational barriers to getting the Master’s. Having multiple routes into the archivist profession will allow people from diverse backgrounds to bring new skills and ideas to help archives thrive. Apprentices will also benefit by gaining a high-level qualification while working and earning.
What’s happening to develop the apprenticeship?
An apprenticeship needs three key things before launching: a standard, an end-point assessment organisation and a training provider. In 2021, the apprenticeship trailblazer group, made up of representatives from across the sector, finalised the Level 7 Archivist and Records Manager apprenticeship standard. The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) then approved this standard, which lists the Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours (KSBs) that an apprentice needs to demonstrate to complete the apprenticeship.
In 2022, we commissioned CILIP Pathways to develop the end-point assessor organisation process and we have been working closely with them to develop guidance for assessors, employers and apprentices. In February 2023, we announced that Westminster Adult Education Service (WAES) will be the first training provider for the Level 7 apprenticeships. WAES are now developing the curriculum for the formal training and we are working closely with WAES to support them.
When can these apprenticeships start?
We hope that the first Level 7 Archivist and Records Manager apprenticeships will be able to start in autumn 2023. Creating the apprenticeship has been the culmination of five years of collaboration across the sector and we’d like to thank all the partners who have been involved in this project so far.
Express your interest in employing an apprentice
If you are an archive interested in employing a Level 7 Archivist and Records Manager, we’d love to hear from you! Get in touch at armapprenticeship@nationalarchives.gov.uk