Starting a career in archives
If you are in the first five years of your career in the recordkeeping sector, you are likely building confidence, developing expertise, and putting into practice the knowledge and skills gained through your ARA-accredited postgraduate qualification, your apprenticeship, or ARA’s Archive Conservation Training Scheme. Others may have yet to complete their initial education and training that will shape a future career in the profession.
The Archives and Records Association is the professional membership body for the recordkeeping sector in the UK and Ireland. We provide a wide range of services, guidance, and support to help recordkeeping professionals continue learning, develop their careers, and champion best practice across the sector. This includes our Section for New Professionals: a community created by new professionals, for new professionals. The section offers advice, support, networking opportunities, and practical guidance for those starting out in the profession.
To access most of these benefits, you will need to become an ARA member. Find out more about joining here – subscriptions are tied to your salary and qualification level – they start at £12/Euro14
Both the Archives and Records Association and The National Archives provide training, events, news, knowledge, and professional insight to support your ongoing development. Alongside strengthening your recordkeeping expertise, they also offer opportunities to build the interpersonal, communication, leadership, and negotiation skills that are essential for career progression and professional confidence.
ARA’s annual training programme focuses on copyright law and data protection, digital record keeping, advocacy and outreach, leadership and management, finance and resourcing and communication skills. You can find all ARA’s Training Events here.
The National Archives also provide training opportunities and recourses which find The National Archives’ Training events here
This post by Cat Goodrick was first published on the ARA New Professionals blog site in October 2025. In the post Cat shares her experience cataloguing the archives of Girlguiding UK, bringing a collection out of long-term storage and making it available and accessible to internal and external stakeholders.
Read moreThis blog, written by Rosie Vizor, was first published in September 2020 on the ARA New Professionals blog site. In the post Rosie writes about the challenges and rewards of being a new professional and a lone archivist when she joined the Garden Museum as their first full-time archivist.
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