Accreditation Mentors

What is an Accreditation Mentor?
Through the Accreditation Mentor Scheme we partner experienced museum professionals with smaller museums and galleries to help support them in meeting the Accreditation Standard.​

The Accreditation Mentor: 

• Provides support and advice relating to Accreditation from their own expertise. ​
• Confirms the Accreditation application and Accreditation return, and provides a report as part of the Accreditation return. ​
• Works with the museum to establish what other areas of expertise are required to meet and maintain Accreditation standards.  ​
• Acts as an ‘advice co-ordinator’, identifying sources for advice from their own networks or through other professionals.
• Acts as an advocate for the museum and helps to develop links and relationships with the wider museum profession.

Why become a mentor? 
Becoming an Accreditation Mentor is great for Continuing Professional Development. You can become a valued source of support for a smaller museum and share your professional experiences, as well as gaining new skills and knowledge of the sector.

How do I become an Accreditation Mentor? 
The Accreditation Mentors scheme partners experienced professionals with smaller museums, to help them in their Accreditation applications and returns.
To apply to be a mentor you must have:

• A minimum of three years’ experience working professionally in museums, with experience at curator/manager level.
• A commitment to career-long CPD. This could be through participation in formal CPD channels, such as the Museums Association’s AMA and CPD+ schemes, or through logging their CPD activity on their CV.

As Accreditation covers all aspects of a museum’s business it’s unlikely you’ll have the full range of professional skills to advise on all areas with the same level of expertise. Your experience can be across any of the three areas of requirements within the standard: organisational health, managing collections, or users and their experiences. You’re not expected to be an expert on everything!

Whilst one museum professional must fulfil the role of Mentor to sign off the museum’s Accreditation application, you don’t have to work alone. You may invite colleagues to help on specific areas or bring relevant expertise into the museum in other ways.

If you are interested in becoming a mentor, the first step is to complete the Expression of Interest form. The information provided on the form will be reviewed against the published eligibility criteria by your Accreditation assessing organisation. The form can be found here.  You can also contact one of our Accreditation Advisers for an informal discussion about the mentoring role.

Further information about being an Accreditation Mentor, and the support available through MD North, is available in our publication ‘Being an Accreditation Mentor – A Guide’