Spending time on your CPD? Here's a rundown of a range of free training currently on offer

Updated 10 June 2020

We know some freelancers are looking for free or low-cost training options to invest some time in while they don’t have as much work as normal.

We’ve rounded up some we know about here, and have included suggestions from the community after we put a call-out on LinkedIn and Twitter – thank you to everyone who responded. If you know of any more resources the Museum Freelance community might be interested in, please let us know and we’ll update the list.

General business/business planning and strategies

The Prince’s Trust has resources and templates on writing a business plan.

The Department for Education has launched The Skills Toolkit, a new online platform to help people build skills and job prospects during the coronavirus outbreak and beyond. Course topics include creating great online content; learn to code for data analysis; introduction to cyber security.

There’s a range of online sessions set out on the Theatre Means Business page, from planning for change, to improving social media engagement and planning and forecasting for recovery.

Dan White has shared a ‘freelance in 50 lessons’ video course which covers the basics of starting a career as a freelance digital marketer.

The Arts Marketing Association have launched a freelancer development programme. Whilst not free, we felt we had to include this on our list - with pricing tiers based on your current income, starting from as little as £7.

Marketing and audience development

Our co-founder Christina Lister has put together a blog with lots of different free options for marketing training and upskilling, from lengthier courses, to podcasts and blogs for inspiration from a range of providers.

Marie Hobson has put together a great list of upcoming webinars, podcasts and chats on audience research and related topics the next few weeks.

Interpretation

There’s a Future Learn course on applying User-centred design methods to enhance digital content (4 hours).

Evaluation

SHARE Museums East has just updated its very popular Evaluation Toolkit which is worth a read.

Health and wellbeing

University College London is offering a nine-hour course Culture, Health and Wellbeing: an introduction, exploring health and wellbeing provision within culture. The course has been created by the Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance.

Climate

Culture Declares Emergency is running weekly sessions bringing together representatives from a range of declarer initiatives within and beyond the cultural sector, to discuss common goals, collaborative working and how to spread the spark to other sectors.

And finally…

Don’t forget we also have an ever-expanding range of blogs from guest contributors on our website which may be of interest. And we’d love to hear from more freelancers who might want to contribute! Please email if you’re interested.