I do think that lots of people fall into the trade by
          accident! I know that I and many others here certainly did!
          But the point I think is this:
          Should we be training people for vocations where there are
          limited job opportunities? (I guess this applies to many
          more professions other than Museums) Maybe we need to
          re-think what we are training people for and re-think the
          requirements for people to undertake these courses (ie
          working in the field, paid or unpaid, etc)
 
          I think there is a need for Museum Studies courses but for
          people who actually work in the field - if there were none
          of these types of courses available then people who
          accidentally fell into the field may not be able to get some
          sort of professional training or qualification that would
          help consolidate and build on the work they are doing.
 
          I liked Linda's idea about a reader's course - one problem I
          have found in my area (Evaluation) is that there is piles
          and piles of literature, research articles and publications
          that just keeping my head above water is very hard. Perhaps
          some discipline is required!
 
          Lynda Kelly, Evaluation Coordinator, Australian Museum,
          Sydney
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