History students at Digital Scholarship Lab

Heritage Work Placements

Our heritage placements allow you to gain invaluable work experience and enhance your employability.

In your second year, you can opt to take a credit-bearing, heritage work placement module entitled ‘From Education to Employment’, which is coordinated through the Department’s Regional Heritage Centre.

The sponsors range from prominent multi-site organisations such as the National Trust to small independent museums, county archives, and heritage consultants. On a work placement, you might find yourself analysing data on visitor experiences, writing text for exhibitions or researching world-class collections. This opportunity will provide insight into the different careers that exist in the heritage sector and the type of work that such roles involve.

Placement providers include:

  • The National Trust
  • Lancaster City Museum
  • Greater Manchester Police Museum
  • Harris Museum, Art Gallery & Library, Preston
  • Keswick Museum
  • Lancashire Archives, Preston
  • Cumbria Archives Service
  • Lancashire Infantry Museum, Preston
  • Judges’ Lodgings Museum, Lancaster
  • Tullie House Museum, Carlisle

The placements may involve activities, including:

  • Curating virtual exhibitions
  • Repurposing, cataloguing and contextualising existing resources
  • Creating and running public workshops, including for schools or families
  • Producing informative literature
  • Checking historic inventories
  • Working with oral history resources including transcription
  • Setting up activity trails
  • Rebuilding the online profile of the organisation

Our Careers Service offers competitive internships you can apply for in all years of study and across a range of employment sectors. You can also choose a placement year degree in which you apply to undertake a year-long, professional placement.

Please note: that the above placement providers are given as a guide only as our partnerships can vary each year. Whilst we cannot guarantee all students will be offered a heritage placement, there are other opportunities available.

Photo of Ana Garin
Ana Garin

Hands-on work with primary sources

I completed my heritage work placement at the Whitehaven Archives and Local Studies Centre over the Easter holidays. It was an amazing experience to have during my time at university.

It’s great that the History Department offers a short term work placement module for those who would like to gain experience whilst doing their studies, but don’t want to take a complete year out on a placement year degree.

Not only was it useful for my CV, as previous volunteering in the field is expected, it also allowed me to begin making connections within the sector, and gain more confidence in handling and cataloguing artefacts and documents. I would highly recommend any history students coming to Lancaster to look out for the History placement module in their second year.

Ana Garin, Final-year History student (2023)

My placement year at Stafford Record Office

I have been on placement at Stafford Record Office since the beginning of January 2022, and I have absolutely loved being part of such a talented and hard-working team. I have highly valued the opportunity to completely immerse myself in the documents and items held here and have learned so much during my placement.

Spending time with staff in conservation, collections management, the William Salt Library, outreach and the various volunteer groups has deepened my appreciation for the complexity and interrelationship between the different disciplines.

During my placement I have been able to gain both an overview of the organisation and in-depth knowledge of each discipline. I have thoroughly enjoyed this experience and am excited to bring through what I have learned into my next placement. Thank you to everyone at Stafford Record Office!

Emily Edwards, Final-year English Literature and History student (2023)

Photo of Emily Edwards
Emily Edwards

History at Lancaster

  • Your First Year Studying History

    During your first year, you'll have the chance to explore subjects ranging from ancient to modern history, while choosing from a set of optional modules.

  • Beyond Your First Year

    Our second- and final-year historians choose from within an extensive range of modules, personalising their degree to suit their own interests and passions.

  • Meet the Department

    Our friendly Department is a thriving centre of historical teaching and research. Find out more about who you’ll meet in your first year.

  • Study Abroad

    Choosing History at Lancaster will give you the opportunity to study at one of our partner universities overseas

  • Preparing for History

    Here you'll find recommendations from our lecturers to help you get ready to become an undergraduate historian.

History courses