Director of Learning – The National Holocaust Centre & Museum

About us 

We are Britain’s national museum of the Holocaust and one of Arts Council England’s prestigious National Portfolio Organisations. We were founded by a warm, inspiring Christian family in 1995 and became a home-from-home for survivors of the Holocaust, who have given talks to schools and adults here for over 25 years and with whom we have a unique bond. Despite considerable growth, we remain a values-driven community of hugely committed staff, supporters and partners.

We have a treasure trove of learning resources no other Holocaust educator can draw on. In addition to two permanent museum exhibitions (including one of only three in the world that is aimed at Primary aged children) and a substantial collection of priceless artefacts, testimonies & photographs — we also have beautiful rose & sculpture gardens, with 1,000 roses each dedicated to named victims of the Holocaust. The peaceful beauty of our rural Nottinghamshire location and our friendly ethos make people see us as a ‘safe space’ for difficult questions and deep reflection.

At the same time, you might not expect us to have created world-leading immersive digital experiences in interactive, VR & app formats. They put us at the cutting edge of museum learning. Our Primary and Secondary School programmes are centred on the full range of our physical and digital experiences and are a sophisticated hybrid of on-site, online and physical outreach.

Our flagship digital platforms are The Forever Project, The Journey and The Eye As Witness, all of which we use in our school outreach programmes. These are helping us to future-proof the stories and artefacts of our family of Holocaust survivors for generations to come, and translate lessons from the Holocaust into meaningful contemporary learning experiences for young people.

The ideal candidate will play a central role in a once-in-a-generation Museum Redevelopment programme. We are excited to create new ways and platforms to stimulate depth, breadth and frequency of the learning experience. We aim to upgrade what we already are: a unique learning destination — but also to use immersive online experiences to engage new & diverse learners far beyond our physical location. We are a warm community and hope to welcome many more people in — whether digitally, physically or both.

Our audiences

Our main on-site audience are primary and secondary school groups, who visit our exhibitions as part of our structured learning programmes. All groups also meet a Holocaust survivor, either live or through The Forever Project. School groups come from a range of subject specialisms including History, Religious Studies, English, PSHE and SMSC. Many of our loyal school customers are cross-curricular in their use of our services; and bring entire year cohorts and teachers from different subjects on site visits.

In addition, we are expanding into Tertiary education. We are currently developing a programme on Holocaust and Antisemitism learning for university students and staff, to be delivered through on-site visits and digitally. We strongly innovated through lockdown with over 50 hours of high-quality livestreaming and live school webinars, which are admired sector-wide. We have grown our online content at an unprecedented rate, engaging new audiences nationally and internationally. We reopened our physical museum site in autumn 2021, and are keen to ramp up our blended ‘phygital’ proposition to broaden and diversify our audiences, including hard-to-reach ones which will require real innovation and empathy. We are also actively exploring a holistic approach, combining school programmes with community outreach, to influence family conversations in the home.

The role

You will ensure the Museum continues to be recognised as a key provider of high-quality Holocaust education with an ever stronger sense of contemporary relevance and purpose to schools, colleges, universities and adult learners. You will provide educational leadership, creativity, empathy and infectious enthusiasm. You will lead an established team containing superb and highly experienced in-house educators, with specialisms ranging from primary and secondary school education to work with community groups and hate crime prevention. You will lead and inspire this team, working together to enhance existing programmes and adapt them to embrace new challenges and opportunities. You will make use of innovative pedagogic methods, and lead robust evaluations of our delivery and impact. At the same time, you will work closely with the Curatorial team to ensure the way we enhance and display our Collections and how we re-design our permanent and temporary exhibitions are optimised in terms of the learning programmes.

As Director of Learning, you will also be a member of the Senior Management Team, and take part in regular meetings to shape and refine the strategic priorities of the organisation. You will also work closely with Professor Maiken Umbach, our academic expert advisor, who conducts research on Holocaust learning and helps with evaluation, and with Dame Helen Hyde, a Trustee of the Museum and a distinguished Holocaust educator, around delivery.

This is an exciting, growth-orientated role for an ambitious Education professional. It is an opportunity to make a profound social impact and take your career to new heights. The role is permanent and full-time, requiring significant on-site presence as well as an ability to travel for delivery, meetings with project partners and institutional grant makers, and other events off-site, including regular trips to London.

Please click here for the full job description and person specification>>

To apply 

Applications, comprising a CV with names of at least two referees and a cover letter outlining your suitability and motivation for the role, should be emailed to [email protected] by 12noon on Tuesday 3 May.

Informal questions about this role may be directed to [email protected]

Formal interviews will be held mid-May.