Workforce Development in Digital Preservation

The DPC recognizes the very great need among our members for access to specialist training for professional development, as well as the very great risks and costs that are incurred by those that provide and deliver such training.

The DPC Career Development Fund (previously known as the Leadership Programme) has been created with the help of DPC’s Supporters to offer an ongoing programme of grants so that our members can attend training and development opportunities. Over the course of its lifetime, it has provided over 200 grants for members.

DPC Members can access support from the Career Development Fund through two routes:

1. 1. Advertised Calls. The DPC publishes periodic calls for applications to attend events, courses and other development opportunities that have been selected for inclusion in the programme and approved by the Workforce Development Sub-Committee.

   2. Member Self-Identified Opportunities. Members can submit an application for any training or development opportunity they have identified which they believe will help build digital preservation capacity within their organization.

An overview of both is included below, with more details about funding, criteria and eligibility provided in the full Career Development Fund Application Guidelines.

The Career Development Fund is sponsored by the DPC’s Supporters who recognize the benefit and seek to support a connected and trained digital preservation workforce.  We gratefully acknowledge their financial support to this programme and ask applicants to acknowledge that support in any communications that result. At the time of writing, the Career Development Fund is supported by Arkivum, Artefactual Systems Inc., boxxe, Evolved Binary, Ex Libris, Iron Mountain, Libnova, Max Communications, Preservica, and Simon P Wilson.  A full list of supporters is online here.

Advertised Calls 

Announcements for advertised calls for applicants are published via the DPC News page. Applications for advertised opportunities are invited from all DPC Members and Affiliates (see individual announcements for eligibility information). Applicants are required to complete the relevant application form and provide explicit approval from their line manager or supervisor for attendance.

A full list of upcoming Advertised Grants and Calls For Applicants is available on the DPC Grants Calendar page here.

Member Self-Identified Opportunities

The DPC has extended the Career Development Fund to allow members to apply for grants to attend training and development opportunities they have self-identified. This will allow members to address specific training needs that might otherwise be impossible to fulfill.

Details on the eligibility of opportunities, application process and deadlines are available here.

How to Apply

Before applying, please read the full Career Development Fund Application Guidelines.

The application forms below should be used to apply for the relevant route:

Apply for Advertised Calls

• Example application form for advertised calls (generic) 

Apply for Member Self-Identified Opportunities

• Application form for member self-identified training/development opportunities (due ~10 weeks before registration deadline)

Applications must also be accompanied by an email or letter containing explicit approval from a line manager, supervisor, or other senior executive to undertake the opportunity as well as a commitment from the organization to meet any additional costs incurred. 

Applicants should complete and submit the relevant form, along with the explicit approval (via email or attached letter), to amy.currie[at]dpconline.org by the specified deadline.

Previous Grants

Over the course of its lifetime, the fund has provided over 200 grants for members including:

• Digital Preservation Training Programme (DPTP) and DPTP Online course
• International Conference on Digital Preservation (iPRES)
• Winter School for Audiovisual Archiving (Winter School)
• International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC)
• Digital Futures Academy

• Preservation and Archiving Special Interest Group (PASIG) Conference
• Research Data Alliance (RDA) Plenary Meeting
• APARSEN Summer School; Trust and Digital Preservation; and Sustainability and Digital Preservation
• UK Data Archive How to Set Up and Run a Data Service Course
• DIS Short Courses for CPD, Aberystwyth University
• PGCert in Digital Curation, Digital Curation Lab, University of Salford
• ProfCert in Digital Information Management, University College Dublin
• PGCert in Applied Data Science, Birkbeck University of London
• Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) Digital Directions Conference
• Society for Imaging Science and Technology (IS&T) Archiving Conference
• Discovering Collections, Discovering Communities (DCDC) Conference
• Australian Society of Archivists (ASA) Annual Conference
• Archives and Records Association (ARA) UK & Ireland Annual Conference
• Research Data Management Forum (RDMF), Digital Curation Centre 
• The Fédération Internationale des Archives de Télévision / The International Federation of Television Archives (FIAT/IFTA) World Conference
• The International Conference on FAIR Digital Objects (FDO)
• The No Time To Wait Conference (NTTW) 
• The International Symposium of the Southeast Asia Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives (SARBICA) 
• PV Ensuring long-term Preservation and Adding Value to Scientific and Technical Data Conference
• International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC) Web Archiving Conference (WAC)
• Information and Records Management Society (IRMS) Conference
• Australian Museum and Gallery Association’s (AMaGA) Conference

A list of blog posts from previous grant recipients, highlighting some of the information and skills learned from the funded event or course, is available here. 

The DPC invites training providers to discuss the possibility and appropriateness of offering Career Development Fund grants for opportunities by contacting the Training & Grants Manager. 

Acknowledgements

The Career Development Fund is sponsored by the DPC’s Supporters who recognize the benefit and seek to support a connected and trained digital preservation workforce. We gratefully acknowledge their financial support to this programme and ask applicants to acknowledge that support in any communications that result. At the time of writing, the Career Development Fund is supported by Arkivum, Artefactual Systems Inc., boxxe, Evolved Binary, Ex Libris, Iron Mountain, Libnova, Max Communications, Preservica, and Simon P Wilson. A full list of supporters is online here.