Training in cultural policy and management: international ... - Encatc

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“subsidiarity”, and an equal or even greater parallel trend towards decentralisation and delegation of
management and financial responsibilities within organisations and institutions.
Consequently, nowadays even relatively junior and inexperienced younger professionals and
technicians within businesses and organisations, including those in the cultural sector, are often
expected to take on a more substantial management and financial role in relation to both their general
work and any special projects with which they are concerned than would have been expected of the
most senior levels of management less than a generation ago. Recent United Kingdom government
research suggests that in Britain between one-fifth and one-quarter of the total workforce (over three
million jobs), including the great majority of professional positions, now carry significant management
or supervisory responsibilities in addition to their traditional professional or technical ones.
Therefore, in many countries ways of ensuring the effective management and administration of
publicly supported cultural institutions and services in these times of major change, (and often of
declining resources as well), has become a major concern to government and both national and local
cultural agencies, as well as within the cultural management professions themselves.
Professional education and career development
As a result of such trends, in at least some European countries, there is an increasing emphasis on
ensuring that the initial professional and technical education of future cultural sector professionals at
university and postgraduate levels include appropriate management education elements. This,
however, is not enough: With the pace of change in terms of both policy and operations, it is
becoming clear that Continuing Professional Development (CPD) throughout the working life of all
professionals and managers should be seen as a necessity by both employers and cultural sector
professionals themselves.
This in turn requires a range of different kinds and levels of training and professional updating
opportunities. These range from short updating courses and introductions to new skills, opportunities
for staff to gain experience outside their current regular employment through job-swap exchanges
both within and outside the employing organisation, temporary attachments to other units or
organisations (including international exchanges), and through opportunities for more extended
specialised advanced professional and managerial (including administration) education provision, such
as specialised master’s and doctoral studies and research in universities.
The past years have seen the emergence of an already significant (and rapidly growing) number of
specialist professional education and training programmes and courses, which are specifically focused
on the perceived needs of employing organisations and professional and technical workers. In some
cases the emphasis has been on those working (or intending to work in the future) in the public sector
or quasi-public cultural organisations and agencies. Both the curriculum and recruitment of these
typically prioritise public sector arts organisations andlocal government cultural departments including
cultural ministries of national and regional governments, together with cultural institutions and
organisations in the non-profit voluntary sector, though supported by public subsidy either directly
from a government department or agency or through an “arms-length,” publicly supported body such
as an Arts Council.
General management (including “administration/administracion” and “gestion” in
French-speaking and Spanish-speaking countries)
Specialised programmes focused specifically on cultural management education and training are
relatively recent creations in comparison with those for both general management and for the
management of other parts of the cultural sector. Specialised advanced courses for the industrial and
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