CPD23 Thing 10

Graduate traineeships, Masters Degrees, Chartership, Accreditation

The career path for librarians seems quite structured, and it’s a process I think has plenty of benefits – I particularly like the combination of both practical experience as well as formal qualifications.

I’ll be starting my traineeship at St John’s College, Cambridge, in just a few weeks, and I am SO excited. I feel very lucky to have managed to secure this position, as I had many other unsuccessful interviews before this one. If I hadn’t managed to get a traineeship, I would have just continued working at my Information Assistant positions in Glasgow and gained the necessary experience in that way; however, the traineeship will provide a more rounded experience of library work and will give me lots of additional opportunities otherwise unavailable to me in a paraprofessional post.

After my traineeship I will almost certainly move on to a Master’s degree. Lots of people seem to be working and studying part-time, but as an international student this option is simply not available to me; if I do a course in the UK, it must be a full-time one, for visa purposes. I feel that doing the Master’s course will help establish a solid theoretical foundation to draw upon as my career advances.

I attended a Chartership event in Glasgow a few weeks ago, and found it really useful. It looks like I can expect to be preparing for Chartership within the next 5 years, and that it’s not a very intimidating or difficult process – just a time-consuming one. I found it interesting to meet new professio