British Interactive Group - Newsletter Winter 1999

Explainers' pay reviewed

Just in case anyone does not know, Explainers are people who work directly with visitors aiding in the interpretation of interactive exhibits, and whether these exhibits are traditional physical science exhibits, museum handling collections or giant hissing cockroaches their role is basically the same. As a job it has never been well paid and some people see it as a temporary job people do for a while before seeking something more lucrative. These same people might think that the work of explainers is really rather unimportant and if the exhibits and graphics could be improved they would be unnecessary.

One can have interactive exhibits without Explainers but in most cases the experience of the visitor is poorer. As for people doing it for a time before moving on to something else, some people are really good at it and really enjoy it. These people should have the opportunity to continue to be Explainers without having to give up all hope of having a career. Explainers, contrary in some cases to first appearances, are just like other people. They want to be good at their jobs, they want to be able to progress through their career and they want to be paid enough to live in a certain amount of comfort.

In Britain it is fairly normal to have holidays abroad, buy a house, run a car and have children. One can live without these things but it is not unreasonable to expect them if you are a hard working graduate. The wage for an Explainer at two of the national museums in London is about £11K.

Accommodation will be rented, shared accommodation as many Explainers are often recent graduates and so not home owners. Travel to work will not necessarily include the cost of running a car as the locations of many museums and science centres are in town centre locations where it would not be practical. So in London at least, an average Explainer is left with £1560 a year (£30 a week) to cover clothes, running a car, going out, holidays, saving for a deposit on a house or any of the other reasonable expenses they might have. In addition to this as a recent graduate they may have debts to pay off, sometimes incurred by moving to be near their work.

Now everybody knows that people in our line of work do not derive all their job satisfaction from their pay packets. If this were the case we would not expect to see the merry group of people who have come to the BIG Event for the last few years. Explainers generally enjoy their jobs because they love to help people understand. This does not mean that they are prepared to do it for ever without having their efforts recognised, their skills broadened and their ideas tried. Explainers want to have a chance to be trained, promoted and have input but at the moment I do not believe that this is happening. Training tends to be intensive at the beginning of an Explainer's employment but rather limited after that. Most promotion opportunities that are available to Explainers involve them moving into a totally different field. Much creative work is done away from galleries and Explainers are not often asked for input.

All that I have said is based on personal experience and talking to people I have met. I do not know whether this is representative of the experience of all Explainers and people working in similar jobs. What I want to do over the next few months is find out the facts, building upon the work that Anthony Richards of the Science Museum did in 1994-5 and resulted in his report 'A Review of Explainer Management In Hands-On Centres.' Surveys will be sent to a range of centres in Britain and abroad to find how they deal with these issues. I hope that the results might become the basis for a dialogue between centre managers and Explainers which could be beneficial to both groups.

Adam Love-Rodgers is Senior Explainer at the RAF Museum's fun'n'flight interactive science gallery. You can contact him at the Museum on 020 8205 226 x280, or email adam.love-rodgers@rafmuseum.org.uk

Newsletter Winter 1999 Contents



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