New Tools Support Career Excellence in Informal Learning

We think you’ll likely agree that what we do in museums is exciting and rewarding—informal learning opens up so many diverse opportunities for people to explore our world. This also means it opens up just as many diverse opportunities for careers, from designing community-centered exhibitions to leading hands-on education programs, from preserving collections to managing visitor experiences.

Yet this flexible and wide range of potential professions means it can sometimes be challenging to identify career goals and the right learning to help you meet those goals. Our friends at the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC), alongside COSI’s Center for Research & Evaluation, Oregon State University’s STEM Research Center, and other partners, just released a new tool to help our field meet this challenge.

Three Tools to Guide Your Growth

Professional Pathways in Informal STEM Learning (ISL) is a suite of tools that supports professional learning and career development for anyone who works in ISL, whether they are just starting their careers or leading an institution. Three free tools make up Pathways:

• A Learning Plan that guides you in identifying your professional development goals and a path for how to reach them.
• A Framework that identifies the skills and knowledge (i.e., competencies) identified by ISL professionals as being important to their daily work, whether it’s grant writing, exhibit development, or welcoming visitors.
• A Self-Assessment that helps you reflect on which competencies you use in your work and which you’d like to develop and/or finetune.

Lastly, a hand-picked selection of resources—including professional organizations, articles, online courses, and more—provides further support.

Why This Matters for Museum Professionals

What excites us about these tools is how well they can support museum professionals across the Mid-Atlantic. Whether you’re navigating your first museum role, growing into leadership, or looking to deepen a specialty, Pathways offers a structured way to reflect, plan, and take action. It complements the professional development opportunities MAAM offers through our conferences, workshops, and peer networks.

We hope you will explore and apply Pathways and let us know what you think. If you’d like to learn more, don’t miss ASTC’s informational webinar on Tuesday, August 26 from 2:00-2:45 ET.