The Institute received government financial support and recognition as the organization charged with developing standards of competence and NVQ's for the heritage sector in Britain, under the 1987 Employment Act. The Institute is not only the focal point for the development of standards of competence but is also responsible for putting in place the arrangements to certify persons competent in museum practices as well as ensuring that appropriate and relevant training is available. As the founding director of the Museum Training Institute, I was tasked with developing and introducing the new qualifications, as well as raising the awareness and importance of training. Quite apart from the challenges of changing attitudes towards training and qualifications, there were additional complexities associated with the nature of the workforce and organizational structures which had to be taken into account. There are over two thousand museums in Britain representing a wide variety of subjects, funded privately as well as from central local government.
Some museums are entirely operated by volunteers, others have substantial budgets and staff.
One leading national museum director has said that there cannot possibly be a museum profession in Britain, given the diverse and diffuse nature of the museum world. The workforce is also complex with full and part time employees totalling 36,300 in 1992, excluding volunteers. From a training point of view the museum and gallery sector is full of highly qualified people in terms of academic qualifications with over 85 percent of curators and managers having degrees and second degrees. Interestingly, two-thirds of paid employees, the largest group overall, work in security and support roles. Approximately 8 percent of these employees have university degrees and over 50 percent have general certificate of secondary education level qualifications.