Here at the Council for British Archaeology we really enjoy supporting placement students to gain experience working in archaeology and heritage organisations. We have recently started collaborating with the University of Chester History and Archaeology Department to support their latest cohort of MA students.

For the 2023 Festival of Archaeology, the Young Archaeologists’ Club worked with a number of young people to co-create a bumper resource pack of activities based on the Festival’s theme of archaeology and creativity.

The resource pack was created by young people, for young people, ensuring the activities are youth-proofed.

Amelie tells us a little about her placement and the activities she created for the resource pack.

Biography

My name’s Amelie, I’m 22, from Cheshire and I am masters student, and studying Archaeology and Heritage Practice at the University of Chester. I’ve been interested in Archaeology since I was 9 or 10; participating in my fair share of YAC activities as a child. I therefore jumped at the opportunity to work with CBA’s engagement team as part of a 20 hour placement for my degree.

My Placement

The placement forms part of a module on Public Engagement and Communicating Heritage, so I wanted to use the placement to improve my skills in developing resources and activities for engagement. The online aspect also drew me to the placement as Covid showed how important it is for people to be able to access archaeology from home.

It’s been amazing diving into the world of YAC online resources, trying my hand at some of the activities, as well as just exploring the website and resources.

Activity Ideas

Once I had learnt about what makes a good YAC activity I then moved on to creating my own. For this we looked to the upcoming Festival of Archaeology and I got to flex my creative skills in creating three activities for a YAC resource pack – similar to the Journeys one last year. I had so much fun with this, not only designing and testing fun activities but also thinking about where they are going to be used and how to make sure young people get the most out of them. After designing a resource, I also got the opportunity to familiarise myself with Canva. It was really cool to go through everything with Rachel and see what we can do to make these activities look as amazing as possible.

More from my placement….

I finished the placement off by attending a session run by the CBA on Youth Participation. It was a really interesting and informative session on how to increase youth engagement and participation in organisations. I found it furthered my understanding of youth leadership and empowerment in the heritage sector and allowed me space to explore, within an industry group, ideas on how and why we want to widen youth engagement.

Despite having only 20 hours (3 days) I’ve done so much and I’ve learnt a lot from this placement – especially from Jo and Rachel. It’s been a whirlwind and I look forward to not only using the skills I’ve picked up but also to seeing the exciting activities, resources and events planned for the upcoming Festival of Archaeology.

Check our the resources Amelie created via the links below or view the full resoruce pack here https://www.yac-uk.org/userfiles/file/1689594193_Archaeology_and_Creativity_YAC_Resource_Pack_FINAL.pdf