“From Cultural to socio economic capital: lessons from a post graduate course in Standards for Museum Education”

Museums are increasingly considered an educational tool with various fundamental functions in relation to exhibitions, conservation, research and mediation, yet the international milieu would seem to be highly fragmented. From an educational perspective, the need to start an international postgraduate university Masters degree on museum standards arose from a number of considerations. Such a course, in attempting to systematize teaching and learning in the field, is considered extremely innovative. In the academic year 2012-2013, the Centre for Museum Education, based at Roma Tre University (IT), started a one-year international postgraduate course entitled Standards for Museum Education with the aim of training highly specialised professionals in museum education and to fill the gap identified in the labour market of reference.
The present contribution focuses on the experiences of teachers and students, and on their perceptions of the value of museum-based learning to demonstrate that museum collections foster student knowledge. Data from a survey of students are presented and discussed. This contribution also reports on how the course is structured. The Standards for Museum Education course has been accredited by a board of local public authorities (Regions) and included in the Italian inter-regional catalogue 'Catalogo Interregionale dei Corsi di Alta Formazione' for high standard vocational training. This initiative is promoted by the Italian Regions to support human capital development and is intended to fund high standard teaching and learning paths. The recognition of this course is in line with the concept of using cultural capital to build economic capital and this contribution describes why this is valuable not only for students but for the entire context in which they operate, once qualified in the museum labour market.