Breakthrough Traineeship – Heritage Collection Assistant, Eastbourne
About Breakthrough
Breakthrough is a 6‑month employability programme designed as a stepping stone to get you workplace experience and all-important employment skills. This short placement gives you insight into a future career in the Creative Industry, supporting your confidence and professionalism in the workplace, and helping you to break through into a career that matters to you!
Read more about Breakthrough here:
The role
This is an opportunity to work with and learn from Towner’s Historical Collections Curator. You will be supporting them with the organisation of the Eastbourne Heritage collection.
Towner has recently taken on the custodial management of Eastbourne Borough Councils existing Heritage Collections. This collection comprises approximately 20,000 artefacts, photographs and works on paper of local and regional significance, with strengths in local history and archaeology. Additionally, there is extensive photographic material charting the development of Eastbourne over the last 150 years.
You will be supporting with cataloguing and collections management of this collection.
As part of the curatorial team, you will assist in refining the documentation for the Heritage collection and will work with this system, comprising of both a paper and digital archive, to help with its ongoing management, location and storage.
You will ensure records are updated to reflect industry standards, as well as helping to identify material that could be deaccessioned from the collection.
This role will include:
- Working with the curatorial team to plan and follow procedures for improving the documentation of the heritage collections.
- Helping with the sorting through of material and objects, including assistance with deaccessioning (moving objects out of the collection where appropriate) procedures and finding alternative locations for deaccessioned materials.
- Managing and organising the upload of digital resources to the Towner server.
- Inputting data into Towner’s Collection database for the Heritage Collections
- Working to a plan/schedule for the process for improving documentation for individual objects.
- Liaising with the Marketing & Communications team to provide archive images for website, press, publicity and social media purposes.
Training will be offered to the successful applicant, depending on their existing skills. This may include:
- Object handling
- Cataloguing
- Management of digital assets
- Database introduction
- Regular one to ones with a member of the curatorial team
The role will be split between the Heritage Collections Store, in Hampden Park (Eastbourne – 5 mins walk from Hampden Park railways station), and Towner Eastbourne (in Devonshire Quarter close to Eastbourne town centre and the seafront). There will also be opportunity to work from home/hybrid on certain days if this suits you.
Who we are:
Collecting and exhibiting contemporary art for 100 years, Towner Eastbourne sits where the coast and the South Downs meet. Towner presents exhibitions of national and international importance for audiences in Eastbourne, the UK, and beyond, showcasing the most exciting and creative developments in modern and contemporary art. Towner is now in the early stages of managing the care of Eastbourne’s varied Heritage Collection and is preparing for expansion onto a nearby farm site at Beachy Head.
Towner is a free resource for the local and wider community. With a Learning Team who work closely to support local school, college and other visits, and with artists to offer new and engaging ways of exploring creativity. We deliver a programme of events for all ages, gallery engagement resources and skills development for those looking to experience work in the creative industries.
Our team is welcoming and friendly, committed to sharing our skills and experience.
Deadline for applications
The deadline is 11:45pm, on 27 July 2026
You will need to download the job description below and read it carefully, and review the eligibility criteria below to ensure you are able to apply.
You then need to fill out the form below to submit your application.
All of the job descriptions include an “Employers advice” section and we strongly recommend that you tailor your answers to ensure they cover that advice given for the specific role you are applying for.
You can apply for more than one role if you wish to, but you will need to submit separate applications using the same process.
We strongly suggest that you research travel options for the role before applying to ensure travel is feasible.
To be eligible to apply for a Breakthrough traineeship, applicants must:
- Be aged 18-25 on the 28 September 2026
- Have the right to work in the UK
- Available to start work on the 28 September 2026 and available for the duration of the placement (until 28th March 2027)
- Have no or little (less than one month) previous experience of working in an arts, creative or voluntary sector organisation
In addition to the above, applicants should also meet one or more of the following criteria:
- Currently not in employment, education or training (NEET)
- Be disabled and/or Neurodivergent
- Have current or prior mental health issues
- Have experienced racism, homophobic or transgender discrimination
- Be a recent school or college leaver (A level or equivalent)
- Are struggling to find work due to lack of employment or training experience
Please note that this programme is not suitable for those on a degree placement year or an MA programme.
Download the full job description
This contains more information about the role, including advice from the employer.
Breakthrough 2026 Application Form
Contact us
If you are unsure if you are eligible, have any other questions, or need information in a different format, please email our Careers team:
FAQs
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If you have applied for a Breakthrough placement in a previous year and been unsuccessful, then yes you are very welcome to apply again if you meet this years eligibility criteria!
If you have already successfully undertaken a Breakthrough placement before, you won't be eligible to apply again.
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Please do. You will need to submit an application for each role you are interested in and should check that the travel to the workplace is realistic for you before applying.