RIYADH: The inaugural International Conference for Education and Innovation in Museums, organized by the Saudi Museums Commission, began in Riyadh on Saturday with the theme “Explore and Learn to Innovate.” The event aims to facilitate idea exchange and progress within the museum sector, regionally and globally, through panel discussions, workshops and thought-provoking conversations. Attendees explored the latest advances and emerging trends in museum education and innovation. Taghreed Al-Saraj, the Museums Commission’s general manager of education and talent development, introduced the Museum Training Academy. “MTA is the world’s first simulated AI-powered platform for education and career development in the global museum community.” Al-Saraj said that the platform offered foundational courses, a career path, and a customized AI large language model tool. “If you’re a practicing museum professional, MTA will support your developmental needs within your current specialty and provide access to knowledge about other departments and job roles, enhancing collaboration with colleagues.” The academy will soon have master classes for those currently in leadership roles, based on the real-world experiences of museum leaders and researchers. “By understanding the specialist functions of divisions, departments and teams within museums of all sizes, we have identified over 140 unique job roles and studied the skills and personality traits that are associated with different museum career paths,” Al-Saraj said. Al-Saraj highlighted the platform’s ability to support the growth of a vibrant museum sector and benefit various stakeholders, including students, recent graduates, museum professionals and the public. “MTA has been developed based on the results of close to two years of extensive research into the organizations of museums from large international groups to smaller, independent museums to learn about their organizational structures.” Under the commission’s sponsorship, an agreement was signed between SOAS University of London and Effat University in Jeddah for the first joint postgraduate diploma in museum studies in Saudi Arabia. Adam Habib, vice-chancellor of SOAS University of London, and Reem Al-Madani, dean of admissions at Effat University, signed the agreement. Habib said that “universities and academics can take a long time to negotiate and get things done, but the Saudi Museum Commission facilitated and initiated that through our program with Effat University.” He was speaking during a panel discussion titled “Collaboration between Museums and Universities.” “The Museums Commission underscored the urgency of creating important programs, underwrote some of the costs, which is one of the biggest debates that happens in universities, and brought in public resources to enable this partnership.” Through this tertiary partnership, students at Effat University have already begun their first semester in an experiential learning environment. Habib said that skillsets are normally thought of as simply the theory that needs to be imparted, and that the actual application happens in the job market when a graduate goes to work. “But what the Museums Commission puts on the table is the importance of an experiential learning process that we want to ensure that our graduates, when they come out of the program, are in a position to start operating immediately,” he said. This idea of experiential learning in museums by shadowing professionals was particularly important. Al-Saraj said that developing a blended, experiential learning program required a balance between global knowledge and local expertise to create a robust curriculum. Al-Madani added that “there are challenges in creating a schedule that accommodates different modes of learning, different educational systems, and different criteria.” Despite these challenges, she said that blended learning offered a promising solution for museum studies and entry into the industry.