Volunteering at North East Museums

At North East Museums, we couldn't deliver our Mission without the skills and generosity of volunteers. You are essential to the success of the organisation.

As well as creating new opportunities and pathways for personal development, volunteering can help you to develop new skills and interests, generate new social connections, increase your confidence and improve your health and wellbeing.

We want all our volunteers to have an enjoyable and rewarding time and to feel part of the team that delivers a world class museum service to the communities of the North East and beyond.

On this page you can:

• Find out about work experience opportunities
• Find out about other programmes for young people.

Contact us

If your have any enquiries relating to volunteering or work experience, please contact volunteering@northeastmuseums.org.uk.

Volunteer recruitment periods

Volunteer recruitment is currently closed.

Volunteer recruitment is currently closed.

Volunteers are needed to help maintain and operate our heritage railway, the North Tyneside Steam Railway, based at Stephenson Steam Railway in North Shields, which runs passenger trains on selected days during the year.

We are always looking for interested people who can spare some time. There are a wide range of volunteering opportunities available, covering virtually every aspect of the Railway’s activities. Whilst some roles require a significant time commitment and training, others do not. If you want to get your hands dirty, there are plenty of opportunities, but if manual work is not for you, there is also a wide range of choices.

Volunteering presents you with the opportunity to meet new people from all walks of life, gain worthwhile skills and results in a real sense of achievement. Working groups are usually held on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9.30am - 2pm with train operations and running days on Sundays, Bank Holidays and Thursdays during school holidays from Easter to November.

Tasks include: 

• Railway operational staff including guards, operations controllers, ticket inspectors, footplate crew 
• Steam and engineering maintenance, track maintenance
• Painting and gardening
• Site tidying.

Personal qualities required/preferred: Volunteers are constantly under the public gaze, so personal appearance is important. As well as having significant safety responsibilities, you must also have good communications and personal skills, both for dealing with colleagues and the general public.

Training of volunteers: Training is available for all of these jobs; some training may take hours, for others years are required.

Find out more about opportunities

If your have any enquiries relating to heritage railway volunteering, please contact volunteering@northeastmuseums.org.uk. 

For other enquiries relating to railway operations, please call David Grindley, Engineering and Railway Operations Manager, for an informal chat on (0191) 277 7135 or email: david.grindley@northeastmuseums.org.uk.

At North East Museums, we are able to offer a number of places on a one-week work experience for students in Key Stages 4 and 5. This is a great opportunity to get a taste of what it's like to work in a museum or gallery, with the chance to spend some time with staff and work on a project, covering a variety of departments and venues.

Places are limited and date specific. We are unable to offer work experience places outside of these dates. 

Applications are now open for the 2026/2027 academic year. 

The dates are:

• Week commencing 22 February 2027 - KS5, post-16 only
  • Closing date for applications: 18 December 2026
  • Places will be allocated w/c 18 January 2027
• Week commencing 28 June 2027 - KS4/Year 10+
  • Closing date for applications: 25 March 2027
  • Places will be allocated w/c 12 April 2027
• Week commencing 5 July 2027 - KS4/Year 10+
  • Closing dates for applications: 25 March 2027
  • Places will be allocated w/c 12 April 2027

Our work experience is a structured week designed to help students learn about many career options in the cultural sector. Students will spend 3 days in Discovery Museum, and two days at one of our other venues, relevant to their interest. This includes one of our galleries, museums or roman forts. Students will also work together on a group project which they will present to North East Museums staff at the end of their work experience.

To apply for our work experience programme, please fill in this form.

We regularly receive more applications than we can accommodate so please make sure you apply before the deadline. When we are deciding who to offer the places to we will consider the answers you have given on the form and offer the spaces to those who we feel will benefit most from the experience. 

If you are unsuccessful but over 16 you can also consider applying for volunteering opportunities with us. 

For more information, please email: volunteering@northeastmuseums.org.uk

We are unable to offer work experience places outside of these dates.

Other programmes for Young People

Discover our other opportunities for people aged 16-24.