This Courier Training Framework (CTF) is a tool for developing and delivering courier training. It has been put together as a basis for promoting best practice in the museum and gallery sector. This was the outcome of the meeting of European Registrars Groups after the inaugural meeting in October 2015, where representatives from across Europe came together to share common experiences and ways of working together.

It has been developed and updated by Kathy Richmond (Head of Collections, Historic Environment Scotland and ex-Chair, UK Registrars Group), Desirée Blomberg (Group Manager, Exhibition Coordination & Loans, Moderna Museet and Board Member, Nordic Registrars Group) and Wendela Brouwer (Head Registrars Office, Rijksmuseum and Chair, Nederlandse Registrars Group). The UKRG is enormously grateful to Kathy, Desirée and Wendela for the commitment and dedication to writing, developing and updating this important resource. In turn they pass on their thanks to everyone who contributed to this version and the various knowledge-sharing events across our industry over the past two years which have helped to inform this.

Updated April 2022: Version 3.0 of the Courier Training Framework has been developed in light of the growth of virtual couriering during the pandemic. Two years ago as the world entered into the challenges of a global pandemic, registrars and shipping agents (and the industries that support them), found new ways to pivot in order to facilitate couriering by using new and existing technologies.

This revision of the CTF responds to the new environment. Having well-trained virtual couriers is an important factor for our industry going forward. There are many similarities with the traditional in-person courier role, but some key differences. The writers of the CTF have tried to outline how to prepare a courier for this role, bearing in mind that this may be the first courier role a person undertakes. The hope is that virtual couriering will be considered on its merits as part of the risk-based approach to managing art/museum loans. This intention is therefore embedded within the CTF tools with the ambition to enable users to approach the ‘virtual’ courier role with the same collaborative and professional attitude. 

The training tools that accompany this framework are:

This training is designed to be delivered by registrars and collections specialists whose role involves managing couriers. The order and content are flexible, and users may wish to incorporate additional elements to tailor the training to their organisation or network. This is essentially a framework on which to build your own training.

The framework is based on the principle that we should send couriers only when necessary, and the focus is on preparing the courier for the unexpected as well as creating a shared sense of what a professional courier role entails.

This is a free tool, but we request that users share with the creators their Courier Essentials, generated at the end of the training, as well as any feedback to inform future versions. They hope that the framework will be a useful tool in training couriers, and that by sharing it we can foster a sense of shared understanding of how to courier better (please see contact details for Kathy, Desirée and Wendela on page 26 of the CTF main document #1)