BA launches first learning and development project for 20 years

The Booksellers Association (BA) is launching a new learning and development project for booksellers—its first for 20 years.

BA Learning will bring all current development resources together in one place. It aims to go live at the London Book Fair in April and will be led by Sheila O’Reilly, former owner of Dulwich Bookshop, on a freelance basis. 

As well as bringing together BA Learning Skills Hub, including the BA’s Practical Guides, recorded conference and events sessions, alongside work from the UCT Mentoring programme and other strands, the platform will also feature new content and resources. Organisers say it will become "the go-to place for learning and development tools for booksellers".

The BA will work with a number of partners to develop and launch the project and will be funding the provision of a Bookshop Owners Coaching Programme, drawing on a successful pilot with Retail Trust in 2021. O’Reilly is working with focus groups of booksellers to develop the project, supported by Ed Peppitt, a professional content creator and publishing consultant. The learning platform for the BA Learning project will be provided by the Independent Publishers’ Guild (IPG) Skills Hub, with bookseller resources being hosted on the IPG’s platform.

Meryl Halls, m.d. at the BA, said: “We have been planning a learning and development project for a long time, and are thrilled to be working with Sheila, Ed and the IPG team, as well as other friends and partners across the industry, to build a single place for bookseller skills resources, repurposing the excellent content we already have and creating new materials. The purpose of BA Learning is to provide what bookshop owners—and their booksellers—need in order to be better bookshops and run effective businesses, and we will be working with booksellers throughout this project to ensure we are providing the right topics in the right format. I am genuinely excited that we are able to bring this project to the launchpad. It’s been a long time coming, particularly with Covid-related delays, but we are ready now to work with our members and our partners to create a really valuable resource, at exactly the right moment for our members.”

Andy Rossiter, president of the BA, added: “The launch of BA Learning is an important moment for booksellers and I’m really pleased to see this happen during my presidency.  Booksellers are so mutually supportive and full of expertise and experience—it will be great to see the BA Learning Skills Hub become the go-to place to source all the resources we need to be better booksellers.”

Bridget Shine, chief executive of the IPG, commented: “The IPG is delighted to be supporting this important project for the BA and its brilliant members. We know from experience just how important training and professional development is to independent publishers, and through the IPG Skills Hub we have worked hard to bring it within the reach of every company, regardless of size or location. BA Learning will achieve the same for our many friends in bookshops, and in an industry that is evolving so fast it will be an invaluable initiative for booksellers’ knowledge and upskilling."