A MUSEUM employee has become the first person in the region to start a new course in cultural heritage.

Christine Mellor, the corporate bookings officer at the Yorkshire Air Museum, near York, has started working towards a Cultural Heritage Modern Apprenticeship at York College.

The qualification, which is a partnership between the college and the Yorkshire Museums Libraries and Arts Council, will be recognised by museums and heritage organisations.

It provides a starting point for people who are attempting to establish careers in the sector.

The officer recently put some of her new skills into use when handling a donation to the museum of a Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and pilot's notebooks belonging to Squadron Leader Stanley Gooch.

She has studied the notebooks and has pieced together the story of his 33-year flying career.

He earned his DFC monitoring E boat and U Boat activity in the English Channel prior to the D-Day invasion in World War Two.

After the war, he flew planes for the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) until 1970.

She said: "It is both fascinating and a privilege to be in a position to uncover such detail about an individual's experience.

"The challenge ahead is to find a suitable way to bring this to life for others to appreciate.

"Were it not for the availability of such experienced pilots such as Stan, airlines such as BOAC would not have been able to develop popular travel to the extent that we take so much for granted today."