GuildHE, a representative body which speaks for specialist and smaller higher education institutions, has become the latest organisation to sign the Technician Commitment.
To mark the occasion, two member organisations were asked to detail what the commitment means at their University – and this is what Harper Adams Laboratory Manager, Dr Victoria Talbot, had to say.
Despite all the challenges of working in the sector, it’s an exciting time to be a technician in UK Higher Education.
No longer an invisible group of staff that are only missed when we’re not there, technicians working across all disciplines are starting to be recognised for the essential, skilled, professional individuals that we are and the contributions we make to teaching, research and knowledge exchange.
It's been seven years now since the launch of the Technician Commitment, an invitation for organisations to commit to progress around the four pillars of visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability of technical roles, skills and careers across all disciplines, including STEM subjects as well as the creative arts. Successfully fulfilling these pledges will help technical skills, roles, and careers be recognised, understood, developed, respected, and aspired to; essential if we are to be a “global science and technology superpower by 2030.”
Proposed changes to the assessment of People Culture and Environment section of REF2029 also reflect our vital contributions to research culture; for the first time, technicians will be submittable.
Harper Adams University signed up in 2017. Since then, we have improved communication between facilities and senior management by the establishment of a facility managers group, which I am honoured to chair. Our remit is to discuss and make recommendations to senior managers via our DVC’s monthly Academic Leaders Group (ALG), on all matters pertaining to technical facilities whether staffing, infrastructure, capital equipment or cross departmental projects. As a full member of the ALG my report from the Facilities Group is presented as a standing item on the agenda, thus ensuring that the voice of the technical community is heard by senior managers and providing greater transparency, particularly around capital expenditure.
Additionally, we have been doing more to enable staff to embark on apprenticeships and PhD programmes and are building our sense of community, holding facility tours coupled with a summer barbecue and facilitating senior technicians to mentor junior technicians.
Our crowning glory (to date!) was our very first Technicians Conference. In an inclusive move, all staff from across the institution were invited – and they came! - to celebrate our wonderful technicians. It was a great day, and I am so proud of everyone who took part!
We are also becoming more visible. Whether for contributing to knowledge exchange, open research or teaching our contributions are publicised more and more, demonstrating the truth of the widely used tagline #techniciansmakethedifference.
There is still a lot to do.
A proposal for a steering group to support our work on the Technician Commitment is in development to ensure that our achievements are strategic rather than tactical and, happily, work to develop career pathways – a key focus of the Technician Commitment - for both professional services and technical staff has now started.
I have no doubt when this is launched it will be very much welcomed across the board.
Technicians' work celebrated at second annual conference
One of the final events of 2024 with our second annual Technicians' Conference at Harper Adams University. In this guest blog, Laboratory Ma …
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