In universities and institutions across the UK and beyond, there are people working behind the scenes of every practical, workshop, exam and more. Making sure everything goes off without a hitch, that activities are safe, supporting students, academics and colleagues alike. Who are these secret superheroes? Technicians. Though, we may not be as secret as we used to be…
I have absolutely LOVED being a technician. I feel like it’s sort of like being an expert in so many things, and getting to support students is so rewarding. One of my favourite parts of my job was getting involved in the Technician Commitment. A short while ago, you may not have heard of the Technician Commitment, but with almost a hundred signatories of their plan, the movement to give technicians much deserved recognition is increasing rapidly. Driven by the Gatsby Foundation’s Education Team, the Technician Commitment encourages institutions to work on four key areas: visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability, and to pledge action against the key challenges affecting their staff.
Work is done tirelessly to ensue that everybody knows that TECHNICIANS MAKE IT HAPPEN! For technicians, this can really help to shed light on the work that often goes unrecognised, with technical staff often being left out of university awards, grant proposals and research papers. They have also encouraged their signatories to create their own action plan, which has led to Universities to create Technical Directories, bursaries for research, funding and apprenticeships.
For those of you who aren’t technicians, you may be wondering why you should be bothered about this. Well, the Technician Commitment has really managed to shine a light on the work that technicians do, recognising their contribution to a highly skilled workforce. They’ve worked with Athena Swan to include technicians, and making the career of technician something to aspire to. Technicians are behind so many things that people take for granted. At the University of Lincoln, Arts technicians have sewed scrubs for health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, whilst engineering technicians made visors. Other technicians help cars to run, students to learn, hospitals be successful, and have an impact on many other areas in life. In short, education and research institutions simply couldn’t run without technicians.
When I started my role as a technician intern at the University of Lincoln, I’d already had the pleasure of attending the Technician Commitment meet at the University the month before I’d started. This introduced me to the Technician Commitment, and I knew that I wanted to get involved. I didn’t want to be perceived as “just a technician” or “just an intern”, I wasn’t “just” anything! I decided to use my voice to spread awareness and shout about how amazing technicians are! I was put in contact with the Technician Commitment working group at the University, and from there I set up the Tech Linc social media pages, and started to interview technicians across the university.
To increase visibility of technicians I contacted technicians for profiles, visiting them in their place of work to take photos and find out more about them. I met technicians across the university, from all departments, and promoted their work on social media and sharing development opportunities. I even had the chance to visit an arts workshop and make my own metal spoon! I did “tech tours” across departments to show students the work that technicians do and where to find them. I visited sleep labs, saw fleets of sewing machines, observed an endless pool in motion, and spoke to so many incredible technicians. I also hosted events for technicians, (something that was a little terrifying for me!), and encouraged different departments to mingle.
Perhaps one of my favourite experiences from my time in Tech Linc, is the fact that I’ve had the opportunity to talk with technicians across the UK in the form of Techs Connect, set up by a technician from Nottingham Trent University where technicians call and chat! This led to the opportunity to speak to technical staff at Manchester Metropolitan University about working in lockdown, and gave me the chance to speak to technical managers at different institutions about how to support staff who have been furloughed. I even got to write a blog post for the Technician Commitment about my journey from student to demonstrator to technician!
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