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Our universities • 1.28 Similarly, the UK has a relatively strong
higher education sector even though other countries continue to make ambitious investments. We have four of the six best universities in the world17. Despite this, skills gaps are too wide at the intermediate and basic levels, including in maths, literacy and science. UK industry also appears to be relatively less skills intensive and employs fewer graduates in professional and technical occupations than its major competitors18. No boom in growth can be achieved without a significant rethink as to how we develop skills in this country – both funding training and its delivery
Why is the role changing?
• “It’s high time that the professionalism of technicians was recognised and they got the status which they deserve. For the good of our economy and our society, we must ensure that their competence and commitment are properly valued, and that they have every opportunity for high quality technical education and personal development.”
Richard Shearman, Technician Council
Why is the role changing?
• “We must promote the professional standing of technicians, raise their profile and encourage businesses to nurture our home grown talent if we are to ensure we have the skills we need to compete in the high-tech, high-skilled economy of the future.”
Skills MinisterJohn Hayes
Why is the role changing?
• “Establishing a common framework of registration for technicians working across the stem sectors presents a unique opportunity to establish common quality standards for UK technicians and ensure the skills and knowledge learnt within technician pathways develop in line with employers’ needs.
• Over time the registers will raise the status and profile of technicians and this, in turn, should drive improvements in technician training and support increased recruitment. This initiative,
• Therefore, has the potential to make a major contribution to solving what for many years has been a major problem.”
Lord David Sainsbury
“Professional technicians are the core of the IT industry and I have always wanted to see them fully recognised for the important role that they perform.” Stephen Uden, Head of Skills & Economic Affairs at Microsoft
What is it changing to?
The Technician Council developed a set of eight recommendations
1. Endorse and promote Professional Technician
2. Support registration and professional development and announce own aspirational targets
3. Active support for professional technicians4. Improve communications on career
choices5. Raise the profile of professional technician
in Government communications to the young
6. Use the professional technician brand7. Promote greater diversity8. Sustain the work of the Technician Council
“Often neglected by policymakers and left on the educational side-lines, technicians are the unsung heroes of some of the UK’s leading industries. For too long they have been undervalued, undernourished, and relegated to an occupational division considered less important than their professional counterparts.” Alison Halstead (Chair) Technicians and Progression 2011, Skills Commission report
In short, professional technicians: 1. Are essential to delivering growth in the UK in the
21st Century 2. Help plug identified skills gaps and shortages 3. Provide a unique, transferable and increasingly
sought after skill set 4. Follow a clear, complementary career pathway to the
university graduate, which combines education and on the job training and still offers a gateway to the highest levels.
The changing landscape and the need to
demonstrate competence
The Registration System and the need for
engagement
Why HE Institutions need a highly skilled, highly
motivated, highly respected workforce - the
2022 vision.
Providing high quality training and
development. All bodies and training course
providers to work in full partnership for the
benefit of the technical community.
The national perspective for sustaining the UK's position for delivering
teaching and research in a rapidly changing
environment
THE PROFESSIONAL TECHNICIAN
The case for professional technician
• The higher technical skills gap that has been identified is 450,000 new job opportunities in science, engineering and technology (SET) by 2020. This creates an urgent need to recognise and celebrate our technicians of today, whilst growing and strengthening those of tomorrow. They are highly productive people, technically qualified to a minimum of Level 3, committed to continuous professional development and found in just about every area and walk of life.
The attributes of the professional technician are clearly distinguishable:
• They develop valuable skills through their careers, many of which are transferable across employment sectors
• They take pride in their work and take continuous professional development seriously
• They have interesting, rewarding and worthwhile careers offering a gateway to the highest levels of education and training
• They are diverse individuals coming from a range of backgrounds
• They are proud to be recognised as professional technicians through a national registration process and common brand.
Professional Technician
• A combination of professional membership and registration
• Defined standards for entry• Defined qualifications and
Competence gained in work• Defined codes of ethical conduct• Requirements for on-going CPD
Why is it relevant to you
Because HEIs are changing the way they work and this impacts on you.
• Wakeham Report (June 2010)
• Browne Report (September 2010)
• Diamond Report (September 2011)
Higher education workforce profile in
2011
Key facts:• 314,860 people in England
are employed in Higher education institutions (HEIs)
• 145,000 academic (46%)
• 160,000 professional/support (51%)
• 9,600 have combined (academic + administrative) an upward trend (3%)
• 21,320 technicians (13% of all professional/support staff)
Academic
Support
administ
rators
Man
agers
and pro
fessionals
Other
Technici
ans
020,00040,00060,00080,000
100,000120,000140,000160,000
2006-072010-11
Technician numbers 2003-2010
2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-1120,800.00
21,000.00
21,200.00
21,400.00
21,600.00
21,800.00
22,000.00
22,200.00
Academic year
Nu
mb
er
Age profile of technical staff
Primary function Age Group
2005-06 2008-09
Number of staff %
Number of staff %
Technician below 30 3,955 19% 4,190 20% 30 to 39 5,185 25% 5,550 26% 40 to 49 5,330 26% 5,255 25% 50 to 59 5,200 25% 4,960 23% 60 and over 1,145 5% 1,450 7%
Technical staff:
current profile
• Some reductions in staff numbers in 2010-11 from peak in
2008-9
• Limited knowledge about background, but main routes into
career:
• Previous technical careers
• 48% are qualified to degree or doctoral level
• Vocationally trained technicians from HE or other
educational settings
• Diverse in terms of age, disability and ethnicity but…
• Only one third of technicians in HE are female
• Stable age profile, 7% (rising) of technicians are aged over 60
Strategic issues for HETechnicians
• Greater involvement with learner support – how best to support technicians to do this?
• How best to engage technical community in professional development?
• How to raise the profile and esteem of the technical profession?
• Gender diversity?
The danger of not understanding technical roles
Eg. when undertaking major reorganisation/restructuring
IS THIS JUST A “BLACK ART”?
Technician qualifications
Qualifications 2011
Doctorate or equivalent
First Degree or equivalent
Lower than First Degree
None
Unknown
Supporting the student experience
Technicians crucial to the
student experience
Increased student
fees
More skills teaching
So what does this mean for technicians?
• General diversification of activities undertaken by academic and professional/support staff
• Greater alignment of academic working styles to meet student demands and needs
• Greater focus on interdisciplinary work
• A more strategic approach to professional/support staff work
• Greater flexibility and higher skills levels
• Movement of technicians into front-line teaching and research roles
• Cost reduction – potential redundancies/closure of Departments
• Shared Services across Institutions and Public Bodies
Professional pathways
QCF level 3Advanced ApprenticeshipA-Level, NVQ3
QCF level 5HND, FdSc,some Higher Apprenticeships
QCF level 7MSc, MSci, etc
CPD standards, code of conduct and competency areas are all common across the registers
RSciTechRegisteredScience Technician
RSciRegisteredScientist
CSciCharteredScientist
Registration Application Process• Membership of a licensed
body (such as the IST)
Then:-
• Application form
• CV
• A Competencies Report
• A PPD Report
Indicative Cost
•Membership of IST:Junior: £5Affiliate: £16Associate: £32Member: £42Fellow: £54
•£25 for Registration (Science Council National data base costs)
Not Working in Science or Science Technology?
IST Registered Practitioners MIScT(Reg) or FIScT(Reg)
Technicians and technologists working in non-science fields may not be eligible to join the Science Council’s Registers but the IST recognises the exceptional work that technicians and technologists working in non-science fields do. We are committed to providing all our members with a means to endorse their status and to enable them to demonstrate transferable skills, up-to-date professional competence, and continuing professional development. We do this through our Registered Practitioner Scheme and by the designation of MIScT(Reg) or FIScT(Reg) status to members who meet the criteria.
The demand for highly skilled technicians continues to diffuse into ever widening sectors. Those with the biggest growth requirements are perhaps surprisingly now in traditionally people orientated businesses such as media and publishing and business services. The construction and certain manufacturing industries continue to fuel the demand for higher level technical skills, with several other expecting to follow their trend.
The professional technician has a large skill set which combines theory, practice, knowledge, skills, facts, behaviour, hand and mind.
Registration
Demonstrates to employers and future employers that you • Have achieved and maintained competency in your field of work• Undertake continuing professional development• Have been recognised and by a professional body (licenced by the
Science council) as a Professional Practitioner• Are proactive in your approach to work
This can give you the edge in an increasingly challenging sector
Shared servicesA key political priority
More than ever, institutions must offer value for money to students and prospective students in the new funding environment.
So efficiency and effectiveness must remain priorities for the sector and we expect universities and colleges to deliver further efficiencies in all elements of teaching, research and administrative activity over the coming years.
In achieving these efficiencies you should encourage HEIs to collaborate for example through greater sharing of research equipment and infrastructure
Vince Cable MP and David Willetts MP, Grant Letter to HEFCE, January 2012
IST formal partnership with the University Of Sheffield
Quote from a recent press release by the VC of the University of Sheffield:
“The future vitality of higher education in the UK will depend on the creative abilities of our technical staff. They are the people at the cutting edge of the research and teaching that drive so much of the innovation we need. They are often the unsung heroes of the advances in Science, Engineering and Medicine. There are few things more important to us than ensuring this talent is properly nurtured and sustained by our Universities and Colleges.”
Contact us
The Institute of Science & TechnologyKingfisher House90 Rockingham StreetSheffield S1 4EB
Tel: 0114 276 3197Email: [email protected]: www.istonline.org.uk