The Technician Commitment aims to ensure visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability for technical staff across higher education and research:
- Visibility: Ensures that all technicians within the organisation are identifiable and that the contribution of technicians is visible within and beyond the institution
- Recognition: Supports technicians to gain recognition through professional registration
- Career development: Enables career progression opportunities for technicians through the provision of clear, documented career pathways
- Sustainability: Ensures the future sustainability of technical skills across the organisation and that technical expertise is fully utilised
To address these four themes the University of Chester invited all employees who fall within the scope of the technician commitment and their managers to attend focus groups which:
- Provided an overview of the Technicians Commitment Initiative
- Reaffirmed the University's commitment to this initiative
- Invited the views and ideas from this group of staff to inform a framework of action to address the four key issues affecting the technician community
Technicians are defined as Professional Services Staff who have specialist technical expertise and theoretical skills that are integral to the successful delivery of: high-quality teaching and research; student support; customer service and applied commercial support across a range of subject areas.
The Action Plan for November 2018 to October 2020 was submitted to the Science Council and a Technician Commitment Steering Group was established to implement this action plan which can be accessed below: