It was great to see around 30 technicians from across the University come and discuss the Technician Progression Project at the drop-in session on Thursday 28 March. There was lots of interest in the work to date and positive feedback about what is happening. It would still be helpful to hear the views of more technical staff, so for those not able to make it, read on and please do get in touch with your thoughts.
Webpages for technical staff
A key need identified by the project has been that we need a central place to host information for and about technical staff. We've listened to feedback that you want to be able to find out who other technicians are and what their specialisms are. We also want to raise the profile of technicians and clarify our roles to the wider University community. Work is well underway developing this resource and we hope to launch it in time for the Technicians' Conference in June. It will also host information about events and guidance on career development.
You can help by:
- Writing your personal profile for the website. Click the link here or at the end of this post to write your profile. Please speak to your line manager if you need help with this, and you can see existing profiles on the website here.
- Sending me any photos you have of you or your colleagues at work, or your work area. See the requirements for website images here.
CPD events programme
We're keen to develop a programme of regular CPD events for technical staff and want to have this in place for the next academic year by the summer. We'd love to hear your views on events that would be of interest, or if you would like to organise anything. This could be anything from talks or lab tours to training opportunities, but they need to be relevant to all technical staff. We will also ensure that future development needs highlighted in SDPRs are taken into consideration where particular themes emerge.
Events that you can sign up to now:
- Technicians' Conference 2019 - 4 June, 1.30-4.30pm, East Building
- Conference poster session - 1 May, 1.30-4.00pm, 1W 2.104
- Introduction to the Bath Scheme for technical staff - 8 May, 10.15am – 12.05pm, CB4.9
Standardising job titles and job descriptions
The aim of writing generic job descriptions is to demonstrate clearly the roles and responsibilities expected of technical staff at each grade, regardless of which area they work in. By standardising job titles we will clarify what technicians do to the wider community - currently there is great inconsistency across the University as to how job titles have been used.
This is a large piece of work we expect to extend beyond the end of this project, so it won't happen immediately. We would also intend that the new job descriptions would be introduced to new appointments over time, not applied retrospectively to existing posts.
Defining progression
We will shortly be producing guidance on managing your career progression, and in time the new webpages will be a useful place to find resources on this. Over the coming months, Staff Development are hosting courses to help you make the most of your SDPR, which we encourage all staff to attend. We also continue to work on a proposal for a career pathways map for technical staff and promotion pathway modelled on the academic promotion process.
Have your say
If you have any comments or would like to get involved further by joining a working group then do get in touch.
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