Technical staff who support student learning deserve more professional recognition

Having worked as a technician and a technical manager for many years, I’ve noticed that professional recognition opportunities for these roles can take time to establish and progress. Those that do arise are often not well promoted, and so many eligible applicants are unaware of the possibilities that are open to them at a local level.

With this in mind, I introduced role-tailored workshops, along with meaningful and evidence-based resources, to boost successful applications for fellowships for technical staff. My aim was to raise the profile of such Advance HE fellowships at the University of Nottingham and to increase engagement.

Since I began this work, the Talent Commission Report (2022) has addressed the need for insight and knowledge about the technical skills, roles and careers across UK higher education and research. One of its findings was that 88 per cent of technical staff were involved in teaching or supporting student learning. However, technicians’ roles are “seldom considered, explored or recognised within their faculties, institutions or the wider sector”. 

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The sector’s engagement with the Technician Commitment has had considerable impact on this lack of visibility, yet challenges remain. Technical staff find it difficult to say they engage in teaching and often they don’t consider that the ways that they support student learning are deserving of professional recognition. While the commitment and commission fed into the 2023 review of the UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF), there is still room at sector level for more “translation” into language and examples that are relevant to technical practice.

Building awareness and engagement

When researching what was required for a claim for my own fellowship, I couldn’t find any tools, advice or workshops that were specifically for technical roles. From here, I established contact with colleagues within our professional development team and in Midlands Innovation Talent (MI Talent). This collaboration developed and we delivered a series of five local workshops introducing the UKPSF, all tailored to technical staff. These activities also supported my own claim as fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

Following this, I contacted senior technical colleagues across the university to promote our teaching-and-learning-focused activities for their teams. In partnership with MI Talent, and with funding for external consultants, we delivered professional-recognition workshops to technical staff, and through working with team leaders to support the sharing of information and new technical-centred resources, I support colleagues in submitting claims. Through a further collaboration with the UK Institute for Technical Skills and Strategy (UKITSS), we delivered technician-focused development opportunities that include authentic examples of technical activities mapped to the UKPSF:

• faculty-level focused workshops
• individual support and coaching/mentoring
• university workshop for prospective senior fellows (SFHEA) with an external specialist consultant.

A key insight has been the importance of tailoring the sessions to technical roles, individuals and teams. These sessions include:

• initiating a process of understanding, mapping and reflecting on own practice
• identifying opportunities for skills development and growth within role
• embedding critical reflection into the practice of individuals and teams to support local evaluation
• building credibility, confidence and visibility
• discussing potential positive impact on career progression.

The use of targeted workshops that foster dialogue, networking and the sharing of expertise and experience has led to increased uptake and the creation of a culture where professional recognition is celebrated. At the University of Nottingham, this is reflected in the rising numbers of technical staff who are submitting claims. Nottingham’s Technician Commitment 2024 Report, Inception to Impact Seven Years of the Technician Commitment, highlights “the development of 50+ technical staff in securing Advance HE Fellowships in recognition of their teaching expertise”. This is a significant achievement and signals an appetite for even more support opportunities.

Approaches to facilitating increasing claims

Reflecting on the success in raising awareness and engagement with professional recognition for technical staff, these key approaches work well:

• Use a “ground-up” methodology and work locally with your team while including team managers, your institution’s scheme and external organisations such as Advance HE and UK ITSS
• Explore the practices for supporting student learning within groups; this leads to insights around how those practices could be improved collectively and individually
• Raise the profile and celebrate technical staff who engage with this process – especially those who achieve recognition
• Feed into your institution’s Technician Commitment activities and their institutional schemes
• Implement support for technical managers to develop their skills in supporting teams and in delivering opportunities.

Increasing levels of professional recognition positively impact on the credibility of institutions, departments and courses as providers of quality education for students, and the institution benefits with regard to future Teaching Excellence Framework exercises.

Technical managers as champions for professional recognition

Across organisations, technical managers play a key role in leading development opportunities for their teams and ensuring technical roles are formally acknowledged for the support they deliver to academic colleagues and to students.

Technical managers can support their teams directly by:

• advocating for staff to have dedicated development time and to ensure that roles are covered to enable this
• keeping connected to local, institutional and wider activities so they can signpost technical staff to additional workshops, events and initiatives
• building confidence through creating spaces for dialogue and exploration of technical practice
• including team leaders to support the delivery of sessions, as this can build empowerment and experience that cascade across teams, schools and faculties.

Finally – and perhaps this is the most important insight from this work – technical managers can demonstrate their leadership as mentors and role models and bring transparency to the role’s challenges and benefits through their own professional recognition.

Jodie Chatfield is head of technical services (life sciences) at the University of Nottingham. Lindsay Davies is learning and development manager at the UK Institute for Technical Skills and Strategy. Jodie was named the Outstanding Technician of the Year in the 2024 THE Awards. A full list of nominees can be found here. 

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To read more advice from nominees, visit our THE Awards 2024 spotlight collection.