Royal Society of Chemistry’s (RSC) event – Championing Technicians in Education
One the 28th November 2018 The University of Nottingham hosted the first RSC event for Technicians in conjunction with the ‘Technician Commitment’ initiative and the Science Council.
I attended along with my chemistry technician colleague Sam.
- The agenda (as follows) gives an over view of the day’s activities:
Item 1: Professor Peter Licence who is the Director of the GSK Carbon Neutral laboratory welcomed us to the University as well as to the event; setting the scene for the rest of the day. He spoke about how important it was to recognise technicians and the work that we do. Peter informed us that The University of Nottingham has 700 technicians across three sites and there are 30 technicians within the School of Chemistry. He also promoted the I ‘heart’ technicians badge:
Item 2: The Royal Society of Chemistry’s Dr Helen Pain (Deputy Chief Executive) gave us an overview of how the RSC supports their members and are in support of the Technician Commitment initiative. The history of the RSC, its charter and core roles, professional recognition e.g. RSciTech and RSci in conjunction with the Science Council were discussed. Helen also mentioned the ‘Breaking the Barriers’ report (Nov 2018) which found that 99% of female chemists in UK academia can evidence the lack of retention and progression of women – as can 94% of men. http://www.rsc.org/globalassets/02-about-us/our-strategy/inclusion-diversity/womens-progression/media-pack/v18_vo_inclusion-and-diversity-_womans-progression_report-web-.pdf
Item 3: Kelly Vere – is not only a technician at the University of Nottingham – but the Higher Education and Technician Commitment Lead at the Science Council. She gave a short yet interesting and inspiring talk about the Technician Commitment. She herself was so enthusiastic and positive about the Technician’s Commitment that I would call her a true ‘Champion’!
We were also shown a video entitled: ‘One Year In’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwvqu_IejzA
And Kelly told us about a sector report entitles ‘One year in’ : http://technicians.org.uk/news/technician-commitment-has-exceeded-everyones-expectations/
Item 4: Keynote address. Professor Dame Carol Robinson gave us an over view of her career and in particular spoke about her time as a technician – starting from when she was 16 as an apprentice at Pfizer – an inspiring and amazing positive story.
Item 5: The RSC promoted their professional memberships as well as professional registrations / chartered status e.g. RSciTech, RSci and CChem and following on from this I gained a bit of ‘energy’ to get on with my RSci application
Item 6: For the ‘workshop’ session we were asked to answer the question ‘How can the RSC help with the four areas of the Technician’s Commitment?’ A group of three of us came up with the following points:
Item 7: Sam and I were enthusiastic to go on the tour of the GSK Carbon Neutral Laboratory for Sustainable Chemistry. The building’s architecture was amazing and it was a delight to see such modern, innovative labs.
Summary: A good introduction to the Technician’s Commitment and what support there is with establishes societies / groups such as the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Science Council. We felt our voice is being heard more and there is ‘shift-change’ going on in HE so that technicians are being recognised more for the important work that they do.