Edinburgh Technical Collaboration shines spotlight on importance of technician role in higher education institutions
More than 50 technicians from across Edinburgh’s universities came together at Edinburgh Napier on 30 November 2023, to celebrate the first-year achievements of the Edinburgh Technical Collaboration (ETC).
Established last year, the ETC was formed between The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Napier University, Watt University University and Queen Margaret University in response to research highlighting that technical staff were expressing similar experiences and wants when it came to their ongoing career development.
Throughout the last year, the collaboration has introduced a mentoring and job shadowing programme across the four HE institutions and the event at the end of November recognised the impact that the programme, along with its participating colleagues, has had in helping increase the visibility of technical roles alongside supporting personal career development.
Attendees heard from a number of Edinburgh Napier staff, including a welcome from Professor Nick Antonopoulos, Deputy Vice Chancellor and Vice Principal of Research at the University, Dr Claire Garden, Head of Learning & Teaching within Edinburgh Napier’s School of Applied Science, Bill Surradge and Neil Guthrie, both Technicians within the School of Applied Science alongside Lisa McMillan and Jo Brown, Institutional Administrators, Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF).
Technicians from University of Edinburgh, who participated in the Mentoring/Job Shadowing over the last year, also provided their reflections and personal experience of participating in the programme.
As part of the event, and in the spirit of networking, attendees were also encouraged to share their career stories through the Squiggly Career Stories and Me in 3 profiles before taking in a tour of the University’s Simulation and Clinical Skills Centre – Edinburgh Napier’s purpose-built facility for health simulation and clinical skills training.
Tours of the University’s Sport and Exercise, Animal & Plant Sciences, Biomedical Sciences, Microbiology and Psychology facilities were also offered as part of the event. Future tours of Merchiston, which includes various areas including the design workshops, music rehearsal rooms, materials centre, fabrication lab and more are also planned.
Professor Nick Antonopoulos, Deputy Vice Chancellor and Vice Principal of Research at Edinburgh Napier said: “I was really delighted to welcome so many technicians to Edinburgh Napier. It was great to hear so many positive outcomes from the collaboration that has happened across the last year.
“I think collaboration between technicians has an extra key element which is important. Collaboration is essential in terms of creating the requisite support and resilience that we need across all teams to be able to deliver in very challenging times.
“I absolutely agree that all four universities can and should strive to do better in terms of increasing the visibility of technical staff, alongside increasing the strategies for recognition and advancement of staff and that is certainly something we can help open dialogue on. I’d be very keen to look for opportunities to expand the Edinburgh Technical Collaboration to include teams like research and innovation offices.
“It’s been a very successful first year and I look forward to seeing it develop further in the next 12 months.”
More information on the Edinburgh Technical Collaboration can be found here: Edinburgh Technical Collaboration, including the option to register. Further information about timeline for participating is also shown below.
If you need more support or have any questions, please email the Edinburgh Technical Collaboration (ETC) Team at spetc@ed.ac.uk
