2021 here we are. How has your working life changed over the last year? Here at the Genetics Core, like so many other workplaces across the UK, we closed our doors in March 2020. A surge of planning began; how do we work from home? What is expected of us? How do we adapt our […]

Stuart Martin is a Wet Laboratory Support Technician in the School of Engineering and shared the School’s experience of hosting a Foundation Apprentice in their team.   “There has been a bit of concern amongst technicians about the sustainability of our jobs and the work that we do due to the lack of visibility around […]

Alistair Craig is the Technical Learning Services Manager for Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) and shared some thoughts about continuing professional development (CPD) with the Bulletin Magazine.   Photo by Sam Sills “I’ve been a technician at the University for 25 years; the first 15 as a workshop technician, and the last 10 as a technical manager. […]

What is self-directed learning? The most commonly accepted definition of self-directed learning (SDL) is that outlined by Malcolm Knowles, back in 1975: ”In its broadest meaning, self-directed learning describes a process in which individuals take the initiative, with or without the help of others, in diagnosing their learning needs, formulating learning goals, identifying human and […]

Next time you’re ill, would you like to see a doctor or an engineer? Of course, this seems like a daft question. You want to see a doctor, right? A doctor will have trained for many years to diagnose and treat the full range of human ailments whilst the engineer might, at best, have done […]