“Hi Sandy. The lift has broken down. You couldn’t come and have a look at it before we call the engineer in?”
Having the word technician in your job title is a guaranteed assumption that you know absolutely everything about all electric or mechanical objects, even if you are a specialist in IT or biology.
Also overheard: “Technicians? They just push trolleys around all day.”
Well if you have not seen a “trolley pusher” recently that is because from 2013 to 2017 there was a 12 per cent cut in the number of technicians and when the Department for Education issues statistics for 2018 – that percentage will most likely increase.
Funding shortages have seen school leaders cut technicians and/or technician hours.
But this has a direct knock-on effect on teachers, who are forced to perform tasks that they are not trained to do. For example, the vast majority of prep work in science is not taught to trainee teachers – they are just told to expect the technician to “do that bit”.
This might include making up chemical solutions or setting up practicals.
There is a massive skills shortage in schools and the reality is that if you cut your “techs” you increase your risk. This is heightened in those schools that have chosen not to be supported by the technical and safety specialist organisation CLEAPSS. Frankly these schools are asking for trouble.
Technicians are extremely cost-effective and many have years of valuable experience. Yet too many senior leaders do not understand their role. This probably is not helped by some techs not “selling themselves” or the vital tasks they undertake.
One thing senior leaders absolutely should know about is the “technician service factor”. Produced by CLEAPSS, this calculates how many science technician hours are required for the amount of science lessons taught per week.
It is vital that before any science technician cost-cutting measures are introduced, leaders refer to this formula. Not least because the Health and Safety Executive takes it into account if they ever have to look into an accident or near miss.
UNISON has begun to work with the science technician website Preproom. The majority of technicians on their forums report that they are significantly overworked according to the CLEAPSS formula, and with funding still tight the danger is that schools will try to make further cuts.
From our own surveys, staff also report that they are being asked to do work previously done by higher grade staff, mostly without the required additional training. And we are increasingly hearing of generic tech roles and people being asked to cover areas they are not trained in. All of this increases safety risks.
We have begun to work with Preproom, sponsoring its annual #TECHOGNITION week. This is an annual website-based event in March which highlights the work of science technicians.
The impact of this has been that some senior leadership teams have, for the first time, started to take an active interest in their technicians.
Technicians have also begun to feel more empowered and have started to use the guidance and benchmarks issued by the well respected Gatsby Foundation (2017) when having their appraisals.
We are also looking at other areas where we might raise the profile of our invaluable technical staff, including work with a coalition of technical organisations on professional standards, meaningful job descriptions, realistic career pathways and decent salaries.
The #TECHOGNITION genie is out of the bottle. A better respected and more confident group of technicians prepared to stand up for their profession can only be good for schools – but only if they are not cut to the bone.
- Jon Richards is national secretary, education, at UNISON.
Further information
- #TECHOGNITION week: www.techognition.org
- Good Practical Science, Gatsby Foundation, 2017: http://bit.ly/2JPaReX