Technician Forum 2022
Due to COVID, the latest technician event was scaled back slightly and became an online event. Taking place over lunch on the 2nd March 2022, it had 124 people sign up and over 80 attended the session on the day.
There were three talks followed by a Q+A session and the feedback was positive.
The presentations, slides and links are now available to view. Please feel free to browse them at your leisure and get in contact if you have any questions.
The presentations cover:
- An introduction to the Technician Commitment and overview of the projects within the University
- An introduction to ourcambridge and personal development options
- An overview of Professional Registration and the mechanics of applying
If you attended the event, we hope it was useful and interesting, and if you couldn't make it we hope to see you at our next series of events and workshops which will be announced soon. Keep up to date with our Yammer and Teams groups.
Technician Conference 2019
Over 80 technicians from 21 departments recently attended the first University of Cambridge Technician Conference.
The keynote speaker, Professor David Cardwell, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Strategy and Planning, described his experience of working with technicians throughout his career and emphasised the unique contribution that technicians make to the University.
Kelly Vere, Technician Commitment Lead at the Science Council, spoke about the Technician Commitment, which she oversees, looking at improving visibility, career development, recognition and sustainability for technicians. Early successes include the development of career pathways, national awards for technicians, introduction of apprenticeship schemes and the development of technician websites.
Kate Maxwell, from ourcambridge spoke about the importance of technicians having a voice. She highlighted how the aims of ourcambridge can support the Technician Commitment and encouraged technicians to become involved.
Two members of the Technician Commitment Working Group, Barney Leeke and Liz MacRae, covered some of the achievements of the working group to date, including the development of a Technician website and Yammer group.
Delegates then spilt into groups to hear six technicians talking about their careers and current roles. One delegate said:
“The breakout sessions were great, getting to hear other technicians’ experience was very motivating and reassuring. It also made me think of the wide variety of career paths that are open to me as a technician, which I perhaps wasn’t aware of before and how high up the ladder you can go as a technician."
Following the conference, 14 technicians attended a Professional Registration Workshop run by the Science Council where they learnt about different professional registers and how to apply.
Overall feedback from Conference delegates was positive and it is hoped that this will be the first of many events for technicians.
Below are a range of films from the event. To activate captions, click on the CC icon in the bottom right of the film window and select the English CC option.
Professor David Cardwell, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Strategy and Planning, describing his experiences working with technicians.
Kelly Vere, Technician Commitment Lead at the Science Council, discussing the national Technician Commitment.
Barney Leeke and Liz MacRae, members of the Technician Commitment Working Group, speaking about the Technician Commitment at Cambridge.
Kate Maxwell, Overall Programme Lead for ourcambridge, discussing ourcambridge and support for professional services staff.