Technician Skills, Roles and Responsibilities Audit
What is the Technician Skills, Roles and Responsibilities Audit?
The Technician Skills, Roles and Responsibilities Audit is a comprehensive workforce-planning research tool, designed to help HEIs capture the relevant management information needed to support workforce planning. It is designed to enable each HEI to capture intelligence that allows them to understand their technical workforce. It covers the range of roles and responsibilities commonly found among technicians within HEIs, and utilises a web-based survey which includes over 2000 technical skills covering the spectrum of HE technical roles. This also includes key demographic questions, including staff location, to support data analysis. It can also capture development needs.
Why have we developed the Technician Skills, Roles and Responsibilities Audit?
Many Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have historically chosen not to place technicians at the heart of their strategic planning thus not prioritised the strategic development of technical services and staff. Given that excellence in teaching and research cannot be achieved without the skills, knowledge and professionalism of technicians, this approach is not sustainable.
Our research suggests there is also a tendency to take a short-term, reactive approach to changing technical services, which frequently appears to not deliver the required changes.
It is also apparent that many HEIs struggle to obtain a clear understanding of the breadth and depth of technician’s roles, responsibilities and skills which impacts on the ability of those HEIs to engage in effective strategic workforce planning and development, both of the service and the staff.
This audit is designed to enable HEIs to build up that understanding and to develop the service to meet future need by:
• Identifying and addressing skills gaps
• Supporting career development through identification of need and active development of current staff
• Clearly articulating future requirements
• Linking with other TDM tools to develop a clear career pathway to support career development