Unite is
campaigning for effective investment and a long term strategy of
skills development for Higher Education
technicians.
Highly skilled technical support is
essential to good academic research however formal
opportunities for highly skilled (and other) technicians to obtain
training are piecemeal, and training is too often seen as cost
rather than investment. This is compounded by poor systems of
career development, low comparative pay, under
funding and difficulties with staff recruitment and
retention in the sector.
In addition the new market ethos in
academic funding - notably competition linked to RAE grades -
has led to an increase in short-term contracts, a narrowing of
the teaching spectrum as well as a loss of positions and skills in
under-funded areas.
The result is that there is an
accelerating skills shortage amongst technicians in Higher
Education. The average age of HE technicians is over 40 with
approximately 30% now over 50.
Unite members regularly report
the use of PhD students and post doctorates to cover the technical
jobs on the cheap.
In the light of this
Unite is calling for:
a national training
programme for this valuable group.
funding grants to
include specific investment ring fenced for these jobs.
the end to
the use of PhD students and post doctorates as a waste of
universities research resources.
proper systems of
career development for HE support staff.
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