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Technician Commitment action plan 2024–2027
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Introduction
We continue to support the Technician Commitment which aims to ensure visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability for technicians. Having published the last action plan in 2020, we have renewed our commitment to undertake a programme of work between 2024 and 2027 in support of the Commitment.
Action plan
What our technicians told us | Theme | What we want to achieve | How we plan to do it | Who will be responsible | By when? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current roles don't always offer the chance to develop the skills needed for higher grade roles. Skill sets can be very specific and non-transferable. A pathway for career progression that incorporates specific technical skills. | Career Development | Creation of a new career pathway for technical staff. | Development of a career pathway matrix which outlines expectations, knowledge, experience and skills at each grade so technicians can identify where they need to be in order to progress to the next grade. Creation of generic job descriptions for new roles – this will not result in changes to existing job descriptions. | OSD | September 2024 |
| A clear route of steps needed to progress further in career. CPD is focused on personal development but doesn't always provide skills needed for career development. Technicians want to be formally invested in. Development of staff, in a way that is recognised and matters, would provide a greater level of satisfaction for those developing their careers. | Sustainability / Career Development | Creation of a dedicated Technician Development fund within the Staff Development budget which secures proportionate funding for technicians and which is put towards technician-informed development activities. | Ringfence a representative proportion of the Staff Development budget to solely focus on technician-identified development, currently circa 7%. Invite technicians to suggest training or development opportunities that are of benefit to their career development. Use communication channels, both existing and those developed under this action plan, to assess quality and value of current provision, to ensure spend is beneficial, meaningful and makes best use of funds. | OSD | September 2025 |
| Sustainability / Career Development | Creation of a development framework which draws on the new job descriptions and wider career pathway for technicians | Work with Dean of Research PSE to ensure job descriptions and development framework are fit for purpose and support progression. Detailed assessment of key skills and experience outlined in new job descriptions to identify training needs. Develop and source technician training and ensure these are run on a basis which allows maximum participation. Ensure framework incorporates key messages in new strategy and links in with other related processes (e.g. review of PDR). | OSD / Dean of Research PSE | January 2027 | |
| Career Development | Review of development opportunities provided by subscription to HeaTED and Skills Boosters and promotion of these opportunities through informal and formal routes. | Evidence-based review of these subscriptions using quantitative data provided by HeaTED / Skills Boosters about engagement rates. | OSD | September 2025 | |
| Career Development | Specific consideration given to technicians in the review of the PDR process. | Development of technician-only guidance Work with technicians and technical managers to identify barriers to taking time for CPD. | OSD | May 2025 | |
| Career Development | Review how Schools and Colleges can dedicate time and/or resource to allow technicians to take time away from duties to undertake CPD. | Work with Schools and Colleges to understand any cost / time / resource implications if technicians afforded time away from duties to undertake CPD. Identify whether these barriers can be overcome and how. Put a recommendations paper together, requesting dedicated time. | OSD / Martin Haynes | September 2025 | |
| Recognition / Career Development | Support the recruitment of Technicians onto the Professional Services/Technicians and Specialist cohort to the Cynnau | Ignite Leadership programme which promotes and empowers positive research culture. | Provide a link between technicians and OSD Manager for Ignite Programme during second phase of the project. Publicise the opportunity and provide support for applicants as requested. Support technician participants within the Ignite programme by providing support for attendance and project tasks. | OSD | March 2026 | |
| There is a desire for structured, specialist training. | Recognition / Career Development | Provide guidance, expertise and support as contributors where applicable for the Ignite design team to ensure content for the Leadership programme relates to the promoting a positive research culture for technicians and the wider research community. | Attend and contribute to the research development networks set up by Ignite team and OSD Research. | OSD | March 2026 |
| Opportunities to develop Cardiff University innovation. | Recognition / Career Development | Use links within the University and with GW4 to attract or assist with projects that underpin our joint endorsement of the TALENT Commission recommendations with the GW4 universities. | Attend GW4ward Steering Group meetings to maintain and develop links with GW4 universities. Ensure continued collaboration with colleagues working on Research Culture to raise awareness of the recommendations. Use communication channels with technicians to identify projects which may be of interest and assist with promoting these through the university committee structure for consideration. | OSD / University-wide | January 2027 |
| Career Development | Promote and provide tailored support for applications for Collaboration Fund projects. | Regular cycle of communication around the application period. Put on workshops to help technicians develop their bid. Assist in linking technicians with relevant staff, where collaboration is needed, or identify resource in OSD if appropriate. | OSD/COMMS | January 2027 | |
| There is room to improve the current mentoring scheme. | Sustainability | Establishment of a shadowing / mentoring scheme between south Wales and/or GW4 universities to encourage training, learning new skills and collaboration towards the aims of the Technician Commitment. | Build relationships with counterparts in south Wales universities in the first instance. Identify any work already being undertaken by the Wales Innovation Network and GW4. Facilitate collaboration remotely as well as movement between sites. | OSD | January 2027 |
| Technicians don’t always have access to the best resources or facilities with which to do their jobs. Technicians are keen to collaborate to procure equipment and share resources. | Sustainability | Creation of a south Wales network for shared resources, facilities and equipment. | Work with south Wales universities in the first instance to establish a sharing agreement. Facilitate movement of resources between sites. | OSD | January 2027 |
| Support for staff with disabilities. | Sustainability / Visibility | Ensure technicians are considered in University-wide activity (e.g. Strategic Equality Plan) and support individual technicians with protected characteristics. | Encourage technician participation in new Advisory and Oversight Groups and existing Staff Networks. Use the mechanism of the Technician Committee to liaise with technicians and with colleagues developing the SEP to ensure technicians' interests are considered when developing this work. | Technician Committee / EDI Hub | March 2026 |
| Co-authoring papers does not have a direct link with career progression. Cross-departmental groups and links with colleagues in other colleges. Technicians would like more communication from and with the existing working group. | Recognition | Link up with work ongoing to promote the Credit Attribution System to ensure technicians' interests are represented. | Meet with colleagues who worked on the pilot to look at opportunities to work together, in order to promote the use of credit in the research community, which includes technicians. Ensure a mechanism by which to keep technicians informed of this activity. | RIS | January 2027 |
| Recognition | Ensure technicians' voices are captured in Research Culture and REF activity. | Town hall events scheduled to run in 2025. Establish and build on links between this action plan and the Research Culture action plan. | OSD in collaboration with Strategic Planning / Research Culture Development Group and any other interested parties | January 2027 | |
| Visibility / Recognition | Creation of an official University Committee to represent technicians' voices and ensure a dedicate place in the University's governance structure. | Draft terms of reference, agree membership guidelines and identify where the committee will sit. Seek approval from UEB for creation of committee. Put out call for members. | OSD / Martin Haynes / Roger Whitaker | December 2024 | |
| Non-technicians can demonstrate a lack of respect for and understanding of the skills, knowledge and experience required to do the job. There can be little appreciation for the value technicians bring. | Visibility | Creation of Technical Champions in each School as well as an overarching Institutional Lead to ensure effective communication and representation, giving technicians a voice in a official governance structure. | Model the group on existing champions Aim to have a formal means of feeding in | OSD / Martin Haynes | December 2026 |
| Visibility | Completion of an outreach programme with local schools in collaboration with the Dementia Research Institute to encourage students to consider a career as a technician. | Assist in identifying appropriate colleagues to launch the project in Cardiff. Help coordinate activity in conjunction with Cardiff University's technician point of contact. | OSD / UKDRI | January 2027 | |
| Recognition of the wealth and breadth of experience/skill sets technicians have. | Visibility / Recognition | Technicians to have active and visible role in University Career Days to highlight the benefits of a technical career and in University Open Days to demonstrate to prospective students the critical role they play in ensuring courses run. | Work with Communication and Marketing in the first instance to identify opportunities for technicians to contribute to these days. Identify any funding required and source this. Call for volunteers from each College. | COMMS / OSD | September 2025 |
| Visibility | Creation of dedicated technician pages on the staff Intranet. | Work with HRMIS and colleagues implementing the career pathway to ensure our records of technical staff are up to date. Work with technicians to understand which details they would want made accessible on the Intranet. Work with Communications and Marketing to create spaces on the Intranet to host or link to technician-related materials. Create schedule for updating pages to ensure they remain active and useful. Maintain existing list of technical staff, using HRMIS and reports from recruitment system to ensure accuracy. | OSD / COMMS | August 2025 | |
| Visibility / Recognition | Creation of a regular 'Meet the Technician' article hosted on the appropriate platform. | Develop a system for staff to nominate themselves, modelled on Meet the Professional. Work with Comms to publish regular profiles of technical staff, approx monthly / quarterly. Ensure technicians in AHSS are specifically requested to participate. | OSD / COMMS | August 2025 |
Document control table
| Document title: | Technician Commitment action plan 2024–2027 |
|---|---|
| Version number: | 1 |