Technicians are the foundation of so many industries, and even when you work as a technician you can be surprised by the diversity of different technician roles in different sectors.
The Technician Commitment is an initiative aiming to ensure visibility, recognition and career development for technicians across all disciplines. More than 90 universities and research institutions from across the UK have pledged their support to help address key challenges facing technical staff. They will work to improve and safeguard vital technical skills at a key time when the demand for technicians is increasing. It’s an important initiative and, as well as bringing technicians into the spotlight, it highlights that almost every industry employs technicians. Without technicians, many industries could fail.
A diverse role that could benefit from greater recognition
Technicians sometimes don’t get recognition for the jobs they actually do. If the recognition isn’t there, then these jobs can sometimes be forgotten, so we need to ensure that technicians are recognised. The Science Council, which is leading the initiative, says that while more than 1.5 million technicians currently work in the UK, demand is expected to rise by 70,000 a year. The Technician Commitment recognises the need to ensure sustainability by safeguarding technical skills and developing expertise. With recognition, we would see improved support for these roles at every level, which would ensure sustainability, support the industries that rely on technicians, and open up greater opportunities for young people.
Teaching young school children about technicians would show them how diverse the role can be. More practical work in high schools could highlight the work technicians do and give teenagers hands-on experience of a job. Technician roles should also be promoted to school leavers, along with information about higher education courses.
Overall, more could also be done to support those of any age who struggle or have struggled with the academic side of learning. We need to celebrate and recognise how everybody learns differently. Just like the famous quote says “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” From a young age I struggled with being dyslexic. This was not helped by the way schools are so academically focused, and it was only later in life I realised that my way of learning is different to how schools set out to teach you. I was going to go to university, but an apprenticeship seemed much more suitable for me and my way of learning.
Apprenticeship jobs with companies have dwindled over the years, so more opportunities to gain employment and learn on the job would be massively beneficial to a lot of young people. Unfortunately all of this comes down to funding from the government, and if the funding is not there then there will continue to be a decline in technicians. This gives fewer people the opportunity to explore technician roles.
Today, I’m a Senior Orthotic Technician for Peacocks Medical Group and also our sister company Podfo. Peacocks medical group supply and manufacture orthotic devices and custom footwear to the NHS and private sector across the UK. These devices can protect or improve the function of limbs or torso of the patient, and help treat conditions like spina bifida, cerebral palsy and strokes. Podfo design and manufacture 3D printed insoles that treat a wide range of problems using cutting edge SLS 3D printer technology.
I’ve been lucky to be given the chance of taking up a role in the innovations team at Peacocks, using my experience and knowledge of the industry to design new products and solutions on continuous improvement. I was approached by the Technicians Make it Happen campaign back in 2017, and later This is Engineering, to become an ambassador – using my experience and my work to promote engineering and technicians to young people and school leavers. It’s been a huge honour to represent the campaigns, through radio interviews, being featured in newspaper articles and attending exhibitions up and down the country to further promote engineering and technicians to young people.
Technician roles have often been viewed very stereotypically, and it has only been recently that the work of technicians has been cast into the limelight. While more could be done to promote different jobs to school leavers, more higher education courses could be brought in to teach a range of skills that technicians use that then lead on to job opportunities.
Initiatives like the Technician Commitment are an important step towards opening up the work of technicians. I hope that with initiatives like this, more people are inspired to explore the many types of technician roles that so many industries rely on.