Technician Skills Survey
National Technician Development Centre - Technician Skills Survey
The University of Glasgow will invite all technical staff to participate in the Technician Skills Survey run by the National Technician Development Centre. This survey will be launched on Monday 25th April 2022.
*SURVEY IS NOW CLOSED*
What is the National Technician Development Centre?
The National Technician Development Centre (NTDC), funded by HEFCE and the University of Sheffield, was launched in 2017. The Centre aims to enhance the excellence and efficiency of the technical workforce in Higher Education (HE) and address the growing skills gap which threatens our future success in high priority subject areas.
The Centre aims to help HEIs address the skills gap in a number of ways, including the use of the Technician Skills, Roles and Responsibilities Audit, which includes this survey.
What is the Technician Skills, Roles and Responsibilities Survey?
The Technician Skills, Roles and Responsibilities Audit is a comprehensive workforce-planning research tool, designed to help HEIs capture relevant information needed to support workforce planning. It is designed to enable each HEI to capture intelligence to understand their technical workforce, and for the NTDC to understand the sector technical workforce on a wider scale.
The audit process involves carrying out this Technician Skills, Roles and Responsibilities Survey, capturing information related to technician roles across an institution.
Technical staff, managers and other colleagues across the University of Glasgow have worked closely with NTDC staff to develop this version of the survey.
The findings of this survey, and resulting feedback, will be used to inform future versions of the tool.
Every participant will also receive a personalized skills report to aid future development.
Why are we running the Technician Skills, Roles and Responsibilities Survey at the University of Glasgow?
As a University, supporting highly specialised and diverse disciplines, we hold a vast array of technical skills. Whilst we have a good understanding of the skills that we currently use to deliver support to teaching and research at the University, it would take us some time to document and demonstrate such an extensive repertoire of capabilities. In addition, many of us have additional skills that we have acquired, sometimes from working elsewhere, or in working in different roles at the University. These skills may not currently be in use and therefore may not be apparent, but are just as important when considering the extensive skills sets that we hold. This survey will enable us to collect, document and understand the full skills profile of our technical community. The survey also collects information on those skills that we as technicians would like to acquire. Having such information will be extremely useful when we are considering training and development, succession planning and when developing new opportunities for current staff members.
Who should complete the survey?
We are inviting all staff in the Technical and Specialist job family as well as staff in a technical role in the MPA, Operational and Research-only job families to complete the survey.
What will I be asked?
The survey will ask questions related to your role as a technician, your areas of responsibility, and the technical skills and techniques you commonly use in your job.
What will happen with my responses?
Your responses to the survey will be held confidentially and securely, aligned with data protection guidelines and new GDPR legislation, by the NTDC team. The data will be analysed to evaluate this version of the survey. All project reporting by the NTDC will be done using anonymised data. This will allow us to further understand the technical sector skills gaps at a national level.
Once the survey results and data are received by the University, it will be securely stored by the Survey Working Group’s core members, who will also be responsible for the distribution of relevant data in line with the agreed data access policies. The current core members of the working group include the following UofG staff, however, they are subject to change:
|
Name |
Member of the Technician Commitment Steering Group |
Role in the Technician Commitment Steering Group |
|
Mohammad Ali Salik |
Yes |
Technician Commitment Coordinator |
|
David Tedman |
Yes |
Technician Commitment Institutional Lead, MVLS HR representative |
|
Angela Loy |
Yes |
CoSE HR representative |
|
Graham Tobasnick |
Yes |
CoSE Strategic Programme Manager |
The survey and all responses will be housed on Qualtrics, a well-respected online survey platform. To read about Qualtrics and their data storage policies please visit this link https://www.qualtrics.com/uk/platform/gdpr .
Once the survey has closed you will receive a Personal Report, which would include a copy of your responses which we recommend you keep to be used as part of your professional development.
College-wide anonymized data reports will be made available to college HR.
A University-wide anonymous report will also be available to demonstrate the in-house skills that are available. This will inform discussions around identifying skills gaps, training and development opportunities and succession planning to name a few. This report will be made available to central HR colleagues which includes HR-PPR (Performance, Pay and Reward) and HR-OD (Organisational Development). A further anonymised summary report will be made available to all staff.
Directors/Heads of Technical Services and Senior Technical Managers may receive, upon request and approval from the Survey Working Group, a non-anonymised skills report only for their respective area(s). These will be kept confidential and will not be shared with other staff members.
There may also be data analyst(s) who are given access to non-anonymised data, however, this would be for purposes of processing and analysing data only and all data will be kept confidential at all times.
What are the benefits of taking part?
As stated above, you will have the chance to spend time recording your skills and reflecting on your role. You will then receive a personalized skills report which you may find useful for your own personal career development. The goal of this work is to have a positive impact on the career development and progression of all technical staff in higher education. Your feedback will help us ensure that this is achieved.
How long will it take?
The survey should take approximately 30-60 minutes of your time. Once you have started the survey you can return to it at any time using your original link. This will allow you to complete the survey in more than one sitting.
Will there be a progress bar?
Due to the structure of the survey, there will not be a progress bar demonstrating how far you are through the survey. A progress bar showing you the percentage of questions you have completed would be inaccurate due to the fact that, due to the selections you make during the survey, you will not go through every question.
Can the survey be accessed off-site?
Yes. The survey is accessed through Qualtrics, which is available online anywhere.
Comments from the University's Senior Vice Principal and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic), Professor Frank Coton:
“When we signed up to the Technician Commitment in 2018, we were clear in our ambition of ensuring that technical roles in the University provide attractive, challenging and fulfilling career options for this, the next, and future generations. This survey represents an important step towards realising that ambition. Specifically, it will help us to ensure that we properly understand the technical skills base within the University, allowing us to better support skills development and to provide opportunities for career advancement within the technical community.”
How long will the survey be open for?
The Survey will be open for 4 weeks from the launch date.
Further information
If you require any further information or wish to ask any questions regarding this study or the storage of the captured data please contact Mohammad Ali Salik (email MohammadAli.Salik@glasgow.ac.uk) or Jake Green, National Technician Development Centre: Survey Officer (email jake.green@ntdc.ac.uk)
For more information on the National Technician Development Centre, please visit www.ntdc.ac.uk.