Chapter 12 of the Talents commission- Recommendations for technicians.
- Technical contribute massively to the HE systems especially creative based.
- Design, teach and make learning resources.
- Plan teaching activities and take on responsibilities that academic staff should be doing.
- Provide Quality education that has an impactful contribution towards student retention, progression and student employability.
- Under-acknowledged by academic staff or senior leaders.
- Invisible and undervalued.
- Not valued in terms of recognition, acknowledgement or pay.
- Lines blurred between academic and technical roles.
- Creative arts institutions seem to be acknowledging this change slowly.
- Appetite for technical professionalism and recognition in grade or qualifications.
“technical staff impact student education and overall experience, and therefore subsequently
impact institutional performances within national student surveys and comparative outcome metrics, it will likely be increased in an institution’s best interest to ensure its technical teaching staff are appropriately trained, accredited, well-resourced, and acknowledged for their contributions.” extracted from the report.
To consider this, even in the pg cert training the value of technical staff hasn’t been addressed or even acknowledged in the participating conversations or dialogues, I have stood a lonely ground contributing to more academic dialogue out of my own self-training and investigation around becoming a technical teacher/practitioner.
What is the ratio of technical staff getting the opportunity to get onto the pg cert? It was my second attempt, have others been rejected more times than I? I believe so, and I believe a lot don’t understand what it is exactly either.
It would be good to build a teaching thinking session around technical pedagogy and how technicians can have the opportunity to see their worth in teaching and to value their input. Even today, I devalue my skills and feel like an imposter because I don’t feel valued in my main discipline academics, on the other hand, the MA in innovation fashion production is fighting for me to join the team and secure me hours to become an AL. But the relationship between the IFP team and I is cohesive and community-led, we talk and commune every day over what’s current, and we intellectually discuss papers or innovations around all our own personal interests. As well as valuing my input in helping to shape the course into something that truly allows innovation in fashion.
Below, is a poster describing the targeted recommendations for technical staff and how these could benefit the whole institute. How do I make this into a policy? or a guide? Is this already a guide that UAL can adapt?
This article, is so rich in information, that I only looked at one chapter that was related to my area of teaching, further investigation is needed.
Wonderful post, SH! So much to pick up on and definitely an area that other disciplines have worked out better than art schools. The step between technicians and academics is a very curious conundrum and I believe that this gap will narrow as we learn to value technical skills purely based on losing the skills in our population.