Holly Chetan-Welsh
I can see that you are an amazing champion for so many great initiatives that are helping support technicians, including Technician Commitment and Athena Swan. Please tell us a bit more about yourself.
Gillian Riddell
I am a Technician in Biological Sciences at Queen's University Belfast and have been for over 20 years. I work closely with our PhD students, and I'm the go-to person for them with all sorts of practical questions, whilst also providing some pastoral care. Much of what I do revolves around organizing and delivering undergraduate residential field courses, field work and associated Health & Safety. The world of a technician is varied and diverse. I have been privileged to be involved in lots of research and teaching activities, so it's been a very rewarding job.
Coming straight out of university, I couldn't have worked with a better team and was very much part of that team. I realised not everyone is having as good an experience as I have had. I'd like people to be allowed to develop, to be allowed to go to networking events and conferences, and to be acknowledged or gain authorship on publications - all the things that I have done, but didn’t realise it didn't happen for everybody.
Holly
Can you talk a bit about Queen’s journey to becoming a signatory of the Technician Commitment?
Gillian
At the beginning of 2017, our Vice Chancellor, Professor Patrick Johnston, learned of the Technician Commitment and he and the Registrar approached our Dean of Innovation and Impact, Professor Alan Stitt, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Science, to attend one of the initial signatory events of the Technician Commitment, where they became founding signatories. Technicians were then given an option of attending a technical services conference in Exeter, and I think I was the only one that said “I’ll go!”
I came back from the conference thinking this is absolutely something that we really need to get on board with. We started to drive the Technician Commitment at faculty level and engaging with colleagues in the other faculties, and it has built from there. We didn't develop our institutional steering group until 2019, which brought the whole university together with all three Faculties and all the Directorates on board.
We're very well supported at the highest level. Our current Vice Chancellor Professor Ian Greer has now opened a number of our events - we had a networking event online during lockdown and he came along to that and took questions. My own Head of School sits on one of our working groups, and is very supportive.
Our second action plan was delivered at the end of January 2021. Since then, we formed some working groups, and those are: Communication, Networking Events; Professional Development and Progression; Sustainability, Workforce Planning, Recognition and Visibility; and an Environmental Sustainability group.
Holly
Are there any other specific activities that have taken place as part of the Technician Commitment that you'd like to mention?
Gillian
In May we had our second technician showcase in person and it was tremendously well attended -200 people must have come through the doors, including members of University Senate and University Executive Board. I think that event has given us a bit of a kickstart again, with everybody being back on campus. We also introduced our first round of technician awards, with three awards categories - Contribution to Education, Research, and a Newcomer Award. We have had great feedback about the event, which is wonderful.
Holly
So you encouraged non-technician colleagues to nominate their technician colleagues, and technicians to nominate other technicians?
Gillian
We did. Some of the nominations were just phenomenal - people had taken a lot of time to nominate their colleagues, so it was very heartening to see that people do recognise the hard work that technical colleagues do.
Holly
In your words, why is the Technician Commitment so important and so necessary?
Gillian
I think that its importance really can't be stressed enough, and it came at just the right time.
The support that has come from Science Council and other signatory institutions is just amazing. The networking that has evolved from becoming a signatory to the Technician Commitment is invaluable. At the signatory events, technicians get the opportunity to get involved and to step outside their comfort zone and go and talk to people in other universities. The fact that universities or research institutes have signed up to something and reputationally they don’t want to let themselves down - so let's make sure that they fulfil the promises that they make. And I think for us at Queen's, we really do have that commitment.
I have just been elected to Senate. I haven’t taken up my seat yet, but I was asked to give a brief overview, on the Technician Commitment, to the sitting senate members and many of them were absolutely flabbergasted at how we're supporting our technical staff.
Holly
Can you talk a little bit about the impact of the Technician Commitment?
Gillian
I think probably the greatest impact is the effect that it has on others outside the technical community. The increase in morale that you see just by people realising that technicians are considered as part of the wider team as opposed to those hidden roles - it just highlights that they really do underpin the university business, whether it's education or research, and that we couldn't do without those colleagues.
Holly
You mention that people who are not technicians are seeing the value of technicians in a new way - is there a piece around helping technicians themselves to recognise the value they bring, too?
Gillian
Yes, absolutely. We have the Queen's Merit Award, which is an in-house professional development programme for HEA accreditation - it was open to all and still, technicians were probably the lowest uptake. So our plan is to continue having professional registration workshops on reflective writing, so technicians can see everything that they do and contribute to, and learn how to write about it.
I think mentoring, coaching and encouragement will also open technicians’ minds to the real contribution that they make. And hopefully nobody will ever again say “I'm just a technician.”
Holly
What are you most excited about in the future?
Gillian
I think clear career pathways are the next thing on the agenda. We've probably looked at most of the achievable short-term goals on the action plan, so we need to start taking a look at the bigger things. We don't currently have an apprenticeship programme at Queen's for technicians or for any staff members, and that's something that we’ll develop over the next few months - we took that to the University Executive Board and had unanimous support.
Holly
I just wondered if you had a message for any technicians who will read your words?
Gillian
Take opportunities and get involved. If you think there's something you need that would develop you further then try and grasp those opportunities. Make your job interesting and surround yourself with positive people.
Holly
That’s good advice for all of us! Thanks so much, Gillian.
Find out more about Queen's University Belfast's activities for the Technician Commitment here.
