Over to Fife June 7, 2007
Posted by Brian in : Uncategorized , trackbackI headed over to Fife yesterday to attend one of the quarterly meetings of the Scottish Technicians Advisory Group (STAG).
Technicians from all over Scotland meet at the Scottish Schools Equipment Research Centre (SSERC) quarterly to discuss a variety of topics including Health and Safety, CPD opportunities for technicians and other matters pertaining to the technician service in Scotland.
All 32 local authorities in Scotland are members of SSERC and although for some authorities its quite a journey it is very well attended with members coming from as far afield as Highland, Moray, Aberdeenshire and Ayrshire councils.
A lot of time at the meetings over the past two years has been taken up with the report SSERC and STAG were commissioned to write for the Scottish Executive with regard to provision of CPD and related activities for technical support staff. The report has now been finalised and is in the hands of the Scottish Executive and will also be made available to every Director of Education in Scotland.
It will be available for download from the SEERC website very shortly and I would urge all technicians, or indeed anyone interested in the future of science education in Scottish Schools, to read it.
The report makes a number of recommendations to the executive. I have listed what I think are some of the key points below and would welcome your comments on them.
With the final report having been published, this particular phase of the project has now come to an end. Project officer Phil Muggins is returning to the sunny shores of Inverclyde whilst project manager Brian Richmond will be carrying on for a couple of days a week to make sure that all the i’s are dotted and the t’s crossed. Project Co ordinator Ian Buchanan has retired and, I am reliably informed, will be taking his camper van around Scotland on a grand tour.
There were many other individuals involved in the project and I would just like to thank everyone for their hard work and effort on behalf of all the technicians in Scotland.
Its now all in the hands of the executive and should the worst happen and they decide not to act on any of the recommendations it certainly wont be as a result of lack of effort by the project team.
Key recommendations
Formulae for scales of provision
- There is a clear need for a national agreement on minimum levels of technical support across all Scottish local authorities.
- An agreed formula for calculating the numbers of technicians allocated to each secondary school should be introduced. The formula should mainly be pupil roll based with account taken also of the teaching time for science and technology courses.
- A nationally agreed formula should be used to calculate technician complements only and be separate from arrangements for calculating the number of other non technical support staff in schools.
- Trainee or modern apprenticeship appointments should be in addition to the calculated technician complement.
Central Support Services
- There is strong support for some form of central support service in each authority - managed by a chief technician, technical support service manager or similar appointee.
- The chief technician should have responsibility for managing school based technicians.
Raising the Technicians Professional Profile
- Technicians should be involved with teachers at the development stage of all new science and technology curricula and course materials.
- They should be seen as part of the a professional team and be able to offer assistance and advice - particularly on what is practical given available time and other resources. They should also contribute to making risk assessments (particularly where rocesses will involve them directly).
- Technicians should be entitled/expected to attend relevant national conferences , or similar professional events.
- Having a central technician resource service with a chief technician (or equivalent post) to communicate with heads of service would give technicians a “voice” outwith the school and at the whole authority level.
- Technicians should be interviewed as part of the HMIE school inspections (by an HMIE inspector rather than a “lay” inspector). The quality, or otherwise, of technical support services in schools should be specifically mentioned in the inspection report.
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cheers once again for the info brian, it will be interesting to see what if anything the executive do , especially so since its now been announced that support staff in england are now going to be treated as an important and integral element of the education system and are going to be accorded national agreements coupled with a review of salary.
cheers again
harry