Should we all be working for Midlothian? August 2, 2007
Posted by Brian in : Uncategorized , trackback
Flicking as I do through the jobs pages of the local councils. I found an advert for a senior technician at Lasswade High School.
Quite amazing really. Over £21k for 30hrs a week and sessional to boot. With no mention of the salary being pro rata that would work out at around £31k a year for a non sessional 35hrs a week post !!!
So whats happened, have Midlothian decided to up its pay rates for technicians? Or have they simply made a mistake? I am guessing the latter of the two.
Advertising for technical support staff within the Lothians has always been something of a hit and miss affair.
Because there’s no one in overall charge of the technician service, personnel departments tend to use outdated job descriptions that hark back to the last technician review nearly twenty years ago. Our posts are often administered by staff who have are not familiar with our jobs and therefore mistakes in the advertising can be made.
So whats to be done? If councils want quality staff then the quality of their advertisments has to be high. That will only happen if and when technical support staff are involved in the recruitment process and outside agencies such as SSERC and STAG are brought into advise about qualifications and duties needed for the post.
If a council cant be bothered to get its facts right at the recruitment stage then it doesn’t give the impression that its trying to recruit the very best person for the job.
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Simple, techs are not considered to be important by the educational body as a whole. We work behind the scenes so no one apart from science teachers see what we do. (its been a sore point at my school, where some members of staff think we sit about all day drinking coffee…. i dont like hot drinks and on a regular basis forget to have lunch, and if I ever find out who said it, I’ll be telling them where to shove it)
The stereo typical tech is seen as someone wanting to fill the last few years untill retirement and a nice pension. (not me I may add, I stated working in a prep room at 17 as part of the PSHE social service, im 21 now and have no intention of changing jobs)
So, when an establishment advertises for a tech who puts the ad out? The science dpt? no. Its the heads PA or the school manager who know nothing about how much techs are needed. They are not looking to entice people in with money, they just pay out enough to pay the bills every month. There is no management ladder to climb. yeah, I know about that nice little leaflet about job titles….. it DONT translate. I am the technician for both Physics AND Biology. That should make me the senior technician since I have people working under me…. im sorry, I didnt see a pay rise. Im at the top of my scale and can go no further. Annoyed, yes.
But at the same time, I do not see it changing. Untill young blood is brought in. Untill they re-start the technician college courses. Untill they bring in higher standards for being a technician. Nothing is gonna change.
Right, rant over. Sorry
It could be a similar situation to Edinburgh where schools want to get IT managers and pay them well to get good applicants, but can’t because of their contract with The-Service-Provider-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named.
Technician can be such a wide remit. I used to be a senior technician at Napier, but I was doing IT, web design, e-learning and psychology experiments. Another job I had could well have been titled Technician, but I was doing IT, multimedia, graphic design, and fixing digital cameras that kids had dropped on the playground. I suspect this is quite different from the work you do, which I just don’t have the skills or experience to do.
We undervalue the ‘non-professional’ staff in schools far too much. Some of the most professional people I have worked for have been technicians, learning assistants, janitors and office staff. Yet because they don’t have a teaching degree they are under-paid and under-valued. Hell, at Napier there was a secretary who had a PhD (I don’t think any of the lecturers had a clue though!)
Best plan might be to phone up (or go online?) and get an application pack. Hopefully the job specification will make things clearer. Are you going to go for the job? You should
Good luck