MLW TECHNICIAN COMMITMENT ACTION PLAN

On 23^rd August 2023, MLW became a signatory of the Technician Commitment, an initiative which aims at addressing some of the issues which affect “technical” staff in Research and Academia and aims to ensure five things, visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability for our technicians.

This is an initiative developed in United Kingdom (UK) by Universities and Research Institutions and centrally hosted by the UK Institute for Technical Skills and Strategy.

On our part having appreciated the challenges we have faced addressing some of the issues shared above, we recognize that our participation in such an initiative will provide us with an alternative platform to leverage on and address challenges unique to our setting. We have piloted with two departments, the Laboratory and Data Management Support Unit.

The initiative at MLW will be managed by a Technician Commitment Committee (Head of HR-Chair, Lab Manager-Vice Chair, DMSU Lead, Training & Development Coordinator, Lab Post Doc, CRSU Lead, Facilities Manager, IT Manager). Following the spirit and principles of the initiative, volunteers from the technicians were required to be part of the subcommittee to give a voice on how the activities should address the issues faced by technicians.

We were required to formulate an action plan which will address the five issues and consider our setting and currently we are at a stage where the action plans were developed and will be submitted to the UK institute for Technical Skills and Strategy for review.

The signatory form and the action plans are being shared through the training web page

The Technician Commitment Committee