Technicians survey: your skills, your roles, your responsibilities

We are asking all technical staff across our five faculties and our library services to take part in an online survey so that we can better understand the skills we have across the university.

The results of the survey will also help to shape future training and development opportunities for these highly specialised members of staff, taking into account their specific wants, needs and ambitions.

Everyone who completes the survey will have the opportunity to win one of five £50 Love2Shop vouchers. A random draw will take place after the survey closes for responses.

Organisational Development, with key faculty and library colleagues, have partnered with the National Technician Development Centre (NTDC) to conduct the Technician Skills, Roles and Responsibilities Survey, or Technicians Survey for short, which will launch on Monday 26 February and be open for responses for four weeks until Friday 22 March.

All technical staff eligible to take part should already have heard about the survey through their line manager and will next receive an email on Monday 26 February titled ‘Your Personal Link - NTDC Technicians Survey’ from ‘noreply@qemailserver.com’ with their personalised survey link.

If you do not receive a survey link, and believe that you should have done so, please contact your line manager.

Technical staff lunch, networking and survey explainer event: Monday 26 February

All technical staff are invited to attend a lunch, networking and explainer event taking place on survey launch day, Monday 26 February, at the James Parsons Lower Exhibition Area and James Parsons Lower Lecture Theatre between 11.45am and 3pm.

Guest speaker Jan Brett, Strategic Technical Lead at the University of Liverpool, will talk about the progress to date at their institution since completing the survey and colleagues from the NTDC Survey Team will also be in attendance to talk about the survey and answer any questions. Attendees will also hear from Executive Director of Human Resources at LJMU, Tina Purkis.

Technical staff should register their attendance as soon as possible via LibCal.

Frequently asked survey questions

We’ve put together some frequently asked questions and answers about the survey to help you understand why we’re doing this now and how it will benefit our technical staff. These FAQs and further information about our participation in the survey can be found on the Organisational Development webpages.   

Should you have any further queries or need support to complete the survey, please email the LJMU NTDC Survey Working Group or you can email Ollie Manton from the NTDC Survey Team.

People Plan 2030 and Research England support

Our People Plan 2030 – the plan to support the university’s aspirations of recruiting, retaining, developing and managing high performing, motivated, engaged and healthy teams who are proud to work for us – sets out our ambition to better understand career pathways and to develop quality development plans for everyone, while developing future leaders and ensuring robust, sustainable succession planning.

Engaging in this survey will not only support that ambition for our technical staff across LJMU, but it will also ensure that sector recommendations take into account the experiences of our highly skilled and valued staff.

Tina Purkis, Executive Director of Human Resources, said: “I value and understand the importance of technicians and their contribution to the success of the university. The NTDC survey is a platform to provide all technical staff with a voice to highlight their skills, knowledge and aspirations. The results will be used to shape a brighter future for technical staff. I am proud to support the Technician Commitment and encourage all technical staff to engage with this survey.”

The survey is also part of a wider drive to enhance the research culture across the university, with funding from Research England supporting the delivery of the survey, and aims and objectives aligning closely with our Research and Knowledge Exchange Plan 2030.

The Technician Commitment

The Technician Commitment is a university and research institution initiative, led by a steering board of sector bodies, hosted within the UK Institute for Technical Skills and Strategy.

The commitment aims to ensure visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability for technicians working in higher education and research, across all disciplines.

LJMU has been a signatory of the Technician Commitment since 2017, pledging to take action to tackle the key challenges affecting its technical staff.