Award recognises University’s work to champion technicians

The Impact Award marks the University's dedication to the Technician Commitment
Kelly Vere, Andy Atfield and Natalie Sobey impact award Technician Commitment
The University of Plymouth has won an award in recognition of its work to support technicians.
The Impact Award marks its dedication to the Technician Commitment, a charter that aims to ensure visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability of technicians working in higher education and research, across all disciplines.
The University was one of the founding signatories of the Technician Commitment in 2017, and was commended for its success in delivering on all four of the Commitment’s pillars in its most recent Action Plan: visibility of technicians, career development, recognition, and sustainability of resources.
The Technician Commitment team, comprising technical staff, managers and HR colleagues, are required to self-assess their previous Action Plan pledges, with the plan then peer reviewed by the sector. The combination of reflection and future pledges is key to achieve success.

See the University’s Technician Commitment Action Plan 2024-27

Funded by the Gatsby Foundation, the Technician Commitment sits in the newly formed UKRI sponsored UK Institute of Technical Skills and Strategy (UKITSS), and Andy Atfield and Mrs Natalie Sobey recently collected the award from Kelly Vere, Director of the UKITSS.

It’s great to have received an Impact Award in recognition of what we have done and, more importantly, what we are still hoping to do.

Technicians are somewhere between academics and professional services staff in the support we offer, so having the Technician Commitment, and the Action Plan to deliver on it, is really important for the sector. From a small number of founding signatories to 120 organisations now being part of it, it’s a strong movement and one we’re proud to be part of. 

Andrew AtfieldMr Andrew Atfield
University of Plymouth’s lead for the Technician Commitment

In order to conduct high quality research and offer the best teaching to students, we need top facilities and outstanding technicians to keep them running.

We are very fortunate to have that at Plymouth, and are proud of the ongoing work across the institution, led by the steering group, to ensure that technicians’ skills are recognised, valued and developed throughout their careers.

Kevin JonesProfessor Kevin Jones
Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of Plymouth