IET Technician Roundtable: helping to better support technicians

This event was an opportunity to discuss companies’ approach to Technicians Professional Development, working towards registration and Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

This included what provisions do companies provide currently, what would they like the IET and other Professional Engineering Intuitions to provide and what is missing.

The roundtable began with Sir Julian Young, the 140th President of the IET, as his focus over the next year is to raise the visibility and awareness of technicians.

During his opening, he highlighted the need for professional people to be able to have the knowledge and skills to navigate the ever-changing landscape within engineering.

He noted that whilst technicians vastly outnumber engineers across the industry, this is not reflected in the professionally registered engineering base either in the IET or the wider profession. 

The discussion continued in smaller groups asking people what they know about technicians and Professional Development in the current landscape.

The roundtable heard from technicians about their experience which then enabled them to workshop ideas on the first actions the IET and companies can do to drive this work forward. 

Next steps

The roundtable was closed by discussing what appropriate actions we, the IET, as well as individuals and companies, could do to help drive forward this work and better support technicians. 

The following were identified:

• Help individuals and companies to better understand the offering of EngTech – what’s in it for me? Ensuring that guidance around different levels of membership is articulated and available, that the proposition for both membership and registration for the individual and the company is demonstrated in a variety of ways and mediums. 
• IET to work with partners to establish what skills and other Professional Development Technicians would value and look at opportunities to deliver this if not already available as part of the IET portfolio.
• Champion success stories, work to create more technician case studies across the IET and encourage companies to do the same.
• CPD communications focused at TMIET members encouraging them to record their CPD, demonstrating the different types of activities, relevant to them which count as CPD and how they will help them in their professional development.

Attendees

Representatives from the following companies:

• AWE
• BBC
• Defence Science & Technology Laboratory
• Domino-UK
• Gatwick Airport
• GO-Science
• Hoare Lea
• IBM
• Leonardo
• LMCO
• MBDA
• MoD
• National Grid
• RAF
• Renishaw
• Ricardo Ltd
• Royal Mail Group
• Schneider Electric
• Siemens
• Suez Recycling & Recovery UK Ltd
• UK Power Networks
• UKAEA