03 November 2023
The NTDC and HEaTED team were thrilled to join Lab Innovations 2023 at Birmingham NEC on November 1st and 2nd. We were pleased to see so many partners of both organisations there and got the opportunity to catch some great talks.
Notably, we saw Catherine Tuckey, Royal Society of Chemistry, deliver 'Career Pathways for Technicians' at the RSC Theatre. Catherine's work and dedication to technical staff is evident in this session, that highlighted the importance of technical staff for any lab setting.
We also saw HEaTED training partner Anthias Consulting Director, Dr Diane Turner FRSC deliver sessions: "The Sustainable Lab: Practical Tips for Lab Management and Sample Analysis" and 'Gas Chromatography & GC-MS Sustainability & Health Check' See HEaTED partner training here.
The team were also pleased to see Clare Stevenson, John Innes Centre, fly the flag for technical staff with her session 'When I grow up, I want to be... A technician!'. Clare spoke about her career as a technician and the importance of technical visibility, recognition and careers.
Lab Innovations Lab Awards 2023 - Laurence Dawkins-Hall
Laurence Dawkins-Hall is a Specialist Advisor for the NTDC and has worked alongside the centre and our partners to support technicians in their training and development. Laurence provides support and guidance on professional registration and has dedicated much of his career to these initiatives. As a Professional Registration Mentor and ally to technicians across the wider technical network, we were thrilled to hear of Laurence's nomination for the Lab Innovations Lab Awards (Commitment to Skills and Training). Laurence was the only individual nominated in this category, with all other nominees being organisations.
Laurence spoke to us about the nomination, below:
"I am pleased to have been nominated as a Finalist for the Lab Innovations awards 2023, in the category of “Commitment to Skills and training”. This nomination is under pinned by 6 years of 'Personal Commitment' to the Technician Commitment and mentoring registrants for the award of Science Council Professional Registration in particular. During that time, I have mentored registrants collectively and individually and not just provided workshops to school them in how to become Professionally registered (and the benefits thereof), but also provided personal aftercare, enabling individual registrants to populate their application report (or so-called Competency Report) with examples of their own working practices, derived from a personal portfolio of work, which I assist them with compiling. In addition, I have devised on learning support materials, exemplified by NTDC Professional Registration Resources."
"The aforementioned work has been conducted by a number of Trail blazing organisations who nationally promote the Technician commitment and it is in my context as Specialist Advisor to the NTDC, for Professional Registration and STEM that I pen these few words.
Finally, and in the abstract, this nomination is important publicity for the Technician Commitment itself, because Technicians in general perform an invaluable role that is often underappreciated, and awards inter alia like this one shine a much-needed spotlight on the objectives of the Commitment, which is designed to, in effect, promote a conversation and conditions that will lead to a 'New deal' for this implacable and vital cohort of support staff."
Congratulations, Laurence, for your well-deserved nomination.