The Survey
By the NTDC
Unlocking Insights for Brighter Technical Futures
Unlock the full potential of your technical services with The Survey. Our comprehensive survey covers every aspect of your technical workforce, from specialised technical skills to future career plans and development needs. Each institution receives a bespoke service and customised survey, tailored to support strategic workforce planning and to maximise the talents of your technical team.
What is The Survey?
A web-based survey designed to capture every element of a technician’s role and experience
Designed to support CPD, career development and workforce planning
Rolled out and refined at leading universities across the UK and internationally
Includes a database of approximately 4,000 individual technical skills
What does The Survey capture?
At the heart of our survey lies a robust and extensive Technical Skills Database. The survey adapts to each institution and captures data related to areas such as:
demographics
demonstrating and teaching technical skills
teaching support
research support
interpersonal activities
management responsibilities
wider responsibilities within & beyond university
professional development/registration
qualifications
career path to date & future career plans
administrative and health and safety skills
technical skills being used by the technical workforce
untapped technical skills and experience within your technical workforce
desired technical training & development needs
What does the NTDC offer?
The Survey Team’s expert guidance ensures a seamless experience for each institution by:
tailoring the survey to your institution and your unique technical workforce
building the survey on your behalf
assisting with your communication and engagement strategy and sharing best practice from previous institutions
running the survey on your behalf
providing access to the data and follow-up actions
providing ongoing support from the start of the survey process through to six months after the survey closes
"Thanks to the NTDC Survey, we have now captured a significant amount of data and information to analyse and take us to the next phase of our plan. This will enable us to develop more robust succession planning and therefore sustainability of our technical skills."
University of Reading
Why run The Survey?
To benefit your institution through:
Identifying Skill Gaps: Identify future technical aspirations and untapped expertise.
Enhancing Workforce Planning: Support career growth and strategic planning for a sustainable technical team.
Improving Development: Identify areas of developmental needs from your technical workforce
To benefit your technical staff through:
Carrying out reflective CPD
Showcasing their skills and make their institution aware of their development needs.
Elevating Technician Visibility: Increased recognition for technicians, their skills and their needs
"We decided to undertake the NTDC Technical Skills survey as we wanted to gain a stronger understanding of the skills and experience of our large technical community. We aim to use the results to deep dive into the expertise we have across the institution to enable us to make strategic decisions around training and development requirements. We're also looking forward to receiving more detailed demographic data about our various technical communities so we can further develop our EDI initiatives."
University of Exeter
The Survey Resources
NTDC Technician Survey Information Session (Recorded)
On May 14th 2024, The NTDC Technician Survey Team delivered an information session explaining the NTDC Technician Survey in detail. Participants heard from institutions about their experience delivering the survey. The team answered any questions about the survey, the process, and the outcomes.
The Technician Survey Benchmarking
“The purpose of this survey is to gain a better understanding of our technical workforce, to be able to deliver positive change based on the key themes of the Technician Commitment. This includes raising the visibility of technicians and their contributions to the University, their skills, knowledge and qualifications enabling career progression and ensuring the future sustainability of those skills”.
University of Leeds
Case studies
Shane WSU.mp4Video: Western Sydney University
Hear from Dr Shane Griffin at Western Sydney University about his experience leading the development of technical services at WSU.
Video: University of Leeds
Hear from the University of Leeds as they communicated the importance of engagement with The Technician Survey that they delivered in 2024.
Get in touch
If you have any questions, or you’d like to arrange a free presentation on the survey, including an in-depth look at what it captures, and the process of preparing the survey at each institution, email us at enquiries@ntdc.ac.uk.