About Technical Services
Technical Services encompasses a team of predominantly technical staff who are based around specialist areas such as laboratories, classrooms, workshops, controlled environments (e.g. glasshouses), theatres and studios. The activities that take place in these areas are associated with teaching, research and outreach support.
Many of our technical staff hold PhDs and degrees often in a field associated with the Schools in which they work, a number are Fellows and Associate Fellows of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), and we are currently developing our professional accreditation status as Registered Science Technicians (RSciTech), Registered Scientists (RSci) and Chartered Scientists (CSci).
Together we support the following 'higher risk' Schools:
- Biological Science (SBS)
- Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy (SCFP)
- Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science (SAGES)
- Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences (SMPCS)
- Agriculture, Policy and Development (SAPD)
- Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences (SPCLS)
- Institute of Education (IoE)
- Arts and Communication Design (SACD)
- Built Environment (SBE)
Employer Champion
In 2017 the University of Reading became a Science Council Employer Champion. An impressive number of technical staff in Technical Services In acknowledgement of these efforts, the then Vice-Chancellor, Sir David Bell was presented with an Employer Champion plaque by Belinda Phipps, Chief Executive Officer of the Science Council at a celebratory event. Employer Champion status recognises a shared commitment to investing in the development of staff and supporting them to become professionally registered. It recognises the importance of raising the visibility of technical staff and of safeguarding and investing in their skills and expertise to ensure sustainability of our technical workforce.
Also in 2017, the University of Reading was a founding signatory of the Technician Commitment in May 2017. This scheme was launched by the Science Council and the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and it has been developed to address the key issues affecting the technical community.
More recently, Technical Services became the first professional services team in the country to gain a national charter mark for its commitment to gender equality. The team was awarded a Silver Athena Swan mark by Advance HE in March 2023 after professional services were made eligible for recognition in 2022. Achieving Silver represents a high level of engagement and progress in reducing the barriers to gender equality, including consideration, for Technical Services, of how gender equality intersects with race.
You can read more on the University website here: Silver gender equality award for Technical Services - University of Reading
Or on the Advance HE website here: First technical directorate awarded Athena Swan | Advance HE (advance-he.ac.uk)
