Technology & Innovation - Issue 12

Making the world go round HelenWickens details how the Science Museum is giving technical careers some long-overdue time in the spotlight W henever you flick a light switch, watch aWest End show or get a test result back from the hospital, you’re probably not thinking about the technicians who make those things possible. Yet without them, life in the UK would likely come to a quick stop. From laboratories and airports, to film sets and flood defences, technicians are those with the skilled hands and sharp minds who keep our society running. Government figures show that the country needs hundreds of thousands more skilled technicians to meet future demand and the Department for Education has put technical careers at the heart of its skills strategy, championing T-Levels, apprenticeships and employer-led training – we want to ensure that young people are aware of the opportunities these roles can provide. Tangible, exciting, accessible It’s a challenge that the Science Museum set out to tackle in 2022, with the launch of Technicians: The David Sainsbury Gallery funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation. Free to visit, and designed with young people inmind, the gallery is bursting with interactive displays, bold storytelling and hands-on activities that showcase the real lives of technicians. Via a series of interactive exhibits, students can programme a robotic arm, analyse samples using medical technologies and discover the part that technical skills play in ABOUT THE AUTHOR Helen Wickens is Programme Manager (Careers) at the Science Museum; for more information, visit sciencemuseum.org.uk putting on stage shows and live gigs. The gallery gives young people the chance to see themselves in roles they might never have considered before. Too often, technical careers are seen as hidden, academic, or ‘not for me’. At Technicians , they are tangible, exciting and accessible. Upon entering the Technicians gallery, visitors are greeted by a large sculpture of a beautifully crafted kit of parts, showcasing the critical tools and equipment technicians need to do their work. As visitors move around the five areas of the gallery, the world of technicians is brought to life through large-scale illustrations featuring technicians in a wide range of workplaces. Face-to-face workshops Students can also touch various objects made and used by technicians – from a safety harness worn by technicians while working high up on a wind turbine, to a prosthetic leg made for a ballet dancer by engineering manufacturing technicians at Imperial College London. The excitement of the gallery is further amplified by our free, 60-minute Careers Uncovered sessions, where real technicians working for major companies get to meet students face-to-face. At past sessions organised by Heathrow Airport, for example, students could discover how, every day, thousands of staff work behind the scenes to keep one of the world’s busiest airports operating safely and efficiently. Other sessions have seen the Environment Agency demonstrating the role of technicians in tackling flooding and climate change, and IBM showing students the skills that go into cutting-edge computing and artificial intelligence. For young visitors, these encounters aren’t just eye-opening, but transformative. As one Y9 student previously put it to us, “ I didn’t know jobs like this even existed. Now I want to find out how to get into it. ” Tackling misconceptions It’s precisely this kind of shift that employers and educators alike are hoping for. The misconception that STEM careers are solitary or suited only to the most academic students, continues to discourage otherwise capable young people from venturing further. Yet the skills required for such roles are creative, collaborative and transferable across many different industries. Teachers are seeing the benefits, too. Evaluations show that the gallery helps schools meet The Gatsby Good Career Guidance benchmarks, by providing students with direct employer encounters as required under the Baker Clause. For employers, it’s a chance to engage with the next generation of technicians at a critical time. At the Technicians gallery, young people get the chance to gain unique insights into the crucial, yet often hidden world of technical careers. They can try out essential tasks performed by technicians, and discover remarkable stories that could change their perception of STEM careers. At the Science Museum, technicians are no longer hidden. Instead, they’re centre stage, showing the next generation how their skills could power the future. 29 WH O L E S C H O O L teachwire.net