Joining the dots
Jennie Hibbard (Biological Sciences) tells all about the joy of connecting a community of technicians across the University of Leeds – and beyond.
In years gone by, a technician could easily work in one faculty for decades and have no idea of who or what their contemporaries elsewhere were up to – in some cases whether they even existed at all. But now, this is starting to change.
“The problem with technicians is, we’re scattered all over the place and we don’t know each other,” says Jennie Hibbard, a research technician in the Faculty of Biological Sciences.
“But we have so much in common. Every technician in every faculty is a problem solver, working in a very similar way – we just solve different problems.”
I love finding out there’s a technician in Music who’s been helping behind the scenes with the concert series, or a technician in Engineering who’s building a huge arch bridge.
Jennie’s community-building journey started back in 2015 when she began working for the Technicians’ Network – an initiative run by technicians for technicians at Leeds to raise awareness and celebrate each other’s work.
Through writing articles and sharing news, she began to meet other technicians and learn more about what they were getting up to. The more she discovered, the more interested she became.
“The thing is, I’m nosy! I like to find out what everybody’s doing,” Jennie says.
“I love finding out there’s a technician in Music who's been helping behind the scenes with the concert series, or a technician in Engineering who’s building a huge arch bridge because they're looking at the structures of arch bridges and the forces they take. And who knew we had technicians in English? There's a whole range of different skills, a whole range of different experiences. It’s about trying to benefit from each other, learn from each other and share best practice.”
Technicians have felt unseen for a really long time. Now we’re finally starting to become more visible.
Reaching beyond walls
In 2018, the University signed up to the Technician Commitment. This was a pledge to improve the visibility and recognition of technicians working across the institution and help them develop in their careers. From here, things began to step up a notch.
Jennie put her name forward to be a Technician Champion for the Faculty of Biological Sciences. Now she is part of the Technicians Working Group, and a representative on the Technician Commitment Steering Group, feeding up to executive level.
“It gives us a voice,” she says. “It lets people know what technicians on the ground think and feel. There are some amazing people on the Steering Group, like Professor Elaine Martin and Head of HR Michelle Nettleton – they’ve championed us and supported us to do things for ourselves.”
Now the community is reaching beyond the walls of Leeds, with technicians attending national forums and making connections with other universities around the country.
Jennie and her fellow Technician Champions are in the process of setting up The Yorkshire Technician Exchange Partnership to encourage technicians from across the region to visit, shadow and learn from each other.
“In every university and research institute, technicians have felt unseen for a very long time,” she says. “Now we’re finally starting to become visible.”
About Jennie
Jennie joined the University of Leeds in 1995 as a research technician in the Centre for Plant Sciences and has spent over 25 years carrying out research into plant parasitic nematodes – crop pests that cause over $80 billion damage to crops globally each year.
She has recently moved into a new role as Lead Technician for the School of Biology and is the first technician in the Faculty of Biological Sciences to achieve Chartered Scientist status.
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