Strategic insight into technical skills of the future
Technical Talent of the Future will use a commission approach to investigate the higher education sector’s future need for technical talent. The TALENT Policy Commission will be led by an independent Chair, Professor Sir John Holman, and a team of senior Commissioners. It will gather evidence from a range of stakeholders including technicians, academics, university management, funders, students and policymakers before putting together a range of recommendations for the sector.
The scope of the commission will include the sector’s future need for technical talent (numbers and skillsets); workforce demographics; gap analysis; analysis of changing technologies technicians use (e.g. to support laboratory teaching, increasing digitisation of research); government policy implications; and the impact of the increasing focus on collaboration (business, across universities, multidisciplinary research).
TALENT will disseminate the findings through an open access report, events, speaker slots and meetings, ensuring wide dissemination with a focus on universities, policy makers and research funders. The commission process will also act as a significant engagement activity focussing stakeholders’ minds on the role, importance and future need for technicians. An engagement programme will run alongside and after the commission to ensure findings are well understood.
Project Brochure