This session is part of the HESPA Showcasing Good Practice Week 2026. The aim of this week is to provide a space for our members to share with each other the work they have done which they feel has been a particular success (or which they feel they learnt something valuable from), and to celebrate and promote the hard work of planners in the HE sector.
Synopsis:
This session will detail UCL’s journey in establishing the Technical Skills Development Hub (TSDH), a sector-first, centrally supported department designed to unify a historically fragmented community of over 1,000 highly skilled technical staff. We will share how we transformed technical talent management into a central institutional priority by securing University Management Committee (UMC) endorsement and using a data-driven approach based on our Technical Staff Survey.
The session will cover the practical implementation of the four pillars of the Technician Commitment, highlighting key outputs such as the new 'Technical Professionals Career Framework' and Authorship/Fair Attribution Guidelines/Annual Technical Showcase/Technical Professional of the years award. We will discuss the strategies that led to a rise in staff engagement from 15% to 52% and how this model can be adapted by other institutions to foster cross-institutional collaboration and inclusive development.
(This project was the winner of the HESPA Strategic Planning Award 2026).
Speakers:
Mike Brown, Executive Director of Research Technology Platforms and Institutional Lead for UCL’s Technician Commitment
Isabel Goncalves Cattuzzo, Technical Skills Development Hub Manager
from University College London (UCL)
Tagged : Free Event, Strategy Development and Implementation
Type : Meeting
