Growing talent in Science
Our work
The Science Council has been generously funded by the Gatsby Foundation to deliver a project seeking to raise the prestige of technical education in the sciences and embed the professional awards of Registered Scientist and Registered Science Technician into the technical pathways.
We aim to support students following Apprenticeship, T Level and Higher Technical Qualification pathways in their technical careers, integrating our professional awards to recognise skill and competence in science. The Science Council intends to increase awareness and uptake of technical careers and increase the number of employers engaging with technical pathways, resulting in the wider science community valuing and recognising technical education.
The project began in January 2020 with an emphasis on the systemic changes in the technical education infrastructure and Science Council professional awards that would enable our goals to be achieved. We have developed a process, which will roll out in 2021, to enable apprentices to apply for professional registration in a streamlined manner and intend to create support for T Level learners that shall enable those learners to begin their RSciTech application during their T Level. For Higher Technical Qualifications, we are exploring how the competences associated with RSci and RSciTech could be used to indicate a high quality level 4 or level 5 qualification, and like T Levels, wish to create support mechanisms for those learners.
We established a project steering group, the Technical Pathways Programme Board, made up of professional bodies and key stakeholders involved in technical education. The role of the board is to guide the projection, ensure project spend is in line with forecasts and ultimately guide the strategic direction of the project. Three members of staff have joined the Science Council to specifically work on the project: Tom Cheek leads on the apprenticeship activities, Varshini Rajkumar leads on T Levels and HTQ activities, whilst Richard Holliday leads the project.
Get in touch with the team here.
Apprenticeship Workstream
The group
This group is formed by the Science Council membership and is a space for the professional bodies and learned societies to share ideas, thoughts, experiences and values of how apprenticeships work across the science disciplines.
It focuses on collaboration and identifies opportunities for work and projects that promotes science apprenticeships. This activity provide a broader and better understanding of apprenticeships and how they may best serve our industries, employers, individuals and science as a whole.
Types of activity
All aspects of apprenticeship provision is considered and discussed through blogs, articles, forums and online meetings. Topic include aspects such as:
- Quality & design of apprenticeships
- Promoting access and benefits of apprenticeships within schools and industry
- Keeping abreast of changes in funding and opportunities
- Linking apprenticeships to professional registers
For more information
Please contact the Science Council Apprenticeship Lead (Tom Cheek) on t.cheek@sciencecouncil.org