ASE Members lead the way at Science Council’s CPD Awards
We are delighted to share that five ASE members have been recognised in the Science Council’s CPD Awards, either winning particular awards or receiving commendations. The Science Council’s CPD Awards celebrate outstanding professional development in science. The awards showcase the achievements of registrants across the four registers: Registered Science Technician (RSciTech), Registered Scientist (RSci), Chartered Scientist (CSci) and Chartered Science Teacher (CSciTeach).
Entrants had to submit a record of their CPD activities throughout the previous 12-month period. The submissions were judged by a trained panel of CPD assessors, who shortlisted 24 individuals that then went through to the final round of judging. A winner was selected for each of the registers and commendations were awarded where the judges wished to recognise outstanding examples of CPD and reflective practice.
You can read more about professional accreditation, and its benefits, here. Meanwhile, here’s what each of our five ASE recipients had to say:
Laura Smith - Tech Winner
“As well as feeling delighted on a personal level, I also felt really pleased to have had the opportunity to highlight the role of school/college science technician. I’m happy that the skills in the role have been recognised and valued alongside entries from technicians in industry and research. I think it's really important to raise the profile of the job I do.
“I certainly did go into a lot of detail in my CPD record, keeping careful notes throughout the year. With CPD, I think one of the key things is realising that it’s not just about going on courses – there’s a lot more to it than that. If you think about it, there are a lot of things you do in your everyday work that you can include.’
Jon Hale – Teacher winner
“I guess I focus a lot on my subject knowledge, because biology is one of those subjects that doesn’t sit still – every day is a school day for me, as much as the students. I try and take advantage of all of the learning opportunities that come my way, and with lots of things moving online – it’s really helped me because of the remote area where I’m based.
“Even on social media, every time you have one of those little conversations with somebody who’s much more knowledgeable than you, you learn so much and are able to actually think critically about how you teach the students. I think that’s what good CPD has to be about: reflection and really focusing in on how you can teach better.”
Andrea Brown – RSciTech commended
“I thought, shall I do it, shall I not, but I talked to my head of department and he said “What have you got to lose?”, so I sent it all off, then completely forgot about it. So, because it wasn’t at the top of my mind, when I got the e-mail saying that I’d been shortlisted, and then got my commendation, I was completely gobsmacked.
“With a lot of the CPD going online because of COVID, it’s been an absolute godsend for me because I’m the only technician. Getting time off school to go to a course had been really difficult. And even if I was allowed to go, it’s knowing that even when you get back the next day all of that work will still be there. If I’m doing an online seminar, or something like a TechMeet, it’s just an hour out of my day and I can build it in to my day…there’s no travelling or costs, so from a CPD perspective it’s been great.”
Kulvinder Johal – Teacher commended
“When you’re not in school you don’t really get the chance to apply for anything, so it was nice to get the chance to be recognised, to be able to say “Yes, I have done lots of CPD this year and it would be good to recognise it”.
“For training deliverers, CPD is really important. If you’re delivering training you’ve got to have your finger on the pulse – it’s our job to know things hot off the press. So going to courses, keeping up with all of the journals, even keeping up with social media, is really vital. ”
Rachel Chilton – RSciTech commended
“I think my CPD over the past year has been very focused…I just picked a goal because I’ve just started running a STEM club at my school, so I really focused on CPD that would help with that in terms of actually running the club, and attending webinars helping with things like classroom management. I also had quite a wide range of other CPD activities, it wasn’t just around courses. There was a lot of reading around and looking for different opportunities.
“I’m grateful that I feel supported by my school management to develop. Certainly in my school it helps that one of the deputy heads is a science teacher – in previous schools I might not have felt quite so well supported simply because sometimes senior management don’t quite understand technicians, what we do and how important we are.”