What are we worth? Nothing, apparently!

Take a look at the 'job' advert above. It's currently posted on the CLEAPSS technician job service site.

Notice anything unusual? Yep, that's right - they want a volunteer technician.

I could almost see the point if they were talking about an entry level position, although surely an apprentice would be better than a volunteer, but if you look at the bottom they are asking for A-levels as a minimum. Plenty of paid technician jobs don't insist on A-levels!

This advert makes a mockery of all the efforts that have been made over recent years to highlight the skills and professionalism of technicians up and down the country and takes me back to when I started in the role 12 years ago, when we were viewed as little more than someone's mum, coming in to do a bit of washing up to earn some pocket money! When I went through the process of getting my RSciTech accreditation last year I thought it was a step forward in getting technicains viewed as professionals who might actually be worth a bit of respect. In one school, at least, it appears we are worth nothing at all.

Do you think anyone would consider, even for a second, advertising for volunteer teachers? How about volunteer senior management? Volunteer HR manager? No, of course they wouldn't. But we are clearly not even worth the peanuts that are usually thrown in our direction.

The shitty thing is that they probably will get applicants because desperate job seekers get forced into taking on unpaid work or else losing benefits. I sincerely hope that this is a one off and that no other schools and colleges decide to try this route. Will be keeping a close eye on this situation.

Resistors, more resistors and some capacitors

There's an A2 ISA tomorrow morning. Cue the mass panic!

Obviously I can't go into specific details (despite the fact that kids have been discussing the items in various forums since september), but there's A LOT of electrical components needed. The instructions say that the resistors need to be clearly labelled.

Now, when I was in year 7 I got taught the resistor colour code.

It's not that complicated, and it means that any resistor you pick up is already clearly labelled. Apparently that's too complicated for our year 13s though. It would tax their little brains to have to work out the resistances for themselves! As a result I have had to spend hours printing labels and attaching them to the appropriate resistor.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse - the capacitors need labelling so the little dears don't connect them back to front. Foolishly I assumed that our capacitors were already sufficiently labelled. After all, they have a very clear 'minus' sign on one side, and the leg is shorter on that side. Not good enough! More labels required.

The icing on the cake however came with the batteries. I had put the batteries in their holder with the pre-printed 'plus' and 'minus' clearly visible. Surely that would be ok?
Of course not! Each battery pack now needs a printed label attached to the 'plus' terminal.

So far I've spent a good 5 hours over several days prepping just this one practical. I'll be in early tomorrow to get it set out in the lab. Joy!