A confident and vital technician workforce is at risk
The 2025 survey had the highest number of responses from technicians since the first survey in 2022. This highlights the strong desire for technicians to have their voices heard.
Our most important findings
- A high percentage of technicians at all key stages feel confident in delivering support in the classroom.
- Access to role-specific professional development is a challenge, with 30% of technicians in the UK indicating that they did not receive any CPD in the last academic year.
- Since the 2023 survey, there has been a 159% increase in technicians citing high levels of stress and exhaustion as reasons for leaving their roles.
- There is a shortage of science technicians, which is making it a challenge to run practical work.
Technicians expressed confidence in their ability to support secondary science education across all age groups
| Chemistry at KS3 | Chemistry at KS4 | Chemistry at KS5 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Very and somewhat confident | 525 (88%) | 510 (86) | 364 (77%) |
| Neither confident nor unconfident | 18 (3%) | 23 (4%) | 37 (8%) |
| Very and somewhat unconfident | 53 (9%) | 62 (10%) | 69 (15%) |
| Column n | 596 | 595 | 470 |
Filter: Technician, England, Wales and Northern Ireland only + not selected 'Do not support'; Unweighted; base n = 446-596
| Chemistry at N4 | Chemistry at N5 | Chemistry at Higher | Chemistry at Advanced Higher | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Very and somewhat confident | 35 (88%) | 36 (86%) | 35 (83%) | 33 (83%) |
| Neither confident nor unconfident | 1 (3%) | 2 (5%) | 2 (5%) | 2 (5%) |
| Very and somewhat unconfident | 4 (10%) | 4 (10%) | 5 (12%) | 5 (13%) |
| Column n | 40 | 42 | 42 | 40 |
Filter: Technician, Scotland only + not selected 'Do not support'; Unweighted; base n = 34-42
Role-specific professional development
Access to role-specific professional development is challenging for a significant number of technicians.
| % | |
|---|---|
| 0 hrs - Didn't access any professional development | 30% |
| Up to 5 hours | 19% |
| 5 - 9 hours | 20% |
| 10 鈥� 14 hours | 9% |
| 15 鈥� 19 hours | 3% |
| 20 - 24 hours | 4% |
| 25 - 29 hours | 1% |
| 30 - 34 hours | 2% |
| 35+ hours | 2% |
| Don't know | 9% |
| Column n | 725 |
Filter: Technicians only + not selected 'Not applicable'; Unweighted; base n = 725
| % | |
|---|---|
| Sufficient and somewhat sufficient | 29% |
| Neither sufficient nor insufficient | 19% |
| Insufficient and somewhat insufficient | 48% |
| Don鈥檛 know / Can鈥檛 remember | 3% |
| Column n | 725 |
Filter: Technicians only; Unweighted; base n = 725
The top three barriers that technicians gave to accessing role-specific professional development were:
1. Course cost and expenses to attend courses
59%
2. Availability of courses
51%
3. Prohibitive travel time/distance
48%
Retention, wellbeing and job satisfaction
When asked 鈥楬ow long do you intend to stay at your current school?鈥�, 19% of technicians told us they intended to leave by 2027, with 39% being unsure. Of those leaving the role, 43% were retiring and 26% intend to leave education altogether.
| % | |
|---|---|
| Increased pay | 55 (81%) |
| More opportunity for progression | 44 (65%) |
| More recognition of work performance | 28 (41%) |
| More respect / appreciation | 27 (40%) |
| More support from senior management team | 21 (31%) |
| Increase funding for classroom/school resources | 18 (26%) |
| Timetabled / regular professional development | 17 (25%) |
| More balanced / reduced workload | 15 (22%) |
| Better work/life balance | 11 (16%) |
| Having the option to work remotely/work from home where feasible | 11 (16%) |
| More support with student behaviour | 10 (15%) |
| Better job security | 6 (9%) |
| Having the option to work part-time | 5 (7%) |
| Being able to find a position in a different school | 2 (3%) |
| Other | 6 (9%) |
| There isn鈥檛 anything that could convince me | 9 (13%) |
| Column n | 68 |
Filter Technicians + moving out of Secondary education; Unweighted; base n = 68
| 2023 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| Low pay | 47 (89%) | 58 (72%) |
| Lack of progression opportunities | 36 (68%) | 54 (67%) |
| Lack of recognition | 26 (49%) | 39 (48%) |
| High levels of stress / exhaustion | 9 (17%) | 36 (44%) |
| Lack of respect / don鈥檛 feel appreciated | 26 (49%) | 33 (41%) |
| Want to try something different | 13 (25%) | 28 (35%) |
| Workload is too high / Lack of work life balance | 6 (11%) | 27 (33%) |
| Poor student behaviour | 15 (28%) | 24 (30%) |
| Having to perform tasks outside my role | 13 (25%) | 23 (28%) |
| Issues with management | 12 (23%) | 22 (27%) |
| Lack of full-time contract (e.g. term time only) | 26 (49%) | 18 (22%) |
| Lack of job security (e.g. temporary contracts) | 26 (49%) | 3 (4%) |
| Other | 12 (23%) | 11 (14%) |
| Don鈥檛 know / not sure | 0 (0%) | 2 (2%) |
| Column n | 53 | 81 |
Filter Technicians + not retiring; Unweighted
During the first 5 years in [this] role - I did many PPD courses and enjoyed [them], however nothing can be offered now as I have done them all (plus no funding anymore) so I am not getting paid more and yet I am an experienced technician - so all I can do is find a higher paid job role outside of this institute.
Technician, England
No point in training, as no career promotion possible
Technician, England
Understaffing and the effects on running practical work
Over the last three years, we have reported on the levels of understaffing for science technicians. We have consistently seen high levels of understaffing of science technicians since 2023.
Technician understaffing through the years
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overstaffed | 1% | 1% | 1% |
| Adequately staffed | 60% | 56% | 60% |
| Understaffed | 38% | 39% | 38% |
| Don't know / Not sure | 1% | 1% | 2% |
| Column n | 2932 | 1846 | 1871 |
Filter: Teachers only; Unweighted
We know that this understaffing presents challenges to classroom teaching of science and to practical work.
Which of the following present challenges to your classroom teaching in science?
No technician/not enough technicians:
27%
Column n: 1206
What are the barriers you face to running practical work in your school?
Understaffing of science technicians:
28%
Column n: 1931
Open text answers revealed the real value that science technicians bring to students鈥� learning and outcomes. When asked 鈥榃hat would the departmental/school impact be if there were fewer science technicians in your department?鈥�, teachers and technicians told us that there would be fewer practicals carried out and that the impact would be 鈥渄evastating鈥� to student learning outcomes.
Here is more of what they had to say (hover your cursor over or tap each card to reveal the full quote):
What we are doing to help
We believe that all learners should have access to relevant and regular practical chemistry activities throughout their chemistry education. Science technicians are key to supporting this, which is why we are calling on the Governments to review science technicians鈥� pay and conditions, and to consider what policy measures might help to attract people to these roles and retain them.
Technicians are an important part of any education team and play a particularly vital role in promoting practical science to students. We have an extensive collection of practical resources, articles and support that can help technicians to deliver creative and inspiring practical demonstrations or lessons to pupils at all levels of education.
Discover our resources
- See our .
- Our Excellence in Education Prizes celebrate educators in primary, secondary, further education and higher education 鈥� including teachers, technicians and more. Nominations are closed for this year and winners will be announced in November.
- Technicians who have previously won these awards include: Ms Lynn Kidwell and Mrs Maureen Wade.
- We have many technician-focused articles: ; ; .
- We work closely with and ensure technicians are aware of them and the training that they offer.
- work with technicians to provide hands-on workshops to support technician development, including in-person microscale sessions (open to teachers and technicians). Recently, our education coordinators in Wales ran a workshop at a South Wales technician鈥檚 network day meeting to around 20 technicians.