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Britain's largest science trade unions have called on scientists and employers to pay closer attention to continuing professional development — or lifelong learning — to ensure that scientists remain at the forefront of their profession.

The unions unveiled a 14-point charter on training and development for scientists at a conference in London last week. The initiative was endorsed by the Association of University Teachers, the Institute of Professionals, Managers and Specialists (IPMS), the Manufacturing Science Finance union, and the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education.

The charter calls on employers to set aside at least 2 per cent of their budgets for training and development of scientific staff. It says that scientists should be allowed to take at least 10 days off each year for training and development. And it says that employers should publish performance indicators on their training schemes in their annual reports.

“Those working in universities would need far more than this to keep up with relevant literature and attend conferences. But, all too often, teaching pressures squeeze out time for professional development,” says the charter.

Baroness Margaret Sharp, of the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex, commented: “Most of my staff are working 60 to 70 hours per week [trying to meet] targets for teaching quality and the research assessment exercise. They are too exhausted to train. There just isn't enough time.”

The conference heard that Britain's army of contract researchers, technical staff, and scientists from minority communities were often most in need — but also most likely to miss out on — professional training and development.

In the case of scientists, this is partly because of lack of opportunities, and partly through ignorance of the facilities available, the conference was told. Technical and support staff, on the other hand, miss out on training and development because of a lack of motivation, according to Sue Ferns, a research officer at the IPMS.

Ferns added that scientists often benefit from training in areas outside their scientific expertise, for example in administration or finance, which helps if they need to switch careers. The IPMS has established training partnerships with employers. One scheme enables staff to take a Master of Business Administration degree in technology management from the Open University.

One speaker said that employers are reluctant to fund training for contract staff because they “see themselves as consumers of trained staff, not trainers of people”.

Other speakers told the conference that employers are sometimes afraid to invest in people because of a fear of losing their investment if a trained employee leaves the company.

But Sir Geoffrey Allen, chairman of the Science, Technology and Mathematics Council, and a former head of research at the Unilever company, said many large companies expect newly trained, but long-serving, staff to move on. It is an opportunity for the companies to refresh employee teams, he said.