THE   NEW   WORKER   ELITE

Technicians are taking on a bigger role and commanding new respect as the core employees of the Information Age.

Technicians are rapidly becoming the new worker elite who are transforming the labour workforce of all industrialized countries. As the farm hand was to the agrarian economy a century ago and the machine machine operator was to the electro-mechanical industrial era of recent decades, the technician is becoming the core employee of the Digital Information Age.

The sheer growth in the number of technicians and the diversity of occupations they hold, speaks a profound change in their importance to companies that hope to  survive and prosper in an era of far reaching change. Since 1950 the number of technical workers has increased nearly 300% - triple the growth rate for the work force as a whole- to some 20 million. With one out of every four new jobs going to a technical worker. The American Bureau of Labour Statistics forecast that this army of technicians, (already the largest broad occupational category in the US) will represent a fifth of total employment within a decade.

The union of two factors are giving technicians new importance. First user friendly new technologies- from the software that electronic technicians use to test printed circuit boards to analyzers used in laboratories- are eliminating the need for workers to perform many time-consuming routine tasks. Second, as more companies rely on technology to help eliminate quality defects, speed up product development, and improve customer service, technicians become the front-line workers they depend on.

Smart employers  are hiring technicians to design, manufacture, and service the medical devices that allow doctors to peer into body tissue. Engineering technicians test the integrity of materials used in the construction of bridges, buildings, and dams etc.

They are the developers of the computer and telecommunications networks that keep business running, and produce dazzling computer-graphic presentations that help sales force to secure new customers.

Technicians bring varying levels of formal education and credentials to their work. In the past many  technicians entered the field with a high school diploma and training on the job. Nowadays technical workers are coming into these careers from a trade school or a community college. An increasing number of them have a university education with special training at the community college level.

Apprenticeships and Co-op education are important training tools for the success of technical education. This requirement is not always fully understood and promoted by parents, school concillors and potential employers. They must adopt a new mindset in order  to encourage young people to pursue these opportunities and take advantage of these profitable careers.

Many technicians enter the labour force as hourly employees, and as such they view the work they do as a job instead of as the foundation of a career. The distinction is growing more critical. According to Michael Arthur, a management consultant at Suffolk University in Boston, “Jobholders perform a limited range of tasks within a specific organization. Careerists, by contrast, define themselves by the cluster of skills they bring to their work. Skills that are transferable from employer to employer and which they can expand over the course of their working lives. They are always on the lookout for the next exciting project to work on”.

Prepared by

Simeon Benjamin

Simeon is a technician who works in Toronto, Canada.