EBME Forums Forums Management Recruitment Trainee EBME Technician Salary?

I have to say I have seen some morons come through this EBME dept... mostly agency that do not have a clue

I've never been to your place, Dave ... so I'm not about to argue with what you're saying. Neither am I going to be drawn into trying to defend the agencies (most of whom I know only too well).

But ... having said that, morons or not, agency techs are very easy to be rid of, are they not? Which is something that can hardly be said about permanent techs.

Well my situation is I was taken on as a band 4 engineer because I don't have the "relevant" qualifications (HNC Electronics or equivalent from the job description for band 5) and I have limited
experience, my 18 months NHS work was as a band 3 technician in community equipment. So I thought that's fair enough but when I start the job I find there are people on higher bands who don't have any qualifications and I'm the one who has to go to college on day release to do HNC Electronics which so far has only covered things I did 5 years ago.

I was under the impression that a qualification like a degree, say, was to show the level of competence you're able to work to, which should be equivalent to a certain number of years experience. Maybe I'm wrong? So I should be on a higher band to conclude.

Thanks for coming back to us, Jordan.

A few comments come to mind, if I may:-

1) Perhaps your unqualified colleagues are in fact qualified through experience.

2) It is your boss you need to impress. Can we assume that he (she) is a veteran technician himself (I won't add herself as I easily tire of all that stuff)?

3) It seems you have had 18 months in which to make an impression. Some us (myself for example) never had such luxury!

4) Are you paying for your HNC course? If not, again count your blessings!

Are you looking for advice? Assuming that you're happy with the idea of working in biomed in the long term, why not knuckle down and crack on with it? Those older guys will have moved on (retired) eventually, leaving you as cock of the roost!

Qualifications and/or experience is what matters the most, for me I prefer experience over qualifications, if you have both so much the better.

Whilst experience can be deemed equivalent to qualifications,(think qualified to do the job through experience of doing said job), i don't think qualifications can be deemed equivalent to a certain number of years experience if any experience at all based on the very meaning of the word.
This probably explains why those who are experienced favour experience over qualifications. Human nature.
Maybe it would therefore be more appropriate for industries to base pay purely on experience and disregard qualifications all together for the purposes of pay progression.
In a nutshell, Jordan, i would focus on your experience, not your level of qualification compared to those (more experienced) around you. Crack on and do the same job they are doing if not more and the opportunities will come, sometimes sooner than you think.
Topper

we have band 5 senior tech with 5 to 15 years experience and band 6 section managers with 15 to 25 years experience, currently 3 posts empty and i am still waiting to submit review info for my afc grading.5 years later!
up here if you had an hnd and no experience you wouldn’t even get a band 4 job, afc has made it impossible to recruit new staff
rant over.

However, agency "morons" remain available to clear backlogs of work, apparently.

ACW, whats the point of hiring a HND, PHD if they have no experience?

If I had a say in the matter I would remove all the bands and pay people according to their experience. (Not forgetting that they have to be worthy as well) No point employing someone that doesn't want to put the effort in.

Mr. ACW doesn't make the rules, Neil.

And (although, as we have been reminded earlier today, I am not an employee of the largest employer in Western Europe myself) I think it may be accurate to assume that the NHS is a "rules based" organisation. Very much so, I dare say.

Meanwhile, it seems there is some sort of agenda being driven through to promote the idea that everyone (nurses, techs et al) must have a degree. That's the main thing, apparently. Experience, and more importantly (to my mind, and yours, no doubt) capability doesn't necessarily enter into the equation at all, it would seem.