Laboratory Technician Review

My role as a lab tech is varied between basic tasks such as cleaning the lab floors and tidying the general areas to more complex inventory and spread sheet maintaining for chemicals and consumables. I also have the opportunity to be involved in testing and quality maintenance of chemicals and techniques.

In the first few months working for DSTL I have learnt many new skills for excel in order to create a user friendly stock control and tracker form. I have attended many training days to widen my scientific knowledge and am currently completing a certificate in lab skills in college alongside my work.

I enjoy the flexibility of my role with DSTL, if I have college assignments to do and I am not needed in the labs for a day I am able to work from home to complete the tasks. I also enjoy how open the staff are to helping if I have any concerns or questions for assignments.

The program is structured as three different qualifications, a college certificate with training given in college and assignments set, an NVQ with an assessor who visits to give assignments and observe work and the apprenticeship standards done alongside the NVQ assessed by the same person. This structure works well but there are communication problems between college and NVQ assessors.

My team leader supports me through the apprentice and allows time away from work to focus on assignments. My team leader will also help with any questions I need answering and if they do not know the answer they will always put me in contact with someone who will know.

Both the college lecture and the NVQ assessor will respond to emails if you have any questions about work set. The apprenticeship standards being assessed alongside the NVQ is still new to training so the assessor for this sometimes contradicts what they are visiting and no previous work can be shown for either task to help understand any mark schemes.

The NVQ allows me to question how the company works and why we follow the processes we do and gives me opportunities to do more interesting work with the scientists that may not be a part of the general lab tech roll that sets me up better for when the qualification finishes.

The company has a program set by new starters for new starters where social activities such as paint balling and bake off's are organised. There are also many symposiums where staff from all over the company will explain what they do any why it is important. Some staff also organise sport events in the summer.

Yes

There is a very friendly atmosphere between staff members and teams, many teams organise social activities together. There are also many opportunities to develop yourself further within DSTL, there are clear paths for progression even if its not related to the job you originally came in to the company doing.

Do some research into the company before going to interview to understand some of the work that goes on before you come into a very large organisation otherwise it can be daunting. Also understand that you will be expected to undertake a lot of training in the first few weeks even if you come in qualified.