Diggers' Forum Survey on CPD and Training provision in UK Commercial Archaeology

[chiz]

The Diggers’ Forum is currently conducting an online survey into CPD and Training in commercial archaeology in the UK. The survey is primarily designed for fieldworkers, however we would also be interested in responses from any archaeologists working in UK commercial archaeology.

Training and professional development are crucial for all archaeologists, and this survey will tell us about both the provision and experience of training, and Continuous Professional Development for archaeologists. We intend to build a picture of training and CPD provision in commercial archaeology, to identify what is provided, what is working, what is not working and develop ways to make the situation better for all archaeologists.

The survey can be found at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Diggersfo...ningsurvey, and asks a series of detailed questions about you and your experience of training and CPD. No questions are compulsory. If you have a diary or CPD log that may help with answering the questions. The survey should take between 15 and 45 minutes depending on how much you would like to tell us about your experiences and thoughts. There are numerous opportunities to add your own comments and we would encourage you to do so. A paper version is available from the IfA at admin@archaeologists.net.

The survey will be open until March 31[SUP]st[/SUP]. A report will be written and published by the Diggers’ Forum. We will not identify anyone who participates in the survey, although we will publish comments.

Please feel free to circulate the survey, and please encourage friends and colleagues to fill it out.
Thankyou,


The Diggers’ Forum

[trowelfodder]

All filled in! Bit of an epic task but finally finished!

[Dinosaur]

Have to admit I never bother filling in my CPD log, better things to do, someone else usually seems to have a record if I've done some course or other

[chiz]

Thanks to all those who have filled it out so far. If everyone else could fill it out we can get a really good sample to show exactly what is going on in commercial archaeology.

What training did you get last year? Are you skilled enough to do your current job? What training really works for you, and what is a waste of time and money? This is about positives as well as negatives!

Please do the survey and let us know what your experience is. We can then collate the replies and lobby to get improvements. The survey is anonymous, and we won't identify any respondents. It will take between 15 minutes -if you just tick the multiple choice boxes- and 45 minutes if you detail your experiences and opinions. This is your chance to help shape training and CPD in archaeology.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Digge...trainingsurvey

[chiz]

Hi, if any of you get a moment over the weekend to do the survey that would be great, if you could let friends and colleagues know that would be even better!
thanks in advance
Chiz

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Diggersfo...ningsurvey

[chiz]

Hi all, we've had a fairly good response to the survey but we're keeping the survey open for another month so we can get as many replies as possible from site workers across the UK. So please give the survey a go, its anonymous and you don't have to answer any questions if you don't want to, but the more you say, the better the report on the real state of training and CPD in commercial UK archaeology can be. This is all our chance to say what we think about training -how we get it, how we give it, what works, what doesn't.

On behalf of DF I'd like to say thankyou to the 200 archaeologists who have taken the survey; to the couple of thousand other archaeologists working in UK I'd just like to say please try and find the time to fill it out. If you could let friends and colleagues know as well that would be even better!
thanks in advance

Chiz
PS David, you couldn't make this a sticky post?
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Diggersfo...ningsurvey

[BAJR]

Will sticky it and put it on the Facebook page and group.

Can others do the same please.

[Jack]

Did it, it was a bit long.

I liked the survey, I fully support it, though.......

Some of the questions were a bit odd. Some of the possible answers were very black and white and I feel some clarification is needed........(I just can't keep the editor in me quiet!)}

Question 38

Have you ever applied to go on an external training course/seminar/conference?
Was the request granted, or denied? Who paid for the course? You, your employer or both of you?

The matrix of answers included: no and the request was denied, no and it was granted and funded etc.

Think the no line isn't needed?

Question 51 doesn't include paid self-training, or is that informal in-job training?

Also I feel questions 56-59 should be clear whether this applies to training received by your employer or by a principle contractor on a construction project......the two can be very different and contradictory.

Question 67 has a typo, and seems very loaded, if very interesting! Does this apply to on-site work or office or both? Is there a requirement for training all staff about pregnant co-workers??
Have you ever received additional training as a result of pregnancy or because someone at your worplace is pregnant?

I think question 75 should include site diary as a recording method. Also should include toolbox talk record of principle contractor. (as often an archaeological company uses the principle contractors forms and record systems too)


Now question 76 includes some pitfalls I feel.

'I never feel unsafe due to lack of training of myself or others'

Is a very vague statement as 'others' could apply equally to fellow employees, employees of other companies working on the same site, members of the public etc etc. I think this should be better defined if this question is going to be used to create any stats.

The 'Time is budgeted within costings to enable training to be given/consolidated' question, is very difficult to answer unless you write tenders. And even then, one could argue that all fieldwork always includes aspects of training.

But on a lighter note,
I liked the telepathy answer option! and...........
in answer to
'I feel I have all the skills I need' no one should ever claim this to be true.....unless they are some kind of deity!

[Dinosaur]

What's the point in putting toolbox talks from the main contractor down? They're usually out of date 5 minutes later and non-applicable on any future jobs with another contractor who does stuff differently anyway! Hardly 'training' or 'personal development' with any lasting value to e.g. any future archaeological employer? :face-stir:

[chiz]

Hi Jack, thanks for the feedback, very useful. We did test the survey on several guinea pigs who work in markedly different areas of commercial site life to try and iron out any glitches, but obviously some things seemed fine but aren’t when looked at from different angles. You’ve clearly thought about the issues and questions, which is great, and I hope you put these thoughts into the comments boxes. If you’d like to be added to our pool of beta-testers drop us a line, always good to have more.

Re: black and white questions, this has come up a few times, we tried to put free text comment boxes in wherever possible so you could add thoughts–and flagged up the fact that they would be there. Its very hard to cover all options in multiple choice without hundreds of columns, and sometimes you have to keep things simple. The possible permutations of training are pretty much infinite, and the survey was long enough already so we couldn’t put any more options in to every question, even when we felt it might be useful. We needed to get a balance between a 5 minute survey that wouldn’t gather any meaningful data, and something that was bogged down in detail and questions that weren’t relevant to most people, also bearing in mind that many people won’t actually read the questions properly however carefully you craft them. This survey has to be broadly applicable to everyone working on site in UK commercial archaeology –that’s quite a varied bunch.

Can I ask why you think the pregnancy question (Q67) is loaded? As an aside I’ve worked on several sites with pregnant colleagues, or colleagues just back from maternity leave (and paternity leave) and would have liked some form of advice/training about how to discuss any requirements they may or may not have. As a supervisor, colleague or First Aider it can obviously be important to know -I’ve also worked on sites where people haven’t told me (as their supervisor and FA) that they were pregnant , but where I had known through other ‘sources’, occasionally a bit tricky when I forget they didn’t know I knew….

Dino,
Thanks for the comment. Tool box talks are one type of 'training', many TBTs are indeed useless, but some are good and are relevant on future sites. What we’re looking at with this question is how companies record all the types of training and how it is documented, rather than the value of the training itself. Company A may spend huge amounts of time logging every snippet of training, but its employees feel they don’t have the skills they need, whilst Company B does everything ad hoc and records nothing and the staff are happy they get the training they need. Which works better? That’s what we want to find out.