Researcher: "We tailor the trainees to our needs"
Charlotte Rohde Knudsen is an associate professor at the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics and conducts research into protein structure and protein synthesis. Her laboratory has frequently used trainees. And even though the trainees need a bit of training, she says that the research environments still profit from them.
"We tailor the trainees to our needs. Our working methods are entirely different from those required for industrial research, which is characterised by routine tasks. So I therefore think it could be difficult to recruit qualified laboratory technicians from the private sector."
"So far we’ve had some future-proofing in the form of the trainees. But I’m afraid we may be jeopardising this now."
According to Charlotte Rohde Knudsen, it is important not to underestimate what it means to have a qualified laboratory technician attached to a research laboratory.
"Laboratories with a good laboratory technician are simply more efficient. Things are under control and that includes health and safety. That ensures a good work environment and delivers better research results in the long term. Academics are often so focused on obtaining new knowledge that they risk lowering the emphasis on their own safety and that of others."
Charlotte Rohde Knudsen also believes that AU’s dependence on a group of employees such as laboratory technicians means the university has also has a social duty to contribute to their training.
Trainee or intern - potato, potato?
While so-called EUD trainees (office and gardener trainees together with animal technicians) at AU continue to be financed by a central pool, the senior management team decided last year that as of 1 January 2014 laboratory trainees must be financed locally by the institutes. The reason given was that the laboratory trainees did not have the same need for central follow-up as was the case with EUD trainees, and neither did they need to work in several different departments as part of their training.
Furthermore, as a government institution AU is committed to employing more than 77 EUD trainees annually. Failure to comply with the quota will mean the university being fined. In 2011 AU was thus fined DKK 1.5 million for not complying with the quota. There are no quotas for laboratory trainees.
Translated by Peter Lambourne.