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Thank you for all the comments so far.
Students in the UK and other countries with school laboratories may first encounter technical assistance in their school. They will see a person under stress, perceived as a washer up of dirty equipment, working with no career structure, on a wage often limited to term time only, at a level below half that of a teachers and yet showing higher manipulative skills and better scientific knowledge, a greater awareness of safety and better organisation and monetary management than many teaching staff(1). Why should that student think this is a career for me?
CW may well serve tertiary education and industry, and think that the EiC journal deals with education, but the groundwork for career structure starts in our schools. Students use their eyes, observe and make decisions. After all, that is what a teacher trains them to do.
1 They are also good at mind reading!