Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, there are briefing sessions available to explain to process in more detail and to give guidance to those participating. Please contact Personal and Professional Development (CPPD) for briefing dates or if you have any queries regarding any aspect of the process. We will be happy to support you by phone, email or in person.

The Career Pathways process can be undertaken as part of your annual SRD meeting with your manager or as a stand-alone activity. If your SRD meeting is not due, we would encourage you to carry out the Career Pathways process as a stand alone activity to assess your skills and attributes and identify your development needs. If your SRD meeting is due, we recommend carrying out the first stage of the Career Pathways process (self and manager to assess skills and attributes) prior to your SRD meeting, then use the meeting to agree your skills/attributes assessment, identify your development needs and complete your development plan with your manager. You can use the Career Pathways profile form and development plan—these are available in the online toolkit.

Further information is available on the Behavioural Attributes Framework.

It is possible that CPPD may be able to offer some support towards your chosen learning options. You or your manager should contact CPPD to discuss this. Additionally time may be available within your work role for learning and development opportunities, including activities such as work shadowing, job swap or secondment opportunities.

This will depend on the specifics of your secondment and how it addresses a business need. In the event of there not being funding to backfill your post, it may be possible to allocate people and time to support a secondment. Please refer to the website for examples of types of secondments and how they can work in practice.

This will depend on how closely the new job family allies to your current job family and whether the new job family has been identified as having a skills shortage.

The Career Pathways project is focused on non-academic staff groups at the present time, in particular there are tools and documents available for administrators (grades 6—11), library staff (grades 2—8) and mechanical workshop technicians (grades 2—8).

No. Career Pathways is about identifying the professional development that will help you to progress in your career, not about changing or developing your actual role or assessing your contribution.

The Career Pathways project is not intended to be used for performance management. If performance management issues are identified during discussions relating to the Career Pathways process, these should be dealt separately. Career Pathways is a tool to encourage you to focus on development for your current role and for future roles you may aspire to.

Yes, it will enable you to check your skills and attributes against those required for your role and identify any areas where you could develop your skills further. These can be included in your development plan, enabling you to develop new skills and enhance existing skills. These will also stand you in good stead when you are looking to progress further.

The key benefits for you are:

• gives you access to a University-wide framework of skills and attributes, against which you can assess yourself.
• supports the development planning process and SRD (Staff Review and Development).
• provides information on the possible career paths available to you.
• supports your career development and long term assists you in achieving a fulfilling career at the University.

The Career Pathways process is about focusing in a positive way on your development needs. If you and your manager can't reach agreement you may have to agree to disagree.

Yes, there are briefing sessions available to explain to process in more detail and to give guidance to those participating. These sessions are for both managers and participants. We are also able to offer guidance to managers on request. Please contact the Centre for Personal and Professional Development (CPPD) for briefing dates or if for further guidance. We will be happy to support you by phone, email or in person.

The Career Pathways process can be undertaken as part of the annual SRD meeting or as a stand-alone activity. If the SRD meeting is not due, we would encourage you to carry out the Career Pathways process as a stand alone activity to assess the skills and attributes of your team member and to identify their development needs. If the SRD meeting is due, we recommend carrying out the first stage of the Career Pathways process (individual and manager to assess skills and attributes) prior to the SRD meeting, then use the meeting to agree the skills/attributes assessment, identify development needs and complete the development plan. The Career Pathways profile form and development plan are deigned for this purpose and are available in the online toolkit.

Further information is available on the Behavioural Attributes Framework.

It is possible that CPPD may be able to offer some support towards the chosen learning options. Either the manager or individual should contact CPPD to discuss this. Additionally time may be available within their work role for learning and development opportunities, including activities such as work shadowing, job swap or secondment opportunities.

This will depend on the specifics of the secondment and how it addresses a business need. In the event of there not being funding to backfill the post, it may be possible to allocate people and time to support a secondment. Please refer to the website for examples of types of secondments and how they can work in practice.

This will depend on how closely the new job family allies to the individual's current job family and whether the new job family has been identified as having a skills shortage.

The Career Pathways project is focused on non-academic staff groups at the present time, in particular there are tools and documents available for administrators (grades 6–11), library staff (grades 2–8) and mechanical workshop technicians (grades 2–8).

Any regrading or contribution increment requests should be dealt with by following the usual procedure. Career Pathways is a separate process and is to be used as a tool to enable professional development within an individual's current role and towards future roles they may aspire to. A Career Pathways assessment of an individual's skills which shows they are meeting or exceeding the requirements of the current role does not give any right to request a regrading, as the requirements of the role will not have changed in any way. Nor does it give a right to apply for a contribution increment. Managers need to ensure that individuals are clear on these points at the outset.

The Career Pathways project is not intended to be used for performance management. If performance management issues are identified during discussions relating to the Career Pathways process, these should be dealt with separately. Career Pathways is a tool to encourage development of an individual within their current role and future roles they may aspire to.

It will enable them to check their skills and attributes against those required for the role and identify any areas where they could develop their skills further. These can be included in the development plan, enabling them to develop new skills and enhance existing skills. These will also stand them in good stead when looking to progress further.

The key benefits for you are:

• Gives you access to a University wide framework of skills and attributes, against which you can assess your team members, so no need to recreate this yourself.
• Offers a useful tool to support the SRD process, in particular the personal development planning part of SRD. In future the intention is to enable links into CHRIS for ease of recording and for other purposes.
• Enables CPPD to prioritise training and development activities in line with development needs that are identified. This helps ensure individuals have the skills and attributes to carry out their roles.
• Oromotes staff movement (laterally as well as vertically) by providing more information on career paths and the requirements of roles across the University. This enables the University to make the most of the skills and people available.

The Career Pathways process is about focusing in a positive way on the development needs of an individual. If you and the individual can't reach agreement you may have to agree to disagree. It does however give you an opportunity to provide feedback to an individual—this may be constructive and critical or it could be positive and confidence reinforcing.