Career and Succession Management for Education
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
What this looks like in education
The parts of career and succession management that are specific to this sector, rather than general.
Academic and Administrative Career Paths
Two ladders, usually only one of them visible.
What this coversHide
Academic and Administrative Career Paths
Two ladders, usually only one of them visible.
What this coversHideInstitutions map academic progression reasonably well and administrative progression hardly at all, which is why capable administrative staff leave after four or five years.
Academic
- Assistant to associate to senior faculty
- Subject coordinator and head of department
- Academic leadership and principal or director
- Qualification and research support tied to each step
Administrative and support
- Executive to senior executive to manager
- Specialist routes - admissions, examinations, accounts
- Route into institutional administration leadership
- Development support equivalent to academic staff
Head of department and principal succession is the gap most institutions carry. These roles are filled reactively from a small pool, and readiness is rarely built in advance.
The general method — what career and succession management covers, the questions it answers and what an engagement produces — is the same whatever the sector, and is set out on the succession and leadership development page. What is above is the part that differs for education.
Other HR topics for education
Where to start
Most engagements begin with a review of how this runs in your business today, then a written process and the sequence to implement it.