Career Grades Scheme process - Hard to fill jobs

In certain circumstances, including where there is a national/local shortage of jobs or where competition for skills and experience is intense, it may be appropriate to “grow your own”. One way of achieving this is by using Career Grades. Many employees or prospective employees will value training and development opportunities and a career progression pathway over short term financial reward.

This career grade scheme may apply to any type of post within Cumbria County Council except for Operational Fire Service posts and Teaching posts. In a school setting this scheme can apply to all posts except teachers. The career grade must only be considered at the point of a vacancy and evidence must exist that there are recruitment difficulties. For example, previous adverts using a variety of relevant advertising options. The vacancy must be at the highest level of the ‘career grade’.

This is distinct from:

• Career Pathways (i.e. the structure of the service has jobs which are incremental in terms of knowledge and skill and pay) where appointment to each level is vacancy led and appointment is through normal recruitment processes. However recruitment may be restricted to internal candidates when certain criteria are met.
• Employees who have a permanent job who are undertaking Continuous Professional Development (CPD) or apprenticeship / qualification training. In these circumstances there is no automatic progression to a higher level job.