Career Grades Scheme process

Introduction

The council’s or school’s resourcing strategies are aimed at maintaining a high caliber workforce with the skills, competencies, knowledge and experience to deliver a diverse range of excellent services and to meet its many objectives. Career grades are one of a range of initiatives available aimed at resolving recruitment and/or retention difficulties and supporting succession planning.

The objective of this scheme is to:

• complement career pathways where appropriate
• support strategies for the recruitment and retention of appropriately skilled staff
• contribute to strategies for succession planning
• provide a fair and transparent system for progression within the specific career grade without the necessity of the recruitment process at each level

From an employer point of view a career grade enables the employment of people who may not have the required level of qualification/competency but who could be trained to achieve the necessary levels over a reasonable period of time.There should be a clear link between the use of progression, organisational performance, effective career management and the need for the higher work to be undertaken.

The Career Grade Scheme may only be used in the following situations:

• hard to fill jobs
• transition from apprenticeship to employment

This guidance should be read together with the guidance for managers.