Technical Career Pathways: Resources for Technical Managers
Part of the Technical Careers Resource Hub
Explore toolkits and courses to help map your technical workforce and develop transparent career pathways for your team.
Two projects from the Career Pathways Action Group (CPAG) developed resources for technical managers in higher education and research to understand and strengthen technical teams.
Mapping the Technical Workforce
There is no standard definition of a ‘technician’, with job titles and role profiles varying between and within institutions, creating inconsistencies in how technical staff are identified and recognised. Defining and mapping technical roles can help institutions take a data-driven approach to improve build sustainable career pathways, and demonstrate the essential role of technicians in research, teaching and innovation.
Read more about this project:
Project title: Mapping the Technical Workforce
Collaboration between: King’s College London, Imperial College London, University of Cambridge, Ulster University, University of Edinburgh
Challenge: While progress has been made in recognising these technicians through the Technician Commitment and initiatives such as the TALENT project, technical staff are still undervalued, underappreciated and under-supported in their career development and progression. This project set out to improve the technical career pathways at the five institutions by considering recruitment processes, people data, workforce planning, staff mobility and research culture.
Approach: The project began by reviewing existing definitions and mapping practices for technical roles across institutions, before gathering broader sector perspectives on the challenges and opportunities of workforce mapping. These insights informed a series of structured institutional exercises, piloting mapping strategies that centred the lived experiences of the technical community. Findings were then consolidated into a practical ‘how to’ guide, complete with recommendations and examples of good practice.
Outcomes: The resulting toolkit provides a practical best practice approach to workforce mapping which can be applied in other higher education institutions. The toolkit includes a user-friendly roadmap with helpful top tips as well as a detailed step-by-step guide of the process to follow.
Impact: This project’s findings have contributed to ongoing internal and external reporting, such as for the Research Excellence Framework (REF) and strategy, people, and culture initiatives. The organisations involved in the project have now completed a mapping process within their institutions and are using the results to inform future planning
Lessons: Workforce planning can be more straightforward and less resource-intensive than expected. Key takeaways from the project include the value of visualising workforce structures to inform strategic decisions, the importance of engaging stakeholders to build trust and clarity, and how mapping can surface valuable EDI insights at both local and institutional level.
How to Map a Technical Workforce: a Toolkit
An interactive ‘how-to’ toolkit presenting a tested, systematic approach to workforce mapping through both high-level and detailed step-by-step guidance.
Developed and tested across five UK universities.
Includes real-world examples, top tips, and reflections from each institution.
Click to view | ⤓ Download
Plan and visualise your workforce mapping project with our one-page roadmap.
Follow eleven clear steps from defining your project to applying your conclusions. Including practical top-tips at each stage along the way.
Click to view | ⤓ Download
Toolkit for Career Pathways
Technicians are a highly skilled workforce, critical to the primary activities of universities and research institutions. Despite this, they have often been described as the “invisible workforce”. Effective career pathways help to address visibility, recognition, and career development issues faced by technicians. This resource aims to discuss and tackle these challenges, providing practical insights and tools for technical leadership.
Read more about this project:
Project title: Toolkit for Career Pathways
Collaboration between: Northumbria University, University of Liverpool, Manchester Metropolitan University, and University of Leeds.
Challenge: Technical staff frequently encounter unclear or inconsistent career pathways, making it difficult to understand how to progress or move between specialisms. Across the sector, a lack of standardised job titles, role descriptors, and career frameworks contributes to ‘role drift’ – where responsibilities shift without formal recognition or reward. Without a transparent and consistent career scaffold, institutions risk losing talented staff.
Approach: Drawing on existing initiatives and wider sector expertise, our team collaborated to develop a comprehensive online interactive toolkit. We utilised Articulate Rise to create an accessible, practical resource for technical staff, managers, and HR teams navigating career development and institutional change.
Outcome: Technical staff and their institutions now have access to clear, standardised framework for understanding and structuring career progression – from apprentice to executive level. They also have the tools to engage senior leadership, present an effective business case and consult and engage stakeholders about technical career pathways.
Impact: By providing a shared framework and practical resources, the toolkit supports institutions in building more transparent, consistent technical career structures. This will, in turn, reduce role drift, improve staff retention, and ensure the technical workforce is recognised.
Lessons learnt: Structural change in how technical careers are defined and recognised requires both bottom-up engagement from staff and top-down commitment from senior leadership. Having ready-made business case templates and sector evidence to hand is key to making that case effectively and securing the buy-in needed for lasting change.
