Academic Career Stage Framework

Linda Amrane-Cooper, Laura Brammar and Jessica Hancock presented at the July meeting of the Bloomsbury Academic and Researcher Development Group BARDG to share their proposed Academic Career Stage Framework. 

What is the Academic Career Stage Framework? 

The Careers Service at UoL has been using a Careers Stage Framework (Brammar, Wade & Weaver, 2025) with students for several years. This approach helps students to self-categorise into Career Starters, Career Developers, and Career Changers. This enables targeted careers and employability support with the most relevant resources for the stage in their career that they are currently at.  

The Careers Service wanted to adapt this into a Framework that might support all staff involved in academic work at Higher Education Institutions, which led to discussions with colleagues within both the School of Advanced Study (SAS) and the Centre for Online and Distance Education. We have now adapted the Careers Stage Framework into an Academic Career Stage Framework. This Framework also involves three stages: Academic Career Starters, Academic Career Developers and Academic Career Enhancers. It also acknowledges the three key strands of academic work colleagues are generally involved with: Learning and Teaching, Research and Scholarship, and Leadership and Management. 

Because of the significant variations in people’s career backgrounds before entering academia (e.g. coming from a research or doctoral background, or transferring from professional practice), and the different careers paths that people might choose or be required to focus on, colleagues might be at very different stages in each strand. For example, someone might have worked as an accountant for many years, leading large teams and projects, so be at ‘Enhancer’ stage for Leadership and Management but be at ‘Developer’ stage for Learning and Teaching (perhaps having taught in HE for 3-5 years), and ‘Starter’ stage for Research and Scholarship, not having completed any research previously.  

The Framework can therefore be used to explore relevant resources for each stage and offer some guidance on what kinds of experiences or qualifications may be beneficial in moving towards the next stage. 

The initial proposed Framework is below (select the image to enlarge the view): 

How will the Academic Career Stage Framework be used? 

Our aim is for the Academic Careers Stage Framework (ACSF) to be the basis of a digital toolkit. This toolkit will support the career and professional development of academics, and teaching and research communities across UoL and Federal Partners. The toolkit will enhance student experience and outcomes, by supporting all academics (widely defined as all those involved in the academic areas of activity, and includes professional services staff involved in teaching and supporting student learning for example) to systematically improve their practice through reflective professional development. 

We are now at the stage of the project where we are gathering feedback from relevant stakeholders, including BARDG. 

How has BARDG contributed to the development of the Academic Career Stage Framework? 

We were grateful for the useful comments and suggestions made during the BARDG meeting. If you weren’t able to attend, and would like to offer feedback, please do so here: https://forms.office.com/e/yCnvCcVrJb  

We had some useful feedback around particular resources that might be beneficial to include in the Framework, and about how to ensure that it aligns with other professional frameworks that people involved in research or learning and teaching might be using already. 

We also had some valuable discussion around training and career development in HE in general. Three key points emerged from this:  

1. The framework needs to work not just for those colleagues who are on ‘academic contracts’, but for everyone who is involved in the three strands of academic activity. There are many professional services colleagues who are active in both research, and teaching or supporting student learning, so the framework needs to be suitable for them as well as the more traditional roles such as ‘lecturer’, ‘research fellow’ or ‘teaching fellow’. This is also crucial when considering the Leadership and Management strand, as this might involve a move into a different kind of contract when taking on a particular Leadership or Management role. 

 

2. People working within the three strands of academic activity don’t always recognise the skills and experience they are developing as part of their roles – especially when working towards a formal Academic Promotion, or thinking about a sideways move within HE, or moving outside of HE altogether. The Framework should provide them with some ability to assess where they currently are and work out what they can do to get to the next stage. 

 

3. We had initially envisaged the Framework mostly being used by individuals, but the BARDG discussions demonstrated how it could play a key role in line managers initiating conversations about career development and using it as a tool to prompt regular check-ins with staff about how they want to progress. Often line managers may not be experts in all the resources available, or have knowledge of requirements for each strand, particularly if they themselves have focused on one or two strands in their own career. 

4. 
   

We also explored how the Academic Career Stage Framework can be used to support and develop a reflective approach to career development. 

Thanks to everyone who came and contributed to the discussions, or who have filled in the survey. We plan to return to BARDG to demonstrate the toolkit once we are at a later stage of progress, so watch this space! 

Reference 

Brammar, L., Wade, V., & Weaver, J. (2025). The Career Stage Framework: facilitating enhanced engagement with students, institutional partners, employers, and alumni. Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling, 54(1).