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The University of Southampton
Human Resources

Grading and Career Development - Job Families and Career Pathways

Job Families

At the University there are six job families: Education, Research and Enterprise (ERE) ; Technical and Experimental (TAE) ; Management, Specialist and Administrative (MSA) ; Community and Operational (CAO) ; Clinical Academic ; Research Nurse .

The activities and skills of staff at all job levels throughout the University are recognised by their alignment to our Job Families and Career Pathways .

Career Pathways

Each job family also has a Career Pathway, which sets out the cumulative expectations of the role (from Level 1 to Level 7) as an individual progresses through the University pay scale.

The Career Pathways are designed to help staff map out their career trajectory during their time at the University, allowing them to plan their personal development and work activities to enable them to achieve their full potential.
Each Career Pathway has its own levels, representative work activities and skills and capability standards which together define the contributions expected of staff at each Level and within each Pathway .

The ERE job family has four distinct career pathways; these are the Balanced pathway, the Education pathway, the Research pathway and the Enterprise pathway. For ERE staff their career pathway will be determined by their role and the workload split across the areas of contribution ; Education, Research, Enterprise, Leadership, Management and Engagement.

At each pay level within a Career Pathway there is a Contribution Matrix which outlines the expectations of a role. The matrix includes the skills and capabilities required and examples of work related activities according to the job family (TAE, MSA, CAO).

These frameworks offer clarity around standards of excellence, helps us maintain equal pay for work of equal value and enables us to grade our posts fairly and consistently.

As such, the Career Pathways are a crucial source of information for developing appropriate job descriptions and person specifications.

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