Career progression within education is often shaped by more than talent or ambition. Systemic barriers, such as unequal access to informal networks, inconsistent support from line managers, unclear promotion pathways, and biases related to identity, experience, or working patterns, can limit opportunities for advancement. These challenges are particularly acute for educators from underrepresented groups or non-traditional backgrounds, who may find fewer visible role models and less access to advocacy or developmental space.

In response, mentoring and coaching offer powerful, structured ways to begin dismantling these barriers. By providing educators with personalised support and creating space for reflective practice, institutions can foster environments where all staff are encouraged to grow, lead, and belong. Coaching in particular, with its emphasis on trust, autonomy, and goal-setting, creates opportunities for professional growth that are transparent, inclusive, and sustainable.

Embedding coaching and mentoring into everyday professional practice can promote meaningful career development, improve retention and wellbeing, and, critically, contribute to a more equitable and empowered education workforce. Coaching implemented as a non-directive, empathetic process that relies on active listening, positions line managers and senior leaders as trusted allies, rather than evaluators. This realignment of power can result in more opportunities to work collaboratively in aligning personal goals with broader KPIs and aims of the department, supporting both individual development and collective progress. This approach allows each voice to be heard, helping to level the playing field and dismantle implicit hierarchies that may otherwise restrict advancement, creating structures essential in developing authentic learning communities within professional settings.

I have applied these approaches in my own leadership practices, co-creating course content and programme delivery models promoting the development of classroom based teaching skills, professional development and research practice with external provider leads, exemplifying how coaching and mentoring can extend beyond internal boundaries, fostering collaborative practices that benefit wider educational communities by investing in their staff’s growth and success.

I have also used mentoring and coaching strategies to support staff in attaining D1-D4 fellowship status from AdvanceHE, supporting them through these formal markers of career progression, and have worked with them to realign annual professional development goals with research interests and personal passions, ensuring that meeting these goals translates into meaningful career advancement. This tailored approach to line management and staff support has fostered motivation and ownership of learning, especially when working with colleagues feeling demotivated, overlooked and unsure about their future at the institution.

With one particular staff member, personalised mentoring and coaching allowed us to explore the challenges they were facing and the barriers that were preventing them from progressing within the institution. These conversations also highlighted the experiences they had gained in their career to date, and their strengths in and passion for inclusive teaching practices. This staff member hadn’t previously felt they had the time, permission, or awareness to pursue personal interests within their role, but together, we reframed their career trajectory and identified opportunities for them to contribute to institution-wide networks focused on equity and inclusion, while also finding opportunities for them to develop their research profile. This redirection significantly improved job satisfaction and strengthened a sense of professional identity and the desire to remain at the institution, demonstrating how coaching, when grounded in both structured goal setting and strengths recognition, can unlock potential, boost morale, and widen access to meaningful progression routes.

As important as it is to create an environment where staff are valued, have opportunities for growth and professional development, it is also equally important to support staff in having open, judgment-free conversations about career progression beyond the institution. Coaching should create a foundation of trust where individuals feel able to discuss opportunities elsewhere without fear of damaging relationships or being perceived as disloyal. A genuinely developmental approach recognises that career growth sometimes involves moving on, and that enabling this is part of an ethical leadership culture. Line managers who use coaching principles are better equipped to support all forms of advancement, whether internal or external, and this transparency ultimately strengthens trust, retention, and professional satisfaction. When staff are encouraged to pursue their goals, wherever they may lead, it dismantles the assumption that loyalty must come at the cost of opportunity, and instead builds a culture where growth is genuinely valued and actively works to remove systemic obstacles that have historically limited career progression for many.

By promoting equity, agency, and inclusive practices, these approaches create the conditions for educators to ask, and confidently answer, the question: Where next? Whether that means stepping into leadership, shifting direction, or pursuing opportunities beyond the institution, staff are better equipped to navigate their careers with clarity and purpose. And in doing so, coaching and mentoring contribute to a fairer, more empowered workforce, and, by extension, a stronger and more resilient education system.