Hiring and Sponsoring Education managers (SOC Code 2322)

SOC 2322 covers education managers — roles running departments, colleges or education functions more broadly than early years settings, such as heads of department, curriculum managers or further education managers. It sits apart from the childcare-specific manager code (SOC 2324) and covers a wider range of education employers, including schools, colleges and training providers.

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Distinguishing this code from early years management roles

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Because SOC 2322 spans a broad slice of the education sector, the going rate and typical duties look different depending on whether you are sponsoring a further education curriculum manager or a school-based department head. Get the SOC code selection right at the certificate of sponsorship stage — assigning the wrong code is a common reason a sponsored role gets flagged as inconsistent with the job actually being done. Roles that typically fit SOC 2322 include:

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• Heads of department or faculty with staff management and budget responsibility
• Further education curriculum managers overseeing course delivery across multiple programmes
• Assistant or deputy principals in colleges and private training providers with genuine managerial scope

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Roles that usually sit under a different code include early years and childcare managers, special educational needs coordinators where the role is defined by pupil-facing casework rather than departmental management, and senior teaching posts where management duties are incidental to a mostly classroom-based job.

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When a manager's role includes teaching duties

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Many education managers still teach some timetabled hours alongside their management responsibilities, and that alone doesn't disqualify the role from SOC 2322 — what matters is that the job description and the actual time split reflect a genuinely managerial post rather than a teaching role with a management title attached. If the balance shifts so the person is mostly teaching, the role may need reassessing against a teaching-specific SOC code, and separately, any classroom teaching by an overseas hire needs to meet the employer's and, where relevant, the teaching regulator's requirements around qualified status — a sponsor licence does not substitute for that professional recognition.

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Salary floor and going rate both apply

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As with any Skilled Worker sponsorship, the salary must clear both the general threshold for the route and the going rate specific to SOC 2322 — see our guide to the salary floor for how the two figures interact, and check the code-specific rate directly on GOV.UK rather than assuming last year's figure still applies.

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Legacy Tier 2 transfers into this code

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Education managers originally sponsored under the old Tier 2 (General) route before the switch to Skilled Worker should have had their SOC code and salary reassessed at the point of transfer — our note on moving from Tier 2 to Skilled Worker covers what changed and what still needs checking on an older sponsorship record.

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Extra scrutiny facing education-sector sponsor licences

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The education sector, and private colleges and training providers in particular, has a history of sponsor licence revocations linked to non-genuine courses and weak compliance systems. That history means caseworkers tend to look harder at education-sector applications generally, not just at obviously risky ones. A well-run school, college or training provider sponsoring a genuine education manager has nothing to fear from this, but it does make thorough documentation — organisational charts, board minutes confirming the post was created for a real need, and a clear line between the manager's duties and any teaching or admissions function — more important here than in lower-scrutiny sectors.

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Safeguarding checks alongside sponsorship for education staff

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Anyone working in a school, college or training provider with access to children or young people needs an enhanced DBS check, and most education settings maintain a single central record of these checks for inspection purposes. That record and your sponsor licence evidence cover different regulators asking different questions, but they're often requested in the same visit — keeping DBS renewal dates and sponsorship reporting deadlines on a shared timeline, rather than tracked separately, reduces the chance that one lapses while attention is on the other. A system with automated renewal reminders covering both is more reliable than relying on a member of staff to remember two separate calendars.

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Right to work and reporting once the manager is in post

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Confirm right to work before day one using the correct share code check, and remember that a manager's own sponsor duties don't end there — under Part 3 sponsor guidance, changes to their reporting line, work location or job title need to be reported within the usual window, not just changes to hours or pay.

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Questions employers ask about SOC 2322

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Does a college assistant principal fit SOC 2322? Usually yes, provided the role has genuine managerial scope over staff or curriculum — a purely academic or teaching-focused senior role may sit under a different education SOC code instead.

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Can this code cover a private training provider, not just schools and colleges? Yes — SOC 2322 is not restricted to state education; private training and further education providers use it too, provided the managerial duties match the code's definition.

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Does a multi-academy trust need a separate sponsor licence for each school? Generally no — the trust as the legal employer typically holds a single licence covering staff across its schools, but the certificate of sponsorship still needs to reflect the specific school or schools where the manager will actually work.

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Can a special educational needs coordinator be sponsored under SOC 2322? Only if the role is genuinely managerial in scope — many SENCO posts are closer to specialist casework and pupil support than departmental management, and fit a different SOC code better.