Kind of a silly article. If you're working in education administration or local government then why would you even expect career progression? These are not growth industries.

Those have always offered career progression, though. Whether the industry is growing is a different variable to whether someone is growing in competence.

Some environments require progression as a sort of anti-stasis measure. Famously including army officers, not exactly a growth industry either. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_or_out