I am in a senior technical support role within a company's IT dept. It is a fairly small department and I have 1 direct boss (Technical Manager), who in turn reports to the CIO. As a prt of my career development plan I need to list what my career aspirations are for (a) The next 12 months & (b) The next 2-5 years. I also need to list my development needs and my action plan to meet those needs...

The Technical Manager has been in his job for 12 years and isn't going anywhere, soon.

I would like to move into management but the opportunity does not exist in my current environment.

How do I answer these questions without sounding negative ? :confused:

I would put down that your goals both short and long term are to prepare yourself to provide the best support for your manager and the company. This would involve training to keep up with technology advances and also management training to prepare you to better support your management.