FEATURE FOCUS: RECRUITMENT
The make-up of the new teaching workforce A
lthough facing tumultuous times, the education sector continues to present exciting and rewarding
opportunities for teaching professionals looking to make a real difference. In the context of the myriad of recruitment and
retention challenges, Claire Barker, Head of Operations at outsourcing specialist, de Poel education, explores how supply teaching can be a vital stepping stone for teaching professionals – and provide a strategic, innovative and cost-effective solution for schools, academies, colleges and universities. This point is evidenced today in the changing face of the teaching workforce – and the countless news headlines. Although, exactly how has this workforce evolved – and importantly, what does the future hold? A number of powerful forces continue to shake the education sector; a national skills shortage, rocketing rate margins in a broadly decentralised recruitment agency market, the ever-changing political landscape, incoming legislation including the Apprenticeship Levy, rising expectations, depleting budgets and critical safeguarding obligations – to name but a few.
With the national shortage of teachers, this has made competition for candidates fierce. Never before have schools, academies, colleges and universities’ recruitment processes been so crucial – and the visibility of these so important. In a
candidate-driven market, the job seeker is spoilt for choice. In this situation, it is unlikely that they will maintain interest in a long, drawn-out application process – only those geared towards the candidate will prevail. Indeed, the skills shortage has empowered many savvy candidates to consider the options available, sometimes able to command higher rates of pay as a result. This recruitment tension is exacerbated by our ever-growing population, with primary schools under strain – particularly in major cities – feeding through to secondary schools where head teachers are struggling to find teaching staff. As a result, head teachers, HR and hiring managers are increasingly talking to recruitment agencies about overseas options, especially with regard to STEM subjects. This is further intensified by the challenge of retaining home-grown talent, as newly qualified teachers are increasingly taking lucrative teaching jobs abroad.
The threat from overseas is not diminishing. When he was in post, Sir Michael Wilshaw, former Ofsted Chief Inspector, vocalised his belief that the country is facing a “teacher brain drain” at a time when schools and academies across the country are already struggling to fill vacancies. He also talked of the importance for Government to gain a better understanding of the scale of the exodus of teaching talent abroad, as well as its causes.
“Anyone regularly perusing the job vacancy pages of the education press cannot help but notice just how many of our elite public schools are busy opening up international branches across the globe, especially in the Gulf States and the Far East,” he said.
“This is part of a worldwide boom in 26
www.education-today.co.uk March 2017
international schools – many of which follow a British-style curriculum and use the English language – which is fuelling demand for UK- trained teachers. In 2014-15 an estimated 100,000 full-time teachers from the UK were working in the international sector, making us the world’s biggest exporter of teaching talent.” An additional layer of complexity in the recruit and retain equation, is the fact that an increasing number of teachers are leaving the profession within just five years of qualifying. According to Government figures released in October last year, of the 21,400 who began teaching in English state schools in 2010, 30% had quit by 2015. The Minister of State for School Standards, Nick Gibb, revealed that more than one in 10 (13%) of newly qualified teachers left after a year of teaching, meaning 87% continued to work in the classroom, a proportion the Government says is largely unchanged since 1996. That figure saw a steady decline; falling to 82% after two years in
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