Recruitment Time
Category:
13 / 05 / 2008 | Author: dnorris
Recruitment Time.
In the three weeks leading up to the middle of May, The Times Educational Supplement had 4 added sections all devoted exclusively to advertising teaching posts.
They contained over 400 pages each week. This is a staggering volume.
There were jobs in Nursery schools, Primary Schools, Middle Schools, Specialist Education, Independent Prep schools, Secondary Schools, Independent Senior Schools, Multicultural Schools, Colleges of F.E. and Senior Appointments for Local Education Authorities.
For good measure there were 30 pages each week on jobs in Universities, Adult Education, Outdoor Education, Summer Schools, Examiners and Children’s Services.
Whatever your specialism, there were plenty of vacancies.
In the Mid May edition there were 29 pages of vacancies for Maths teachers, 28 pages for Science teachers, 26 pages for English teachers, 14 pages for teachers of Modern Languages, 13 for P.E. teachers, 10 for teachers of Religion, 8 for Music teachers and 6 for Drama teachers. It seemed that no specialism was left out, and although most of these were in the state sector some were also in the independent sector.
These vacancies show that there is a teacher shortage emerging in the U.K.
As you trawled through the box adverts, the incentives jumped out at you. Alongside the familiar Inner London Allowances and the Outer London Allowances there were a lot of references to TLR’s.
TLR stands for Teaching and Learning Responsibility. These replaced management allowances in 2006 and are paid to classroom teachers who are prepared to take on additional responsibilities. Increasingly these involve leading on staff development and line management. Interestingly the rates have been growing. Now they carry a bonus of between £6,500 and £11,000. Some schools offer a second appointment. This is called a TLR2 and carries a fee of between £2250 and £5,500.
All of the adverts represent an increase of 23% over the past year which again suggests that some kind of teacher shortage is developing, but the glut in advertising has to be taken in context.
If you want a new job in teaching then May is a critical month. Most teachers like to start at a new school at the beginning of the academic year. That means starting in September. However, if you are to give the statutory 2 months notice AND include the fact that schools do not open in August then you have to have made a move before the end of May. All of this means that job application forms set a final date for applications around the middle of May because they anticipate all the administration that is involved with a new appointment.
Such a time-table contrasts strongly with overseas posts.
They peak in mid July and August. That is when many overseas teachers return to the U.K. and are available for quick interviews at clearing house conferences in London.
But if all of this implies that there is a right time to apply for jobs, just remember that it is the quirky advert that often offers the greatest reward. A small single teacher school in Kenya placed a tiny advert in December. They hadn’t had a reply to one in May and another in August. They were desperate because the incumbent teacher had reached the end of their contract and had reluctantly agreed to do only one more term. The school had just 10 pupils and they got just one reply. But the teacher who did reply hasn’t stopped raving about it since he got back over a year ago.
It all goes to show that you can apply at unusual times.
If you have applied for a post in unexpected circumstances we would love to hear about it.
