Sector Analysis
Education
Views from the market Fintan Donohue Executive chair, Gazelle
DEREGULATION AND CHANGE ARE NEW CHALLENGES ON TOP OF THE PERENNIAL PROBLEM OF FINDING GOOD TEACHERS Academies, free schools, pay freedom, the new National College for School Leadership, the scrapping of Quality Mark as APSCo adds an education group, a higher school leaving age, and tightened purse strings… there’s lots going on in education. “It’s a school-led environment,” says Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) senior policy adviser Chris Wilford, as the “Academy revolution” continues to divest local authorities of power, which “really changes the way recruiters have to think about working”. Helping clients through tumultuous times can be a virtuous cycle for recruiters, Wilford says: “It really helps deepen that relationship.” Stewart McCoy, teaching agency Randstad Education’s operations director, says challenges go further still. “Looking forward there is likely to be a growing candidate shortage across the board,” he suggests. “The market has been relatively candidate-rich over recent years and many in the industry won’t remember […] the late 1990s and early 2000s when quality candidates were scarce.” The picture isn’t uniform nationally, says Meridian Business Support senior education recruitment consultant Jay Nichols, with “a lot of people going into teaching, but there’s not necessarily the roles — the amount of permanent posts are very low overall”. In July, Teach First, which fast-tracks graduates into schools in low-income areas, became the UK’s largest graduate recruiter, and demonstrates the sector’s broader appeal. Dan Moynihan, chief executive officer of Harris Federation, a group of 27 Academies in and around
COLLEGES ARE FINDING THEY CAN NO LONGER SUSTAIN IN LARGE VOLUME THE OLD-STYLE ONE-TO-25 TEACHING MODEL
“From a recruitment point of view, we’re looking for personnel who are not just subject specialists, but we’re also looking for teachers that can work in teams, work across the needs of students.”
London, tells Recruiter that Academies have personnel advantages. They already enjoy the pay freedom about to roll out nationally, he says, which has made recruitment “easier, although not easy”, and since last summer can put unqualified teachers into teaching posts. “Some people have been very critical of that,” he admits, but points to success in the private sector as proof that this works, especially in skills-short subjects. Harris Federation also has a ready-made “employment market” within its network, making clear career paths for staff, he says, as well as “consultants in the centre”, qualified teachers advising on school affairs, who are deployed before agency staff to take on supply duties. Being “more businesslike” is the name of the game, Moynihan says, predicting “a large growth in the number of primaries becoming Academies”. Fintan Donohue, executive chair of Gazelle, a further education (FE) colleges group, says he expects to see FE colleges move further into the 14-16 age range, and get “actively engaged in” primary schools. Funding is a problem for Donohue, like the sector as a whole, and says “colleges are finding they can no longer sustain in large volume the oldstyle one-to-25 teaching model”. With Gazelle’s ethos focusing on creating entrepreneurship, with students running commercial businesses alongside their studies, Gazelle takes this as an opportunity, and now colleges “are increasingly recruiting people who can actually offer alternative routes to learning through higher use of technology, [and] certainly a greater emphasis on coaching of students”. This also means more demand for teachers “with some industrial experience”, someone who won’t fit into “that purist model, that a teacher will just sit in a subject and teach only in that, [which] I think is in decline, except where you’ve got shortage areas”, STEM subjects in particular. Indeed, there may be little room for the purist or old-style models at all in this sector.
Jay Nicholls Senior consultant, Meridian Business Support “We’re attracting new custom but they’re not spending as much… the schools are being more business-like and where they can save money they can seek alternative options.”
Sarah Shaw Education partner, Odgers Interim “My busiest area by far has been higher education and I think that has been driven by the movement in student fees. This has turned students and their parents into customers, and universities have had to re-look at what they offer — the entire student experience.”
Chris Wilford Senior policy adviser, REC “At the middle-career level we’re hearing reports of a lot of teachers wanting to work overseas, in the Middle East and South-East Asia, and I think a lot of recruiters have developed their overseas operation.”
SAM BURNE JAMES sam.burnejames@recruiter.co.uk
100 75
14
Jan
RECRUITER
Feb
Mar
Apr 2013
SEPTEMBER 2013
14_Recruit_SectorAnalysis_sep2013.indd 14
May
Jun
Jul
17.5
16.3
15.4
Q3 2012
Q4 2012
Q1 2013
8.4
125
TOP OF THE CLASS Highest average education wages, from Adzuna.co.uk
■ Jobs (000s) ■ Applicants/job
9.9
150
REPORT CARD From Totaljobs Barometer
8.7
175
PAY MARKUP? A survey of 202 contractors in the education sector from umbrella company giant group finds 86% expecting increased pay rates over the coming year, 21% expecting no change in pay and 14% expecting a decrease
13.7
200
Jobs: ■ Education ■ All UK Salaries: ■ Education ■ All UK
11.6
REED JOB INDEX AND SALARY INDEX 225
Q2 2013
By subject Biology: £35,010 Art teacher: £29,577 Counsellor: £29,150 By region London: £32,543 Scotland: £31,576 Northern Ireland: £30,689 WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK
05/09/2013 15:21