Heading back to school

14-Jan-2009 | By Julian May

Education recruiters are reporting an increase in applications and registrations for teaching positions as jobseekers consider a change of career in the downturn.

In the week that England’s Training and Development Agency for Schools announced a 40% increase in recruitment enquiries to its website since last December, John Dunn, director of Select Education, told Recruiter that its teacher registrations had increased by around 35% in December.

“Teacher registrations are rising significantly and we’re not doing additional advertising,” he said.

However, while he welcomed the potential additional business, Dunn was concerned that people were joining the profession for the wrong reasons. “Teaching has the perception of being more secure, and it probably is more secure than banking and finance at the moment.”

However, candidates should join teaching for positive reasons not for negative reasons, such as “avoiding unemployment” or “insecurity”, Dunn added.

He said he understood that recruiters also might be enticed by the lure of increased supply and demand in the sector but warned it would be a mistake to think it was easy to diversify into education recruitment.

“Education recruitment is a specialised area and as well as speed and responsiveness, you need to carry out comprehensive checks to safeguard children. You are not just risking ruining your business but people’s lives,” added Dunn.

There is also evidence that the economic crisis has led to elite graduates turning their backs on the City in favour of more secure jobs as maths teachers. The Independent reported last week that graduate attendance at City careers fairs at universities such as Warwick, Oxford and Cambridge were all down significantly, with careers services reporting more graduates looking at teaching, civil service and law careers instead.

Paul Matthias, national business director at Hays Education, which is opening up offices across the UK to cater for demand from schools for teaching staff, has also reported an increase in registrations to teacher training institutions and an increase in applications via its website (candidate applications received through Hays.com/ education increased by 78% in December year-on-year).

Matthias disagreed with Dunn’s concerns that the increase was a “quick fix” due to the commitment needed to train to become a teacher.

However, he added: “I envisage seeing a marked increase in NQTs (newly qualified teachers) in the next 12 to 18 months, particularly in maths, due to the downturn.”

Mark Ashmore, sales support manager at Connex Education, said while there appears to be an increase in applications, it would be at least 12 months before any increase in the number of teachers was confirmed.

He told Recruiter: “We have experienced an extremely busy 2008 and we anticipate the demand from our client schools and nurseries increasing over the next 12 months. We have opened a new office in Leeds this month to help meet the growing demand of schools in the area.”

Are you experiencing a trend in your sector? Let us know at recruiter.editorial@centaur.co.uk