School Direct

Top tips on recruitment

Updated April 2014

Overview

UCAS Teacher Training System – entry profiles

Develop your marketing approach

Other tools on offer to support you

Plan your selection process

Professional skills tests

Support from NCTL

Contacts

UCAS Teacher Training UCAS opened to applicants on 21 November and it is mandatory for

all schools to use the system. Further details are available at: http://www.ucas.com/members-providers/teacher-training

You should be clear on how you will accept additional information from applicants outside of UCAS, as the applicants are unable to make changes to personal statements once submitted.

Consider moving applicants across other lead schools and providers, where appropriate, to ensure good applicants are not lost where allocations may not be available. Please refer to the latest UCAS guidance on how to make changes.

Consider carefully how an applicant searches. The name of your alliance can be supplemented with the name of the lead school in order to enhance search possibilities.

UCAS Teacher Training: Entry profilesKeeping your entry profile on UCAS as up-to-date as possible is important as it gives potential applicants specific information to help them make informed decisions about the courses they apply for.

Some ideas to help boost your profile to applicants are: Focus on “Why train with us?” section of the entry profileTo use the drop down boxes and your entry profile if you offer a PGCE so it comes up in searchesDo you offer any post-ITT training or qualifications awards e.g. leadership development programmes or Masters?Your SD salaried rates and/or the fees for fee-based placesDo you want to apply some discretion over three year’s work experience in hard to fill subjects?Provide information on your partner schools - or links to their websites - and the structure of your partnership

Entry profiles (continued) Include the number of places you have in each phase/subject. Keep it

up-to-date e.g. we only have x places left. Details on application deadlines, including interview dates and holiday

dates when school staff might not be available. Specific entry requirements, e.g. the amount of school experience,

including any minimum requirements e.g. 2:1 & GSCE. The timescale for training and how many hours trainees can expect to

spend within schools. Success statistics e.g. employment rates, linking to your school

website where you may have further information and/or case studies on your School Direct trainees and training programme.

Further guidance on entry profiles is available on the UCAS website at http://www.ucas.com/members-providers/teacher-training/entry-profiles

Develop your marketing approach Consider your ‘unique selling point’. Applicants are really drawn to

some key things including providing SEN placements, enrichment activities, how much time they will really spend in school – if they are starting with you on 1 September tell them, they like that!

Be creative - don’t be afraid to think outside the box: bus advertising is expensive but magnetic stickers to put on school mini buses isn’t!  

Use school newsletters, events with parents and the community to advertise locally e.g. sms to parents to advertise local vacancies

Use strong testimonials or quotes from previous trainees and NQTs Use local PR opportunities Ensure that every front line person answering the school telephones

or working in reception is well briefed with the correct details and contact details.

Record details of where the person saw the advert to inform future marketing.

Develop your marketing approach

Link in with providers and schools to maximise applications locally and regionally

– Look for joint advertising opportunities e.g. through university magazines, with an agreed format used by all schools linked to the approach.

– Make links with university careers/employment advisers with an agreed brief to support SD across the region.

– Make best use of any regional recruitment events. Collaborative events always draw more potential applicants and are a better use of everyone’s time and effort. Match make between applicants and schools.

Develop your marketing approachDon’t forget to use your school websiteNot only is this one of the most cost effective and widely used marketing tools, but often first port of call for most candidates looking for new opportunities. Make sure the content is clear, concise, up-to-date (including relevant dates) and with contact details for more information.Signpost your recruitment/School Direct information on your website's homepage – clearly – and with one-click movement to the informationRequest that partner/alliance schools or your higher education institution training partners websites have information about, and links to, your website. If your school has a twitter or facebook account, make this obvious on your website to help increase your followers. Then use these channels to announce your offer, events, deadlines etc.

Develop your marketing approach

Applicant insight:

Behaviour/classroom management is often quoted reason for not applying to teaching. Can you demonstrate how you will support trainees gain these skills?

Physics graduates often want to specialise in physics or physics with maths and can be put off by prospect of teaching too much general science. Can they deployed as a specialist across your partnership/alliance?

Other tools on offer to support you Marketing Resource Bank - www.education.gov.uk/sdmarketing. This is

where guidance, top-tips, useful presentations and ready-made press adverts are available to use for your recruitment for free.

Subject Knowledge Enhancement (SKE) - SKE courses are fully-funded pre-ITT courses designed to help potential trainees gain the depth of knowledge in their chosen subject that they will need to train to teach. SKE provision is available for: mathematics; physics; chemistry; computing; modern and ancient languages and design and technology. A directory of SKE programmes is now available on our website. If you are a school or provider offering SKE programmes, you can promote them on the directory. Funding could be used to bring in Specialist Leaders in Education (SLEs) to deliver SKE for one of your applicants.

School Experience Programme (SEP) - SEP is a government funded opportunity for quality prospective teachers in shortage subjects (mathematics, physics, chemistry, languages, design and technology and computing) to gain experience in a school prior to starting their ITT.

80% of School Direct lead schools who are engaged in SEP use it to meet potential applicants for their School Direct places. SEP schools will have candidates directed to them by the Teaching Line, as well as funding up to £50 per placement day.

Provision of school experience should be seen as a recruitment tool as it allows you to undertake an early assessment of a potential applicant and for the attendee to get a good idea of what would be on offer in your SD training programme.

Almost 60% of candidates accessing more than 2 days school experience in priority subjects through the portal go on to make a successful application. The majority stay with the school that has run their SEP experience.

Other tools on offer to support you

Further considerations

Switch fee for salaried places– You are able to switch School Direct fee funded places for salaried places - SD

salaried places receive higher applications. A link to 14/15 salary funding rates is available from http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/careers/traininganddevelopment/initial/b00204256/itt-funding-and-allocations/school-direct

Career prospects– Offer an enhanced School Direct programme as a career package for trainee

teachers – consider offering a PGCE in addition to awarding QTS; post-ITT training (e.g. leadership programmes) or qualifications (e.g. Masters). Signpost clearly on your UCAS entry profile and mention if you are likely to offer a year-in-post following their successful training.

– Prospect of a career with future learning opportunities and early career progression appeals to high fliers and can make your programme stand out.

Open and fair recruitment - guidance

The recruitment period must be long enough to allow open and fair access to places and well communicated to applicants. 

It is for the network of schools in conjunction with their ITT provider to determine their own selection and recruitment processes (i.e. timelines for accepting applications, number of applications to be considered) based on their capacity/needs etc.

Recruitment activities should be high-quality, open and transparent and will be subject to inspection by Ofsted.  

ACAS have provided advice about being able to transfer a trainee directly into a vacant post as they have completed a competitive interview process prior to commencing training. This provides a significant reduction in future recruitment costs.  

Plan your selection process Plan in advance when you want to shortlist and interview etc, and

book the time in people’s diaries (remember the 40 working day deadline for UCAS)

Consider whether you can share the load with other school partnerships or your provider. Or task schools with specific subject specialism with recruitment for those subjects.

Make sure you have clear selection criteria in place which meets the needs of the school and the provider.

Make sure the process isn’t too onerous and time consuming for the applicant. They may have applied for other places. You could conduct a thorough assessment in just one day that includes an interview, classroom-based activity and written tasks.

Offer interviews in schools where you know they may struggle to attract applicants to challenge perceptions e.g. rural / coastal areas.

Selection process (continued) Don’t forget you are looking for potential, not the finished article

and some of your applicants might need more development than others. The area most applicants have least experience in is engaging with children and young people and supporting their learning.

If applicants are not suitable for your partnership, but may be suitable for other training routes encourage them to apply elsewhere and actively identify these opportunities to ensure good applicants are not lost in the system.

It is common practice to make conditional offers, for example if a candidate is awaiting their degree results, skills test results, or other paperwork such as CRB checks.

Keep in regular touch with your successful applicants, invite them into school, send them school newsletters and so on.

Understand the recruitment cyclePrimary Will self-generate applications, so having an up to date website for applicants to find, with clear contacts is vital.

Secondary You may find that PE, history, art and drama fill up quickly. This is usual for secondary recruitment. Other subjects are slower. English, music, geography and biology should see a steady flow. Physics, maths, chemistry, modern languages and computer science will start to trickle in from January onwards. This will slow down before Easter and start to build again from mid-May – in line with academic times in universities. Develop processes that allow you to assess applicants, offer places and receive acceptances quickly and for small numbers.

Understand the recruitment cycleSecondary

Consider moving surplus applicants into subjects where you have vacancies, and using SKE to top up an applicant’s knowledge

Subject Subject

Art to Design and Technology

PEEnglish

to Primary

Professional skills tests (1/2) Applicants must have passed the professional skills tests in maths and English before

beginning training. The computer-based tests cover the basic skills that teachers need to fulfil their wider professional roles in school, regardless of subject specialism or intended teaching phase. Practice tests are available on the DfE website.

New applicants for ITT take the tests after they have applied and they will need to provide evidence of application when they attend the test centre.  Visit www.education.gov.uk/teachskillstests for further information.

All applicants will be asked to provide their personal details, which should match exactly the details in their ITT application form, and the ID they will use when attending the test centre.

Professional skills tests (2/2)All correspondence to applicants will be sent by email, so it is essential that a valid email address is registered. To prevent correspondence going into junk folders, applicants should add the following email addresses to their contacts list: skillstests@pearson.com and gtnsupport@pearson.com. 

Lead Schools will be able to check applicants’ results by accessing the results portal. To access results, the Lead School nominates a contact - plan ahead and ensure you have nominated personnel ready and able to access the system:Search by surname and date of birth:

Results are shown for each test taken by an applicant.Further information can be found on the DfE website.

Support from the NCTL The NCTL runs events in areas which may be finding it difficult to recruit, inviting potential applicants interested in teaching to come and meet with providers and schools. Graduate fairs Train to Teach Premier Plus Career Changer workshops Online events

The most up-to-date event details in terms of dates, times and venues are on our website www.education.gov.uk/get-into-teaching/events

You can advertise your own events on our website, which attracts 3 million visits per year by emailing WhatsOn.WHERE@education.gsi.gov.uk

Support from the NCTL

The NCTL are currently running a series of mini Train to Teach events across the country which will provide the perfect opportunity for candidates to learn all they need to know about teacher training and how to apply

These events will have many of the same features as the main Train to Teach events with presentations, advice zone plus an exhibition area for providers and schools

If you would like to attend one of these events, please contact Jane Beere traintoteach@blackberryproductions.co.uk

Date Location Venue26-Apr Southampton Thornden School

Winchester Road Chandlers Ford Hampshire SO53 2DW

29-Apr Bath Hilton Bath CityWalcot StreetBath BA1 5BJ

06-May Shrewsbury Mercure Shrewsbury Albrighton Hall HotelEllesmere RoadAlbrightonSY4 3AG

07-May Nottingham Hilton NottinghamMilton StreetNottingham NG1 3PZ

12-May Manchester University of Manchester Student's Union Oxford Road

13-May Northampton Hilton Northampton 100 Watering Lane Collingtree Northampton NN4 0XW

Date Location Venue17-May London Regents Park Holiday Inn Regents

ParkCarburton Street, London, W1W 5EE

21-May Preston UCLAN The Atrium Preston

21-May Brighton Hilton Brighton MetropoleKing's Rd, Brighton BN1 2FU

03-Jun Plymouth Holiday Inn PlymouthArmada WayPlymouth PL1 2HJ

05-Jun Oxford Holiday Inn OxfordPeartree Roundabout Woodstock Road Oxford OX2 8JD

10-Jun Liverpool Crowne Plaza Liverpool City Centre St Nicholas Place Princes DockLiverpool L3 1QW

16-Jun Canterbury Best Western Abbots Barton Hotel 36 New Dover RoadCanterbury Kent CT1 3DU

Date Location Venue18-Jun Middlesbrough Thistle Hotel Middlesbrough

Fry Street Middlesbrough TS1 1JH

19-Jun Leeds Hilton Leeds CityNeville Street Leeds LS1 4BX

21-Jun Gloucester Holiday Inn Gloucester/CheltenhamCrest WayBarnwood Gloucester GL4 3RX

24-Jun Cambridge De Vere University Arms HotelRegent StreetCambridgeCambridgeshire CB2 1AD

25-Jun Norwich Holiday Inn NorwichNorth Cromer Rd Norwich Norfolk NR6 6JA

28-Jun London Regents Park Holiday Inn Regents ParkCarburton Street, London, W1W 5EE

* May be subject to change

Further information and adviceFollow us on: Twitter: @getintoteaching @the_collegeYouTube: www.youtube.com/user/getintoteaching Facebook: www.facebook.com/getintoteachingJoin our School Direct online community https://network.nationalcollege.org.uk/groups/25941. You will needto register.