Close to half a million education professionals (485,000), the equivalent of one in three of the 1.5m teachers and support staff working in schools in the UK, searched for a new job online during September, according to new data from leading education recruitment solutions provider Eteach.
But despite the wealth of potential candidates, schools are still struggling to fill and retain teachers for STEM and leadership roles, with the number of maths roles increasing 23% since last year and science roles by 9%.
Worrying shortages are being experienced by primary schools for headteachers, with only one suitable candidate for each two leadership roles on offer. The National Association of Headteachers (NAHT) has expressed concern that a large crop of headteachers are approaching retirement age - borne out by Eteach’s data showing 8% more jobs were being advertised at this level.
The new statistics follow the recent revelation from the National Union of Teachers that over half of teachers are considering leaving the profession within two years due to workload and low morale, while the Association of School and College Leaders has claimed three quarters of local authorities in England are experiencing staff shortages.
Eteach CEO Paul Howells said: “We’re on the front line of the teacher recruitment crisis and see day-to-day the difficulties faced by schools across the country in recruiting and retaining top talent. But on the face of it, our figures show there are a considerable number of qualified teachers searching for new roles. So what does this tell us?
“While there’s lots of doom and gloom in the market, we’ve seen half a million teachers visit our site to scroll opportunities. It may be that the conditions in schools is pushing teachers to browse, but schools needs to engage with the audience and make it easier to apply for these roles through a strong school brand to turn the curious scroll into a fulfilling role.
“The issue doesn’t lie with the number of teachers in the UK but more with the subjects they’re training in. Our schools tell us they’re keen to work more closely with universities in the training of teachers to improve standards. We’re a nation in desperate need of science and maths teachers. If this isn’t addressed it can have far-reaching consequences on Britain’s competitiveness on the global stage.
“We need increased collaboration from Local Authorities, schools and central government to make teaching more attractive by showing positive role models and positive outcomes that attract not just undergraduates, but experienced professionals, to these areas.
Over 180,000 qualified teachers have registered with Eteach since the turn of the year- almost three times more than the 57,000 who registered the previous year. London and Birmingham were the busiest locations for teachers looking for work, with the year-on-year growth in searches hitting 26% in the capital and 52% in the Midlands city.
Regionally, there are big differences across the UK with the East of England seeing a 120% rise in roles advertised year-on-year, the North East 50% and East Midlands 28%. Conversely, opportunities in Wales have dropped dramatically over the past year with 25% less jobs available.
Special Educational Needs roles have shot up by nearly a third (32%). Subjects including food technology (-34%), business studies (-29%), history (-20%) and Spanish (-20%) have seen the biggest declines.
Schools are advertising more vacancies than ever, with 4,091 being advertised in September 2015- a rise of 7% on last year. On average each school advertised 2.4 vacancies in September 2015, suggesting that most schools weren’t fully staffed for the start of the academic year.
Eteach CEO Paul Howells continued: “It’s clear we’re seeing a general shortage of good quality STEM, Leaders and experienced teachers.
“Eteach works with schools to be a complete education recruitment solution provider. Running an advert, particularly for shortage subjects or STEM teaching roles, isn’t enough. Schools, academies and colleges need to have a wider candidate attraction strategy, and we’re delivering results via a combination of online recruitment, targeting the passive market and social media, combined with our 1.2 million database. Not all schools are facing the same challenges due to creating a proactive recruitment strategy with us”
