Stand out from the crowd:
how to attract applicants now
Online seminar – 17 September 2014
1
Welcome to our first School Direct online seminar in
the autumn series.
While we’re waiting to start, why not let us know who you
are and where you are based by typing in the chat box
on the right-hand side of the screen.
This session
The purpose of this online seminar is to help you:
find out more about how other schools plan and
promote themselves to attract applicants
consider what areas of recruitment you want to
focus on to increase the possibility of applicants
choosing your school
hear more about and share advice and best
practice on your marketing strategy and UCAS
Entry Profile
Planning, planning, planning
A clear focused and effective marketing strategy and plan is crucial. You should have a clear idea of overall aims and the ways
marketing will support these
Your school’s marketing plan should be informed by your knowledge of the size, nature and location of your local area/market and the
way your school fits into this, as well as broader teacher recruitment factors
Your plan must say who you are planning to draw into your school, how you will target them e.g. undergraduates, career changers, returners to the profession…
….and the ways in which you want them to perceive you!
You may need to use in a very different type of promotional activity and messages depending on your different audience groups and set this out in a communications channel plan with identified
Set your objectives
Clear and measurable communication objectives are the
cornerstone of any evaluation plan. We know they take time, but they save time in the long run!
Press Objective Target
e.g. School /Partnership objective To ensure that X no. articles reach …X% e.g. Communication objective
e.g. Sub objectives
Advertising Events
Don’t forget your ‘influencers’
Don’t underestimate the value in considering your ‘intermediary audience or influencers’, a group targeted so that they will deliver the message to your audience on your behalf e.g.
your provider parents
your own school staff
local/regional university or local authority careers advisers Your school’s or other local schools careers advisers or event the National Careers Service
job centres for potential career changers local/regional press
social media influencers in your area e.g. local authority twitter accounts/job feeds, student hubs, LinkedIn, Facebook
What is your school’s USP?
The new national teacher recruitment campaign Your Future | Their Future has ‘Hard’ and Soft’
messages such as:
– Hard message: Receive
a minimum starting salary of £22k to £27k
– Soft message: and help
develop the great minds of tomorrow
We hear it all the time, but good marketing is needs clear messages and promoting your Unique Selling Point is more likely to attract the best
candidates for your school
Try to translate these into your key messages, and then your promotional materials
Don’t forget other selling points
Career packages will help you attract the best graduates, and future leaders, to teaching. Career packages are more than just initial teacher training and
encompass development and progression opportunities in order to attract the very best graduates into teaching. This could also be an opportunity to develop an offer unique to your partnership.
Career packages should include as a minimum:
High quality training to become a qualified teacher within one year, including experience in different school environments during and after training.
A programme of tailored professional development in the first two years as a qualified teacher.
Mentoring from an outstanding teacher and/or Specialist Leader of Education.
Opportunities for fast track progression to senior/leadership roles and engagement with education policy and development
And now the tactics…
What marketing tactics are going to work best with your school, resources (people and budget)?
Ensure you keep school/partner/third-party websites up-to-date, including: using testimonials from current SD trainees, if you offer QTS with PGCE, opportunities for multiple placements and salaried options.
Open days/events at your school – do you need posters, pull-ups and leaflets?
Parents evenings also present a good promotional opportunity Don’t forget Child post too!
Attending other recruitment events such as Train to Teach and graduate fairs School and partnership newsletters also reach this important potential trainee
audience of parents in your region
Press releases to local media – we have a ready made template you can adapt with your information on our marketing resource bank
Social media - using your own twitter account or Facebook, or setting these up for new about courses/vacancies and your offer
Tactics continued…
What marketing tactics are going to work best with your school, resources (people and budget)?
– Online advertising and Search Engine Optimisation – could you prioritise budget for sponsored online adverts to help your places become more searchable such as google ad-words, LinkedIn or regional vacancies websites or publications: Gradcracker, Student room, Graduate recruiter, Career changers monthly
– Do you want to use different tactics for your salaried or bursary places and if so what?
– What tactics can you work on together with your provider and other schools/teachings schools in your area? Do they have any channels you could use, any advertising opportunities you could collaborate on or potential candidates who could be sent your way?
Recruitment tools to consider
School experience programme (SEP)
Hosting school experience placements could give you the
opportunity to develop relationship with prospective applicants prior to them applying, giving them the chance to see life in your school and you the chance to assess their potential.
Register to take part in one of our school experience programmes. School receive payment for hosting the placement in priority
subjects and to cover the cost of CRB checks.
For more information and to sign-up:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-experience-programme-information-for-schools
Recruitment tools to consider
Subject knowledge enhancement (SKE)
A SKE programme prepares applicants for teacher training by building up or refreshing their existing knowledge.
SKE courses are available to those who would like to train to teach secondary maths, physics, chemistry, modern foreign languages (MFL), computing, or design and technology (D&T).
If you spot a candidate with potential in a priority subject, use SKE to ensure they have the right subject knowledge to start their ITT with you in 2015.
Schools can choose to run their own SKE courses or commission these from other providers.
For more information and to sign-up:
What success will look like
How will you monitor the performance of your marketing tactics and activity?
You could consider what inputs, outputs and outcomes you need
Examples of inputs Examples of outputs Examples of Outcomes Press
Number of press releases sent out
Number of pieces of coverage achieved
Number of applicants stating they applied due to this activity
Number of trainees as a result
Marketing
Paid for media Proportion of the audience reached by media activity Website/digital space
No. parties contacted Number of stakeholders you contacted and number of contacts made.
Internal comms
No. staff events organised Number of staff attending events/training
No. briefings/training sessions Number of staff promoting this through their networks
Support from us:
Marketing resource bank
The marketing resource bank has been updated with a full suite of the marketing resources being used for the new Your Future | Their Future national campaign.
You can adapt these with your school’s name, selling points and then use these locally to recruit.
These adaptable assets include a press advert, poster, event postcard, outdoor banner, with advice on how to adapt these and send them to printers/advertisers.
A brand new marketing guide will be produced, providing hints and tips for schools on how best to use marketing techniques to recruit to their
allocations too.
The bank will be updated regularly throughout the year to showcase
excellent recruitment practices by schools and top tips on specific areas on marketing such as social media: www.education.gov.uk/sdmarketing
Support from us cont.
We can help you find out more and meet schools locally that are already participating through our new Teaching and Leadership Adviser team
Our new GOV.UK information for schools web pages will be regularly updated with advice and guidance and will signpost quick start guides, top tips; the School Direct bulletin
Make sure your school’s main and also partnership contact on the Allocation Resource Management system is up-to-date and the lead school will receive and forward on regular email bulletins with reminders about next steps
throughout the process
Join our new School Direct Hub - a new online networking group for you on the Knowledge Hub. Join other new members and start asking your questions and sharing ideas today. Simply register as a member of Knowledge hub :
https://knowledgehub.local.gov.uk/ and then request to join the School Direct Hub.
Support from us: events
Our events team 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 such as Train to Teach events. More information on dates and times of these will be on the Get into teaching website next week
You can advertise your own recruitment events for free on our “Get into Teaching” website which attracts c.3m visits per annum - email
You can also advertise your events or vacancies on our Get into
teaching Facebook page using your own school’s Facebook account. Simply add a post (from your account) onto our wall at
www.facebook.com/getintoteaching
We’re also always happy to retweet from the Get into teaching Twitter account. Top tip: tag us (@getintoteaching) in your tweet and we’ll be much more likely to spot it and RT
Marketing yourself on UTT
Having good, accurate information on UTT is a must. It also offers a great
opportunity to attract people to your course based on how easy your courses are to find and what details you provide to draw them in.
Be searchable! As well as age range and subject, applicants can search by training
programme type, programme outcomes and provider address. Is your programme outcome right or set to the default?
Include all your partner locations/campuses in your Training Provider information. Do you know you can include up to 36 locations? If you cover a wide area this is a great opportunity to attract applicants from across your local area.
Also add relevant locations in your Training Programme information, and use the additional headings (public transport, special features, student life, study facilities, and optional headings) to create a more detailed picture of the benefits of the course.
Your UTT entry profile…
The UTT entry profile is broken down into this programme menu: • Why train with us?
• About this training programme • About this training provider • Entry requirements
• What we are looking for • How we select our trainees
Each section offers a chance for you to give tailored, specific information aimed at attracting the applicants best suited to your course.
Focusing on ‘Why train with us?’; ‘About this training programme’; and ‘What we are looking for’ in your marketing approach should mean that the most interested and suitable candidates apply to you.
“Why train with us?”
This is the main heading for marketing your offer; it could be the first thing that potential applicants encounter so make the first impression count. Some suggestions for standing out in your entry profile would include:
Give a strong introduction that outlines up-front who your partners are (including your accredited provider)
Describe the make-up of your partnership – age ranges, school demographics, mix of rural/suburban/inner-city, sizes of schools, type of school (faith? PRU?).
State your vision and emphasise what it’s like to work in your partnership
Provide success stories – previous trainee destinations, school improvements etc Be bold in explaining exactly why a candidate should pick you to train with
Outline the breadth of experience you will offer such as SEN, extra curricular involvement…
Describe the type of candidate who will thrive in your partnership Explain the professional development available to your staff
“About this training programme”
Think about everything that you have planned for the programme and what the trainee will have accomplished by the end of the year.
Then use this section to make this clear to them:
Describe how they will be trained, what delivery methods will be used where and who will deliver this. Don’t forget to add details about
mentoring arrangements.
Explain your process for an applicant who wants to train in a particular school
Include details of your accredited provider such as how often the trainee will be with them, and what level of access/support they will have.
Reassure the applicant that they will be a full part of your professional school team from day one of their training.
This is your chance to be very specific about who you want to apply to train with you. Be as clear as possible about:
What personal qualities you are looking for in a successful applicant What range and type of experience you want applicants to
demonstrate
The level of commitment you expect from your successful applicants What you want the applicant to bring to your school partnership
Today’s speakers
Online we also have three colleagues from schools partnerships and also UCAS who can offer practical advice from their own experience.
Alex Dijkhuis
School Direct Administration Manager
West London Teaching Schools’ Alliance Neil Dixon
Headteacher - St Mary & St Paul’s CE Primary, Knowsley
Chair - Mersey Boroughs ITT Partnership (SCITT & School Direct Provider)
Jo Boyd
Scheme Delivery Manager UCAS
Fiona Watts
UCAS Teacher Training Relationship Manager Rachel Harris
Data Collection Officer UCAS
Marketing
•
Decent website where further information can be found, all
host schools to have tab linking to this central location.
•
Clear information in entry profile including website, email and
phone number.
•
Paper based marketing: Logo, Pop up Banners, leaflets (with
photos/permissions) / posters, letterheads. Avoid looking
amateur.
•
Free marketing: parentmail, newsletters, posters in local
community, university careers centres
•
Awareness about recruitment events: Retain email
addresses and mark those who standout as potentially good.
Email them back after the event.
Entry profiles
• Basic headings supplied by UCAS. Draft in Word and upload
as pdf to Alliance/lead school website with links from partner
schools
• Why train with us? Info about the alliance/lead school, the
partner school and the university
• About this training programme –no. of places available,
qualification; school component; university component; financial
information
• About this training provider: Automatically copies across all
entry profiles (accommodation, child care, where to find us etc.)
• Entry requirements: academic requirements, school
experience; professional skills tests, medical fitness, DBS
• What we are looking for: Person specification
• How we select our trainees: Selection, interviews, notification.
• Learn about uploading weblinks
<a href='
http://www.smuc.ac.uk/contact
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St Mary's University
location
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Our story
Lead school – St Mary & St Paul’s
Linked HEI for cohorts 1-3 – Liverpool Hope
Closely linked in to Teaching School work – TSA works
across 5 local authorities, we have partner schools for
trainees in 5 authorities (Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton,
Halton & Liverpool)
Cohort 1 – 2012/13 – 14 trainees, 13 partner schools
Cohort 2 – 2013/14 – 32 trainees, 23 partner schools
Cohort 3 – 2014/15 – 50 trainees, 28 partner schools
Our trainees
Backgrounds:
22 straight from
university
16 were working in
schools (mainly
TAs)
12 total career
changers
40% male trainees
Degrees:
22 linked to education (Ed
Studies, Sport & Education,
Early Childhood Development,
SEN, Learning & Teaching etc.)
10 primary national curriculum
subjects (English, history etc.)
8 other science degrees (inc.
Biology, Astrophysics, Zoology)
10 other degrees (inc. Media,
Our recruitment
Successes so far:
Schools – flyers, posters –
attracts those working in schools
and volunteers
Linked HEIs – flyers, posters,
events
HEI marketing – mailshots,
e-shots etc.
Open evening
Graduate recruitment fairs
Train to Teach events
UTT presence
Word of Mouth
Under development:
Improved website
Use of social media
(twitter etc.)
Joint marketing/
events with other
providers
Today’s speakers
Online we also have three colleagues from schools partnerships and also UCAS who can offer practical advice from their own experience.
Alex Dijkhuis
School Direct Administration Manager
West London Teaching Schools’ Alliance Neil Dixon
Headteacher - St Mary & St Paul’s CE Primary, Knowsley
Chair - Mersey Boroughs ITT Partnership (SCITT & School Direct Provider)
Jo Boyd
Scheme Delivery Manager UCAS
Fiona Watts
UCAS Teacher Training Relationship Manager Rachel Harris
Data Collection Officer UCAS
Continue this discussion
Continue this dialogue and share best practice in a discussion on this topic in the School Direct Hub:
https://knowledgehub.local.gov.uk/group/school-direct-hub
A recording of today’s seminar will be available and emailed to you together with links to a feedback survey and to other information.
Thank you for taking part!
For queries about the online seminar or online
community email: [email protected]
For general queries about School Direct email:
