Education is failing itself on both retention and recruitment

Retention over recruitment. Education is falling on both counts.

We can not keep teachers in the profession, 40% of teachers do not expect to be in the profession within the next five years (NEU Survey). There are specialist recruitment and transition services and Facebook groups dedicated to supporting the exodus, “Life After Teaching: Exit The Classroom And Thrive.” Mean while education recruiters are servicing the vacancy merry-go-round, actively offer teachers in-post, improved terms at the school down the road. The ill-fated decision to move to performance related pay and the unintended consequences of accountability measures are literally feeding the beast. Recruitment fairs even worse. We are dealing with a “catastrophic shortfall in postgraduate trainee teacher recruitment.” That is not a narrative that needs feeding and 4-day working weeks, where the devil is hiding in plain sight in the detail, is unconvincing. Even a 32 hour week would see most teachers still working around 40 hours overall! 

In searching of a more informed solution I spent half term gaining hands-on experience with Berry Bros. & Rudd’s ‘People Development and HR Team.’ I kept record of the conversations I was able to convene with their team of HR experts. Simply, this world leading wine merchant, showed, communicated and acted-in the best of their staff to a level considerably above the best schools I have been fortunate to work with. It was quite a humbling experience. What was even more humbling is that much of what they offered to retain and attract staff would be available to almost all employers, including education and schools more generally.

In the next post share, I plan to share some the insights gained from that “work experience.”