Project

Recruitment

 

Findings from Part 5 of the study:

Advertising for NQTs

  • Just over three-quarters of all schools regularly placed adverts suitable for NQTs on the local authority website or in local authority bulletins and just over two-fifths used the TES Online or TES hard copy. Primary schools made greater use of local authority websites and bulletins, secondary schools made greater use of TES Online and hard copy.
  • There was some mismatch between where senior leaders placed adverts for posts suitable for NQTs and sources used by NQTs themselves. NQTs rely heavily on internet sources to locate adverts, making the greatest use of TES Online (regularly used by 75% of NQTs) and local authority websites (63%).  Primary NQTs make greatest use of local authority websites while secondary NQTs make greatest use of TES online.
  • Local authorities do not operate recruitment pools in all areas, but where they do senior leaders are largely positive about their usefulness for recruiting good quality NQTs.
  • Most schools (74%) do not target NQTs in adverts but advertise for main scale teachers, although primaries target NQTs more frequently than secondary schools.

Application, interview and job offer patterns

  • Most NQTs (69%) apply for five or fewer posts. Primary NQTs apply for more posts than secondary NQTs. Just over half of NQTs were invited to attend one or two interviews and just over a third attended between three and five interviews.
  • he majority of NQTs (68%) attended one or two interviews and a further 27% attended between three and five interviews. The vast majority of NQTs (95%) were offered one or two posts. There was no significant variation in application, interview and job offer patterns by school type.

NQT appointments

  • Primary schools were more likely to have appointed NQTs recently to KS2 (80% of primaries) or KS1 (71%) compared with the Foundation Stage (54%). Secondary schools were most likely to have appointed NQTs in English, Mathematics and General/Combined Science (more than 75% of secondaries in each case) and least likely to have appointed NQTs to teach PSHE, Physics or Chemistry (less than 40% in each case).
  • Sixty percent of primary schools and 50% of secondary schools had recruited at least some NQTs to temporary posts. The least deprived schools appointed significantly fewer NQTs to temporary posts compared with other schools.

Difficulties in recruitment

  • Primary schools found it slightly harder to recruit to Foundation Stage posts compared with KS1 and KS2, although for each key stage over 75% of primary schools reported it was not very or not at all difficult to recruit to posts in each key stage.
  • The most deprived schools faced the greatest difficulties recruiting NQTs to the Foundation Stage.
  • The most difficult subjects to recruit NQTs to in secondary schools are Physics (45% of schools that recruited physics teachers reporting difficulties), Mathematics (43% reporting difficulties), Chemistry (38%) and General/Combined Science (31%). Given that over three quarters of secondary schools had recruited an NQT to teach Mathematics and the same to teach General/Combined Science this is clearly a particular problem of supply in these subjects.
  • Whilst there were few differences in difficulty of recruitment to different key stages in primary schools between 2008 and 2010, the picture overall was better in 2010 in secondaries. For almost all secondary subjects, a smaller proportion of senior leaders reported difficulties in recruiting in 2010 compared with 2008. The difference was particularly significant for Physics (76% of schools that recruited NQTs to teach Physics in 2008 reported difficulties, compared with 45% in 2010) and ICT (54% in 2008, 43% in 2010).
  • Nearly a fifth of schools (18%) of schools reported difficulties in recruitment because they had to appoint to temporary rather than permanent posts. This was perceived as a significantly more difficult problem in primary schools.

 

 

Findings from Part 2 of the study:

  • Timing of recruitment is important; for September starts some preferred to recruit in the spring term, while others preferred to wait until early summer when all candidates will have completed placements. Secondary schools were more likely than primary schools to offer NQTs a permanent contract in the first instance.


  • In line with findings from the environment map survey, when schools place advertisements they are more likely to use the internet and, when looking for vacancies, trainees are even more likely to look online (e.g. far more NQTs prefer to use e-teach compared with the number of schools that use it). LA job bulletins, the LA pool and local press, as well as hardcopy advertisements in the TES, are still used widely.


  • Schools overwhelmingly give preference to application forms written to the job specification, with personal accounts of experience, interest, future plans. They prefer to interview applicants who come across as enthusiastic, passionate (especially among primary candidates), and have a breadth of experience and interest in other extra curricular activities. Negative factors seem to include changing jobs regularly, an inability to sell themselves, and

  • According to our data, the selection event generally consisted of a tour of the school and teaching a lesson as well as an interview and sometimes presentation, with the event usually lasting a full school day. The interview process is reported by NQTs to be fairly rigorous. The interviewers look for evidence of ability to differentiate, creative teaching and behaviour management techniques. Many NQTs reported being surprised at how many applications they had to make to secure their first teaching post, suggesting that overall there is no shortage of trained teachers beyond specific subject and geographic areas or NQTs are concentrating their efforts on a limited number of schools.

 

Findings from Part 1 of the study:

Points from the literature review

  • There are regional variations.
  • Geographical location of posts is important to NQTs.
  • In some areas NQTs find it difficult to find jobs.
  • In some areas there is a growing demand for teachers.
  • The number of posts advertised on temporary contracts in increasing, as a result of budgetary constraints.
  • Secondary NQTs are more likely to secure an initial permanent post than primary.
  • Disadvantaged schools are more likely to have difficulties in recruiting NQTs.

 

Discussion of Part 1 survey findings

The findings support a key point from the literature that the temporary nature of posts is problematic in recruiting NQTs and that this is more of an issue in primary than secondary schools. However, the findings suggest fewer regional variations than does the literature. The number of SLT respondents in the Part 1 survey meant that breakdowns by the 9 English regions might not be very meaningful and the 9 were combined into 4. This may have obscured finer differences between regions. The findings also do not support the contention that recruitment is more difficult in deprived schools. The findings suggest that, although there are issues for some subject specialisms in secondary schools, SLTs generally do not find it difficult to recruit NQTs. Physics is seen by far as the most difficult subject to recruit for. The findings also indicate that SLTs are generally satisfied with candidates.

There are indications of some differences in perception. For example, SLTs' written comments suggest that a school being in a deprived area is off-putting to students whilst NQTs claim that it does not discourage them. This may be a genuine difference in perception, or NQTs may be reluctant to provide ratings that might indicate bias on their part against certain groups of children, and this might be further explored in Part 2 of this study. NQTs seem not to most use the sources of advertisement that are most used by SLTs, and this problem is compounded by their considering that source of advertisement is the least important factor in attracting them to posts. NQTs see tours of schools as important and wonder if schools that do not provide them are hiding something, but some SLTs see tours as just too time consuming (pointersee a discussion on 'Progression as a teacher' ).
SLTs list a large number of issues they see as impacting on their ability to recruit, yet the most important motivator for NQTs in applying for posts is the geographical location. There seems to be some scope for sharing of perceptions between NQTs and SLTs and for clarifying any misunderstandings.

The findings include information that might be helpful for a range of stakeholders, including SLTs, ITT providers and NQTs, for example the factors of most importance to NQTs in gaining impressions of schools at interview and the factors of most importance to SLTs in judging applicants.

ITT providers might give attention to the support provided to students in job seeking and application skills, particularly to ensure they are using the most appropriate vacancy sources, especially given that different types of school use different sources and that the usage of sources varies betweens regions. Attention also needs to be given to encouraging the expression of individuality and ensuring that applications are well targeted. Avoiding ‘coaching’ of students that might lead to standardised approaches is clearly advisable. There are indications that basics related to use of language (written and spoken) need attention. NQTs may also need support in identifying key issues to look out for in schools when deciding whether to apply or to accept posts (as they comment, their lack of experience makes then uncertain of what to look for).

There are anomalies that need to be addressed in Part 2 of the study. Written SLT and NQT comments suggest a high volume of applications, yet the numbers of applications made and interviews attended by NQTs is low, and lower than SLT responses about numbers of applications and interviews. SLT responses here are lower than the written comments suggest and lower than might be assumed. Satisfaction ratings by SLTs are high and are in line with their ratings of the quality of NQTs, yet problems are suggested by the literature and anecdotally. There are a number of possibilities, of which one is that there is general satisfaction amongst SLTs with the quality of NQT candidates.

However, Part 2 of the study needs to explore other possibilities, such as how rating categories were interpreted. Differences between written comments and ratings reflects a phenomenon experienced by educators, that individuals (for example students) feel more comfortable giving negative verbal feedback than they do in providing negative ratings. The findings may relate to the nature of the sample. The team had difficulty in obtaining responses and it may be that those schools with good practice in recruiting and supporting NQTs were those responding.