With a wide following in Hertfordshire and beyond, Teach in Herts is the dedicated recruitment platform for the county’s schools, trusts and settings, and lists around 7,000 vacancies every year across four main categories: teaching, leadership, early years and professional & support.
Created as a local authority initiative in 2001 to support teacher recruitment, the site became part of Herts for Learning (now HFL Education) and a new, upgraded version of the site followed in 2015. Over the following years the site has developed a strong brand identity, with a busy events calendar and powerful social media presence. The site now welcomes over 50,000 visitors per month.
Although it was originally created to support teacher recruitment, Teach in Herts aims to be agile and responsive to changes in the employment market and as a result we now help to recruit for all roles involved in the smooth running of educational and childcare settings, with almost 700 employers now using the platform as their primary recruitment resource.
Schools and settings tell us that they get an excellent response to their adverts through Teach in Herts, and really appreciate the advice and guidance provided to support them in the recruitment and selection process, particularly in key areas such as EDI. The site also supports the management of applications, with easy feedback to candidates and a GDPR and safer recruitment compliant online application form that can even be automatically anonymised for shortlisting following our 2020 updates.
As well as online resource, our team deliver specialist recruitment training and contribute to key briefings and strategy groups. We also oversee the HFL Supply Framework to help schools with temporary staffing where needed. In addition, our social media targeting service works as a valuable add-on to promote harder to fill roles, and data shows that this increases the reach by around 53%. We also manage third party agreements with additional advertising platforms such as TES where needed.
Since the start of the COVID pandemic we’ve seen the average number of support roles advertised each month increase by 72% and we’ve recently launched an exciting new #notjustforteachers campaign to try to help schools and settings to meet this increased need.
Whether in the school classroom, with younger children at a day-care setting, in administration, human resources, business or finance, there is a wealth of opportunity for those starting their career or looking to retrain. Many settings offer term time only contracts, with flexible working hours that make this an ideal sector for those looking to improve their work-life balance or get back to work after a career break. There is also a great training and support network available in the county through HFL and a BAME forum that offers extra support to those from minority backgrounds.
With excellent transport links into London and around the UK, Hertfordshire is not only a great place to live but is also one of the highest performing education authorities in the country, and home to a wide variety of schools and settings from small primaries with mixed year classes, to much larger primary and secondary schools in busier towns. We have a great mix of privately run, maintained and academy settings, as well as specialist faith schools and SEN provisions. It’s a great place to work and we pride ourselves on attracting exceptional individuals to inspire our young people, and support both to the highest level.
As well as listing vacancies, the Teach in Herts website houses a library of online information and guidance and includes links to teacher training and apprenticeship scheme providers to ensure candidates have access to all the information and resources they need.
The site is easy to use with automatic job alerts and an online application form that can be tailored as needed to suit each vacancy. Candidates have told us that they especially value the facility to research schools and jobs in their chosen area as well as the testimonials from existing staff, which help to illustrate what the job is really like.
Our team organise and attend numerous webinars and events at universities and colleges around the UK, meeting students and talking to them about opportunities in Hertfordshire. For many years we have been fortunate to meet trainee teachers, who later registered and found a job with us.
The highlight is our free, annual Teach in Herts recruitment fair, which is a really popular event and an opportunity for applicants to come and meet schools and settings face to face - we look forward to seeing you!
Rose Ridgeway & Lucy Makins
Lucy Makins
