WATCH: How to prepare for post-lockdown recruitment
In a normal year, the period between October and May would involve international teachers hurriedly applying for and accepting new roles. The “recruitment window” is both a nervous and exciting time for school leaders, as experienced colleagues move on, to be replaced by enthusiastic new recruits.
This year, however, the view from the window is a little obscured. With Covid travel restrictions still in place, the influx of new staff has been slowed, while many existing staff have been forced to return home to be closer to loved ones.
This is a year in education unlike any other, and recruitment is also feeling the impact. So, as schools prepare to recover from the disruption to teaching, they do so with little clarity on how their staffroom will look.
“Covid-19 is having an impact on recruitment for international schools,” explains David Ingram, founding head of college at Dulwich College Shanghai Puxi. “At the moment there isn’t as much movement as we would experience in a normal year”.
A year of disruption
Over 12 months on from the start of lockdown in Shanghai, while Ingram has seen high levels of retention as staff decide to stay put in a region that is perceived to have managed the pandemic comparatively well, the future looks more problematic when it comes to hiring.
“We are left with some uncertainty about being able to process visas, quarantine and entry to the country,” he says. But with an eye on the months to come, when he and “many heads [anticipate] that there will be much higher levels of movement,” he is not taking this period of reduced turnover for granted.
In this free Tes webinar, Ingram discusses how he is looking to prepare for post-lockdown recruitment. He outlines strategies that his school has used to engage prospective candidates and retain existing staff.
Having studied in both the US and in the UK, Ingram completed his master’s in the history of childhood before starting his teaching career in Northamptonshire in the late 90s. In 2000, he made the move overseas, working firstly at the Alice Smith School in Kuala Lumpur, before working at both the Kellett School in Hong Kong and Tanglin Trust School in Singapore, before founding Dulwich College in Shanghai, where he joins us from today.
Drawing on a wealth of experience, he shares knowledge and best practice and answers questions from the live webinar delegates.
