Why trainees could be your recruitment solution
In a year when Covid-19 has had an unprecedented impact on education internationally, there may be one surprising benefit for schools nationwide post-pandemic: a jump in applications for initial teacher training.
After many years of teacher shortages, the profession has become suddenly more appealing, thanks to the availability of work and job security. Not only are we seeing the usual ingress of young graduates this year, but also an increased number of career changers, who have experienced the instability of furlough and redundancy.
Furthermore, having lived through a world-changing event, many will be looking for greater meaning in their lives, and, as a vocation, teaching has always been seen as a career choice that allows you to give back to society.
Whilst the start of the new school year in September will inevitably be challenging, this influx of new professionals offers an exciting opportunity for schools - not least because it might fill some gaps in staffing.
School leaders should jump at the opportunity to take on a trainee - whether in the form of a school-centred initial teacher training (SCITT) trainee or a Teach First participant, or through the more traditional PGCE placements.
Teacher recruitment: Why schools should take on trainees
After years of recruitment challenges, now is the time to make the best of this opportunity that is too good to miss and too important to get wrong. Here’s why.
1. Blank slates
At a time when curriculum is at the forefront and schools are championing specific pedagogies as a basis for teaching and learning, trainees are blank slates who can be shaped and moulded to fit into your school community.
Established teachers who have already experienced a wealth of change and evolution in their schools might find it challenging to adopt a new whole-school approach. A trainee, in comparison, who is learning to teach for the first time, can be fully immersed in your school’s emerging educational philosophy and build their own strategies based on your pedagogical approaches.
2. Pedagogical knowledge
Equally, with many trainees spending a significant amount of their time in university, trainees can bring new and exciting teaching strategies to the forefront. Universities and teacher-training providers are always exploring the latest research and embedding it in trainee practice.
If you have areas that require improvement in your department, it might be your trainee who has some exciting new ideas to share from their training days.
3. Breadth of experience
Not all of us are born teachers. In fact, I have worked in departments with people from employment backgrounds as varied as lawyers, accountants, business people, actors and flight attendants.
Education has always celebrated diversity, with the understanding that, as teachers, we all create our own unique classroom experiences.
It is an exciting opportunity to welcome new professionals into our field because teachers are working more collaboratively than ever and educators from other sectors bring with them a wealth of skills, ideas and ethos that might be hugely beneficial within your own team.
If you get your trainee to play to their existing strengths, you may find that they have things to offer that people who have always been classroom practitioners may not.
4. Mentor rejuvenation
In a profession as all-consuming and workload-heavy as teaching, it can be easy to fall into routine and habitual teaching in a bid to get by, and to stop braving the world of new practices.
Having a trainee can rejuvenate a mentoring teacher, as the energy and enthusiasm of working with someone new can be contagious.
Being a mentor is hugely rewarding and, in finding solutions to develop a trainee, a mentor can grow from the experience, too.
5. Social motivation
New teachers often join the profession because of their own desire to help shape the lives of young people, and this has been amplified by charities such as Teach First, which seek to place trainees in schools in areas where there is educational inequality.
Furthermore, as we enter a period of anticipated societal change, with a greater awareness of issues such as the Black Lives Matter campaign, many people will be entering the profession with greater political motivation.
These teachers will have much to offer to school communities and they can help to deliver change not just inside of the classroom, but outside of it, too.
James Hodge is an English practitioner from West Sussex. After spending six years as an English teacher, a head of media studies and a lead practitioner, he now works in initial teacher training. He produces teaching and learning videos on YouTube in his spare time. He tweets @MrHodgeTeaches
If you are interested in having a trainee in September, now would be the ideal time to contact your local ITT provider. Begin the new school year with a new teacher, and reap the many rewards of supporting a new professional. Who knows - they may even make the new year a little easier than anticipated.
