In a recent article for Schools Week, Tiffany Beck, the Head of Education at Maritime Academy Trust, said that ‘too much focus’ on the long-term recruitment and retention issue makes teaching ‘sound like a dire job that no one should want to join or stay in’. Indeed, take a quick glance at recent education news and you’ll find article after article about the recruitment ‘crisis’ engulfing the sector.
Yet polling by PLMR found just 16% of 18- to 24-year-olds would ‘never’ consider becoming a teacher. With 84% open to the idea, there’s more opportunity than you might’ve thought to convert young people into teachers of the next generation. So what can be done to keep this majority interested in teaching and boost recruitment for the better in 2025?
Why teachers are leaving education
First things first, we need to acknowledge the wider issues at play that don’t get as much airtime as those like pay. It might not be surprising that workload is the main reason teachers leave the profession, according to the Teacher Labour Market in England Annual Report 2024. But what might be surprising is the influence poor student behaviour is having on it.
The Teacher Labour Market report advises that behaviour management and pastoral care should be ‘key priority areas for workload reduction’. It also suggests an independent review of teacher workload should be set up by the government, which should ‘consider the role of external support services’ in decreasing the workload of teachers.
We can’t say how far this contributes to the number of new teachers leaving the profession with their first two years (over 20%) or first five (one third). But we can say that workload, and increasingly working patterns, seem key to reversing the negative narrative around recruitment and retention.
Teacher recruitment – it’s not all bad
In an anomaly to usual patterns, it’s forecasted that primary recruitment will reach 83% of its target in 2024/2025. Most years, it’s at or above its target. On the other hand, expectations for teacher recruitment in 2024/2025 in secondaries has improved on 2023/2024, predicted to reach around 61% of its target.
It’s welcome news for the teaching workforce, whose status as a profession in ‘high regard’ still holds a fair amount of influence over people considering teaching as a career. Such reputation was the second highest scoring factor in PLMR’s polling on what influences people to become teachers.
The influence of flexible working
Status was beaten by better pay and followed by more flexible working options. And on this, if there’s a lesson to be taken into teacher recruitment in 2025, it’s the impact of flexible working arrangements. Not only does it attract more applicants, but it also supports retention efforts. Though education has long relied on more rigid working patterns and arrangements, the tables are turning – particularly given the updates to the Flexible Working Act in April 2024.
From the first day of employment, all employees now have the right to request flexible working. Whether the requests are granted or not remains up the employer. But, the schools and MATs that take the time to consider and review if/how they can implement flexible working will have a competitive advantage over others also looking to fill vacancies.
Refreshing teacher recruitment strategies for 2025
All this said, how can school HR teams switch up recruitment strategies ready for the new year ahead? We’ve narrowed it down to three key considerations, starting with understanding why you’re needing to recruit in the first place.
1. Understand why teachers leave
You don’t know what you don’t know, and there could be an underlying issue that’s resignation after within your organisation. The better you understand what’s driving school staff to leave, be it better pay elsewhere or early retirement opportunities, the more informed you are to make necessary improvements to retain other staff members.
Exit interviews might be a standard component of the leaving process, but how effective are they in helping you understand any key problems at play? The more personalised and focussed these sessions, the more insight over the employee experience (both good and bad) you’ll get.
2. Showcase employment benefits
73% of teachers say their job doesn’t leave them enough time for a personal life, according to the DfE’s survey on the working lives of teachers.
- Does your school or MAT encourage flexible working?
- How many flexible working requests have been approved since April 2024?
- Is external support available or being considered to help reduce the workload on staff?
What your school or MAT has in place to improve the work-life balance for all staff should be available for applicants to view, helping your organisation demonstrate its commitment to staff wellbeing.
3. Simplify the application process
In a time-pressed sector, schools and MATs need to appreciate the time it takes applicants to apply for vacancies. Granted, there’s mandatory information that can’t be missed – but the process can be made more attractive and user-friendly.
Take our Candidate Portal which simplifies the initial steps of applying, for instance. Once an applicant has made their profile, they can apply for numerous positions across your MAT, without having to duplicate their data or fill out the same form’s multiple times. For the HR teams reviewing these applications, there’s our Applicant Tracking System which centralises all candidate recruitment activities, like mandatory checks for and employment offers. You can’t underestimate the impact of efficiency!
Teacher recruitment in 2025
As we say ‘goodbye’ to 2024 and ‘hello’ to 2025, here’s hoping more schools and MATs feel encouraged to make the necessary changes to their recruitment processes to attract and secure teaching talent for the year ahead.
And to see our Candidate Portal in action and get advice on improving your school’s recruitment process, speak to our friendly team.
