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Can you tell me about your education and
training?
In 1997, I started studying to become a primary school
teacher and undertook student teaching placements at three
schools. Upon deciding that this career was not for me,
however, I completed my degree, a BA (Hons) in English
Literature and Language, gaining a First, and went on to
study for my second degree, an MSc in Personnel Management
and Industrial Relations. I undertook my final research
dissertation on the use of employment agencies by private
sector companies, and also gained graduate membership of
the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
(CIPD).
Since I have been at Randstad Education, I have
undertaken all training opportunities offered to me. I
successfully completed the Recruitment and Employment
Confederation's Foundation Award (Certificate in
Recruitment Practice) to gain MREC status in March 2005.
Since 2007 I have also been part of the company's
Management Development Programme (MDP), a three year course
designed to give me all the skills I need to become a
future business manager for Randstad Education. As part of
this I have attended regular training courses lasting one
and two days at our dedicated training academy in
Luton.
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Can you tell me about your role?
My role is senior education consultant, and I also run a
desk, recruiting teachers and teaching assistants for
mainstream schools. There are a lot more aspects to the job
than you first think! As senior consultant, I assist the
business manager with reporting and analysis, training and
mentoring of staff, and the checking of child safety
procedures. For my own desk, I gain new business and
maintain existing business by calling the schools, visiting
them and generally developing relationships with the main
contacts for supply. As well as the clients, there are also
the candidates to consider, so part of my role is also
placing adverts to attract the best calibre of teachers,
sometimes attending university recruitment fairs, and then
interviewing them and checking they meet all of the child
safety criteria. Then it's all about matching up the
candidates to the right schools and filling the bookings
that come in on a daily basis, whether they are short or
long term vacancies or even permanent placements. I also
deal with all the associated administration. As an office,
the role also involves a lot of team work, for example the
sharing of candidates and information, and covering on each
other's desks when consultants are on visits or
interviewing.
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What are the main challenges about your
role?
Education recruitment has become increasingly
competitive in the last few years, so my major challenges
are coming up with new and fresh ideas to differentiate
myself from the competition to gain new business, and
facing repeated attack at my existing clients from new
agencies desperate to gain their business by undercutting
our prices. It is also a constant challenge to recruit and
retain enough quality candidates to keep the schools happy,
and especially hard to manage them when they all want the
same people!
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What do you most enjoy about your job?
I love the buzz in the mornings of filling bookings, and
I also love that there never seems to be enough hours in
the day... you can never get bored in our office and I
thrive on being busy! As a team we also have a lot of
office banter to keep us going through the often long hours
in term time. I love the feeling of achievement when you
finally get a client on board after months or even years of
trying, and also when a candidate is so grateful that you
found them their perfect job! The competitive streak in me
also likes seeing the company league tables at the end of
the week to see how well our office is doing versus other
local offices, and also how my individual desk is
performing in comparison! Winning various internal
competitions and being recognised as 'Employee of the
Month' or 'Office of the Month' every so often, with the
accompanying cash bonuses, is also a major motivator in
this line of work! Events such as our annual conference and
the 'Director's Day Out' for the best performing offices
are always looked forward to for months!
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What is a typical day at work for you?
A typical day at the office usually starts with taking
the messages from the on-call service and checking emails,
before launching into filling bookings for that day.
Towards the middle of the day I am either on the telephone
calling existing and potential clients, on visits to
schools, or interviewing new candidates. The end of the day
is busy organising bookings for the following day, and
after that there is always plenty of administration to
catch up on and CVs to look through.
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What are the requirements and skills you need to do
your job?
To do this job I believe you need to be organised and
possess good time management skills, as you really need to
prioritise your workload, including an increasing amount of
paperwork for child safety requirements. You also need to
have good communication skills, as most of your time is
spent meeting clients, interviewing candidates and dealing
with both on the telephone... the 'gift of the gab' is a
must! I think a genuine desire to get the best person into
the job is also key; there are a lot of agencies out there
who don't seem to care as much about the children in
schools that they are primarily recruiting for, and I think
that you have to take a lot of pride in what you do to
maintain that quality service.
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Do you travel often?
As part of the job I get to travel to different schools
in the area each week, visiting existing clients to check
on our service and introducing myself to new clients. To me
this is the most important part of the job, getting out and
about and meeting people. Every few months I also get to
travel to our Head Office in Luton for training, and
sometimes we visit other offices in the region for more
localised training and to work on new initiatives.
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Why did you join Randstad Education?
My first job was as a recruitment consultant for a
specialist financial recruitment agency called 'Select
Financial', where I gained over one year's experience. I
enjoyed much success in that role, however I wanted to
return to a role involving my first passion, education, and
found the perfect position at Randstad Education. I had
heard good things about the company from friends who were
teachers, and I also researched on the internet to see who
was the biggest and best company to work for in this
industry. When I was interviewed I felt right at home
straight away and compared with the other companies I met,
I was much more impressed with the opportunity offered here
and the people I was introduced to.
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What would you say to someone thinking about
joining Randstad Education?
Do it as you won't regret it: they are successful and
supportive, and you would be nothing short of proud to be
part of this company, and I feel that it is very important
to have job satisfaction! I have made loads of really good
friends and feel like I'm part of a big family at this
company, as nobody is too important to be 'faceless',
despite the ever-growing size of our business. Someone
thinking about joining the company now could only be
excited at the new possibilities in the future!