Half of Teachers Say Even Their Friends Don’t Understand Their Job

 
LONDON - May 23, 2014 - PRLog -- -Just 49 per cent of teachers say their friends really know what their job entails

-Only 13 per cent say their friends have a sophisticated grasp of the demands of the job


More than half the population don’t understand the teaching profession according to recruiter Randstad Education.

They polled 175 teachers to ask them if their friends really understood the industry that they worked in.  Randstad’s analysis showed that just half (49 per cent) of teachers said their friends really knew what their job entailed – with just one in eight (13 per cent) saying their friends had a sophisticated grasp of the ins and outs of the job.

Jenny Rollinson, MD of Randstad Education said: “When we asked people who work in education if their friends actually understood their job, only half of them said their friends got what the job involved – and only one in every eight said they had a really good idea what the job entailed.

Most of us think we know about teaching because, back in the mists of time, at some stage all of us have sat in a classroom.  We’ve all seen teachers stand up in front of a class, take playground duty and supervise detention.  But we’ve never experienced the other side of the coin – the open evenings; the OFSTED inspections; the professional development seminars; what amounts to social work with underprivileged, upset, aggressive or troubled youngsters; the parents evenings; the planning; the governors meetings; the school events; and, of course, the marking.  ”

Teaching is, at least, better understood than the automotive industry, where just one in every five workers say their friends understand their job – the least well understood profession in the country.

Jenny Rollinson said: “Teaching is not a simple job; it’s a complex role with a huge amount of responsibility We know we need to attract more graduates into teaching but if they have a completely erroneous idea of what the job is all about, they aren’t going to be motivated to succeed in the job in the long run. The teachers who thrive and progress respond well to pressure and a challenging results-focused career, that’s why supply teaching is often a great starting route for newly qualified teachers. The variety of experience and the constant change is a fantastic grounding.”

Randstad Education has calculated the UK needs to recruit another 53,000 teachers by 2050 to meet the demands of the growing population.  With a projected population of 74.5m in 2050[*], the UK will require a workforce of over 507,000 qualified teachers to support the demands of the country[†].  In order to achieve this long-term workforce, the number of teachers working in the UK would need to increase at a rate of over 1,600 per year with reach that goal.

Jenny Rollinson said: “The last few years have seen a lot of the sector’s time and energy taken with questions of funding and the impact of free schools and academies which have all helped to move attention away from the long term problem – which is how to meet the rising demand for teachers.  Furthermore, these challenges have played their part in shaping how graduates perceive the industry and that’s resulted in a drop in the number of graduates deciding to train as teachers in recent years.  The government needs to take urgent action to reverse that trend.  One way to go about doing that would be to make delaying retirement more attractive, possibly by reducing the hours teachers work.”

In a separate survey of over 9,215 British workers carried out in conjunction with the annual Randstad Award found that top three things that would persuade people to keep working were fewer hours, a more relaxed work schedule, and the possibility to adapt their working hours.

-- ENDS --

NOTES TO EDITORS


Randstad Education is part of the Randstad group, one of the leading recruitment & HR services providers in the world with a top five position in the UK and a top three position in fifteen countries including the US, France and Germany.

In the UK, Randstad’s business lines serve the public and private sectors across Accounting and Financial services; Business Support; Construction, Property and Engineering; Education; Health and Social Care; Interim Management and Search; Human Resources; IT; Legal; Retail; Student and Worker Support and In-House and Managed Services.

At the end of 2012, Randstad had 1,750 corporate employees in the UK, working in 203 locations. UK revenue in 2012 was €799 million. Randstad Holding nv was founded in 1960 and is headquartered in Diemen, the Netherlands and listed on the NYSE Euronext Amsterdam. For more information see www.randstad.co.uk and www.randstad.co.uk/education. (http://www.randstad.co.uk/education)

PRESS CONTACTS

James Craig, senior account manager, The Wriglesworth Consultancy, 0207 427 1405 j.craig@wriglesworth.com

[*] (http://#_ednref1) 2050 population projection of 74.5m from Eurostat (a 21% rise compared to 61.3m in 2008)

[†] (http://#_ednref2) Based on the ratio of qualified teachers to pupils from 2008

Contact
Randstad Education
j.craig@wriglesworth.com
0207 427 1405
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