May 2022 was a record month for advertised teacher vacancies in England. TeachVac www.teachvac.co.uk the job board I helped create eight years ago reached the milestone of one million hits on its website in a single month for the first time. Overall, in the secondary sector, TeachVac recorded details of more than 14,000 classroom teacher vacancies, including those with TLRs attached during May 2022. There were also almost six and a half thousand primary vacancies during the month.

In the light of what will be a challenging period between now and early 2023, when the next influx of jobseekers enters the market, TeachVac launched its Premium Service of No match: No fee to put subscribing schools at the head of the daily match list. Take up of the service that costs only £1 per match, with a maximum annual charge per school of £1,000 for secondary schools and £250 for primary schools, has already exceeded expectations, and more schools and MATS are on the way.

Schools in the South East should be especially interested in accessing TeachVac’s pool of job seekers. In the South East region, TeachVac recorded more than 3,000 vacancies during May, nearly 1,000 more vacancies than last year. Finding candidates in many subjects for any late September vacancies, and especially for unplanned January 2023 vacancies, will be tough in many different subject areas.

Combining history with Religious Education; PE with science and art with design and technology and wording vacancies advertising appropriately might just be a cheaper strategy for schools than spending lots of money on advertising. Using no find no fee agencies can also pay dividends, but can be expensive

Schools shouldn’t forget teachers returning for service overseas. Southern Hemisphere schools end their school year in December, so staff can be available for a January start and certainly a spring half-term arrival after allowing for time to relocate.

The government’s announcements on a new graduate visa scheme may also prove useful to schools, especially if the Migration Advisory Committee were to accept that there were now teacher shortages in more subjects than at their last review of the market.

As I wrote in my previous post, the closure of the civil service Fast Track Scheme for 2023 might attract some of those aiming for the civil service into teaching instead. This could be good news for Teach First next year.

Pressures in the primary sector may be more regional than in the secondary sector, with parts of the north of England unlikely to experience significant shortages, except in some rural areas and in schools in challenging circumstances.

The present re-accreditation of ITT providers and the new overarching framework for ITT, a framework that reminds me of the Area Training Organisational structure of the post-war period, must not create parts of the country where too few teachers are being trained for the needs of the local schools.

Finally, someone should ensure that career changers unable to move to a job anywhere outside their local area are not ignored as too expensive by schools. We cannot afford to waste any talent.