In a drive to address the deficit in maths, physics and chemistry teachers in UK schools, Engage Education is drawing on top talent from across the commonwealth to fill the void. Qualified teachers from as far afield as Canada, Australia and New Zealand, pre-matched to each school, are paired with their respective Headteachers at Engage Education’s iday events.

Completely free to attend, iday provides Headteachers with the opportunity to meet up to 11 pre-selected candidates in just one day, enabling them to fill multiple vacancies. Piloted in 2010 and now helping schools plan ahead and recruit the right teachers ahead of September, 12 idays will run across the London area throughout May and June 2011. A further round is also planned across the country in the autumn.

To find out more or register for an iday near you, please visit www.iday.co.uk or contact Chris Thompson, iday Manager at Engage Education.

Hundreds of new teachers stand little chance of finding a full-time permanent job in Scotland, a study has suggested. Scottish Government statistics indicate there were 607 advertised vacancies in February, down almost 13% on last year.

Figures earlier this month indicated almost 1,600 of the teachers who qualified last summer did not have full-time permanent jobs. Ministers said vacancies did occur throughout the year and jobs would become available as older staff retire. But the EIS teaching union said it was concerned that many new teachers may leave the profession.

There’ll be one thing on the mind of student teacher alike over the next few months – securing a job in an ideal school for September 2007.

I’ve put together a short job applications guide to help make people aware of some of the excellent resources online to help them apply for a first job/job change.

CV

There are tonnes of sites that contain information on how best to write a good resume. The eteach jobs site contains some useful tips on producing an effective CV (click here) and also has a student/NQT zone (here)

CV consultants will appraise your CV for free (more information here). I emailed them my CV and received a phone call back a week and half later from one of their staff who briefly discussed the good points of and ways to improve my CV and offered me a professional personalised CV and application letter for around £69.

Portfolio

Sara Bubb, from the Institute of Education, provides some portfolio creation tips on this post on the TES – well worth a read.

Job applications

TES jobs (here) is an excellent site that contains a feature that can be set to send you a text and an email you when a job is advertised in the area in which you are looking. Register with TES jobs for free here.

Eteach is smiliar to TES jobs and contains a browsable database of job vacancies. As mentioned above, the site contains loads of job relating information and advice.

It’s also well worth looking for jobs advertised on Borough websites, such as http://www.harrow.gov.uk and http://www.enfield.gov.uk/.