Xavier Teach South East
Over 30% candidate growth, with continued success
With the UK Government missing teacher training targets for 11 of the last 12 years, it is becoming increasingly important for schools and trusts to work with an exceptional School-Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) provider, and it is becoming increasingly pressing for those providers to take matters into their own hands.
Xavier CET are long-term partners of Eteach - using our recruitment software and candidate attraction solutions - and decided to work with Eteach's dedicated education marketing team to enhance their existing ITT recruitment.
Xavier Teach Southeast (TSE) are an Ofsted Outstanding teacher training provider who wanted to quickly increase their teacher training numbers through better recruitment, and plan for solid growth in the years to come. The majority of their cohort trains in Surrey, and they also have teacher training hubs across London, Sussex and the Midlands.
TSE are committed to developing their own crop of exceptional teachers across primary and secondary education, with a focus on high-quality training and placements that enable each one of their trainees to fulfil their potential. The objective was always going to be growth, but had to maintain the Xavier Catholic Education Trust’s core principals of high-quality education and a supportive, community environment.
The Challenge
To turn the tide on the declining teacher training numbers nationally; taking a high-quality SCITT provider and lay the foundations for growth in trainee numbers for several years to come. With the added context of a challenging external environment and the need to provide short-term improvements in the current recruitment cycle.
TSE was keen to address the bigger issues: how, post-pandemic, the sector could once again encourage career changers and those requiring flexible working to choose teaching as their vocation.
The Solution
With over 10 years' experience in initial teacher training and two Outstanding Ofsted reports, TSE are perfectly placed to serve their community. The key was to look at the full marketing funnel from start to finish, with a focus on creating more awareness of teaching as a career, driving more interest, increasing conversion and responding to the increasing expectations from applicants to receive quick, concise feedback and communication.
After several strategic marketing and employer branding workshops, we established a clear set of values and USPs to work with, as well as the amount of resource TSE could provide, both immediately and in the long term. This partnership was intended to drive long-term sustainable growth for the SCITT, not just a tactical quick fix.
A key contributing factor was the internal buy-in from the TSE team. Spearheaded by highly-motivated, accountable project leads, we worked together to make data a centrepiece of the project and improve the benchmarking for future.
Focus areas for the project included:
- Modernising and simplifying the applicant journey
- Removing barriers to teaching at every possible juncture, including data capture, IAG, admissions
- Broadening the target audience beyond graduates
- Digital marketing tactics to increase the number of applicants at all stages
- Content plan to build brand awareness, but also convert engaged applicants
- Comms plan for keep warm and reengagement throughout the admissions cycle
- Strategic marketing workshops ensure the team had input and ownership
- Full examination of brand positioning and existing collateral
- Full relaunch of digital presence, including planning for content output on key channels and ensuring that output was sustainable
- Launch and hosting of events in partnership with Eteach HQ
- Content creating workshops with key staff and stakeholders
- Repurposing existing content for greater results
Through continued work with Eteach, TSE have identified different target audiences and continue to hone the most effective marketing strategies to reach them. They’ve also been able to match up candidates sourced by the Eteach recruitment team with some of their wider programmes, including apprenticeship and assessment-only routes.
TSE increased candidate numbers by over 30% year on year and have a content plan, and improved workflow set up for future use.
The first week of the application cycle for this year saw almost twice as many applications as the previous year; a trend that continued with applications for the main teaching hub having tripled when comparing March numbers year on year.
“The Eteach team have been curious and eager to understand our requirements and have strived to meet them. They are innovative and keen to run with and try new ideas and bring lots of expertise to the table that we have benefited from both in terms of marketing strategy and methods. It’s been a collaborative learning experience.”
“As a team we are now more confident and upskilled. We’re grateful for the team at Eteach, their expertise and support in streamlining our goals and targets as well as benefitting from their marketing knowledge. We would highly recommend Eteach to other SCITTs.”
- Amy Harper, Director of Xavier Teaching School Hub
“It has been an incredibly rewarding project to work on – the Teach Southeast team were keen to explore every option for increasing the number of trainee teachers in their community, now and in the future.”
“It went beyond the marketing mix. There was a real focus on broadening and diversifying the trainee intake, improving awareness of the routes into the sector and removing any perceived barriers to entry. All while keeping the community feel at the heart of the campaign."
- Dean Renphrey, Commercial Director, Eteach Group
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