Deon P. Green, Freelance Writer
LONDON, England:
FOREIGN TEACHERS, including Jamaicans, who arrive in England in search of jobs without having been directly recruited from their home territories are doing so at great risk, a teacher recruitment agency in London has warned.
The warning came amid reports that a number of foreign teachers including Jamaican nationals who arrived in England recently, have not been able to secure jobs.
Michelle Cable, an administrative co-ordinator of Mercer Shaw Matthews (MSM), one of the recruitment agencies that was in Jamaica earlier this year, told The Sunday Gleaner, "They know fully well that when they come here, they are taking a risk". She added that the agency offers no guarantee of employment for the teachers who come to England having been interviewed in Jamaica.
"At present we are finding it difficult to place some teachers. We try to help every teacher who comes here but it also depends on the market, the willingness of the schools to accept the teachers and the schools' ability to secure work permits for the teachers, but it is a gamble," she said.
There are also reports that new policies are making it harder for overseas teachers to find permanent employment in the United Kingdom despite a shortage of teachers. Reductions in funding to the schools have reportedly forced some schools to make some teachers redundant and others being unable to recruit teachers despite a shortage.
RECRUITMENT COSTS
Another factor affecting employment for overseas teachers is the added cost to recruit them from agencies. When they are recruited from agencies the cost is greater for the schools as the agency and the teachers have to be paid separately.
The Sunday Gleaner was unable to get comments from Time Plan one of the main recruiting agencies but the October 16 edition of the Times Education Supplement said that agency was making nine per cent of its administrative staff redundant, with tight budgeting cited as the main reason.
The tightening is believed to be associated with a number of teacher recruitment agencies reporting a downturn in the demand for teachers from the agencies.
"Many of the schools want teachers with UK experience and saying that that our qualification is not up to standard," he told the Gleaner.
The Gleaner has also learnt that other teachers who came to England without being recruited have been unable to secure jobs some for more than a year. Some of them have since enrolled in institutions of higher learning in an effort to retain a legal status in the country, while doing odd jobs such as covering for teachers who are absent from schools, known as supply teaching.
