Identify and support your target audience

Consider the different needs of your target audience when planning your marketing.

You can help attract high quality candidates by describing in your marketing and communications how you can support them. This includes before and after they apply.

Know your target audience

For your marketing to be successful, you need to have a good understanding of your audience. Knowing your audience gives you important insights on:

  • which marketing channels and tactics will reach them
  • what kind of marketing content will engage, interest and motivate them

There are lots of ways to gain a better understanding of your audience.

You might consider:

  • running a simple survey or focus group
  • engaging with your social media followers
  • asking current trainees and teachers for insight
  • profiling your area, taking into account its demographics and values

Broadly speaking, potential teacher trainees can be divided into 3 segments:

  • students and graduates – includes current undergraduates and postgraduates, and those who have recently finished their degrees
  • career finders – those in their mid to late 20s who are open to establishing a new career or are looking for work
  • career changers – aged 30+ and interested in switching to a new career

Attracting career changers

Career changers may be:

  • looking for a greater sense of fulfilment from a new career
  • worrying about the financial cost of training and facing a decreased income during their early years of teaching
  • juggling other commitments, such as parenting or caring responsibilities
  • less likely to have a peer group considering a similar step
  • more in need of subject knowledge enhancement (SKE)

Your campaign should:

  • use messages that emphasise the more altruistic rewards of being a teacher
  • use messages that emphasise the experience teachers can bring to the classroom
  • use messages such as “1 in 3 of our trainee teachers is a career changer like you”, and case studies
  • focus on career and salary progression rather than starting salaries
  • set out the relative merits of available financial support
  • compare bursaries and scholarships to a post-tax income
  • highlight the support you can give them to help make the move into teaching, such as SKE courses

How candidates may feel

Whilst there are differences between the types of audience, there are some common themes in how teacher training candidates might feel. There are steps you can take to help reassure, encourage and support them.

Uncertain

Some candidates may be:

  • scared of the unknown
  • worried they wouldn’t be a good teacher
  • unsure about how to manage pupil behaviour, workload and staying on top of trends, amongst other things
  • undecided about teaching as a career compared to other careers

Your campaign should:

  • direct candidates to helpful information on your website about your training programme and any trainee case studies
  • advertise any events or open days you are hosting, highlighting opportunities for candidates to meet teachers and current trainees
  • emphasise the rare opportunities a career in teaching offers, for example the ability to share a passion for a particular subject or the ability to shape a student’s life
  • link to the priorities set out in the DfE’s recruitment and retention strategy and how this might appeal to candidates; particularly the Early Career Framework which underpins an entitlement to a fully-funded, 2-year package of structured training and support for early career teachers (rolled out nationally from September 2021)

Daunted by the application process

You can help candidates through the application process by:

  • signposting to our Get into Teaching online resources
  • encouraging them to register with Get Into Teaching to receive information and one-to-one support from an experienced teacher - registration is free with no commitment
  • producing clear steps to making a successful application
  • co-hosting application workshops with your partners or direct candidates to Get Into Teaching application workshops in your area
  • regularly keeping in touch with your interested candidates to uncover concerns and information needed to complete their application and start their training
  • signposting to UCAS guidance and support

Subject knowledge enhancement (SKE)

An SKE course can bring a potential candidate’s subject knowledge up to the level needed to train to teach in a shortage subject. You can claim SKE funding to support your recruitment.

Many applicants to initial teaching training (ITT) courses in shortage subjects need to do some form of SKE before starting their course. Offering this can play an important role in supporting your recruitment to these subjects.

If you are already delivering SKE you should:

  • make it clear that you offer SKE on your website, linking to your teacher training pages
  • promote your SKE course(s) on the SKE directory
  • ensure your course details are accurate and you explain your programme in detail
  • include quotes and success stories from previous SKE trainees when advertising

Find out how you can benefit from SKE.

If you do not currently offer SKE courses, your trainees can undertake their SKE course with another provider. A list of courses can be found on the SKE directory.

School experience programme

The school experience programme provides classroom experience to candidates interested in teaching. It gives you the opportunity to:

  • meet potential applicants
  • see if they’re a good fit for your programme

It provides an excellent opportunity to help applicants with limited school experience decide whether teaching is right for them.

Promote school experience opportunities in your marketing materials.

Find out more about the school experience programme.

Bursaries and scholarships

Bursaries and scholarships incentivise high-quality candidates to apply for teacher training. Some good candidates cannot afford to do teacher training without this financial support.

Make sure your website and communications clearly show the financial support available. Check that your staff understand the different bursaries and scholarships on offer and can help answer any queries.

Find out more about the bursaries and funding available.

Prepare them for school life

After offering a candidate a place, you should begin to prepare them for school life. This is important if they:

  • have received offers from elsewhere
  • are considering another career path

Let candidates know what to expect, not only from their training but from a life of teaching. Teaching is one of the most fulfilling and rewarding professions a person can choose.

Candidates may have some school experience, but it may not have been within your school. Take time to introduce them to your school and their course. You could:

  • link them to a host school as soon as possible so they can identify with a particular school
  • invite them to spend time in their future subject departments, getting to know colleagues, students and the curriculum
  • set them a series of preparation tasks each month which are linked to the school and their subject area (these can be monitored and used to develop an individual learning plan and gives candidates the feeling that they’re already progressing)
  • use vacant teaching assistant positions to employ candidates as a paid incentive to become involved in the school prior to training
  • send reading lists and subject specialist information to candidates for them to look at before starting
  • ask them to come into school and help with preparing events