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Don’t fall behind the times – EdTech is the way forward!

Friday, February 22, 2019

Don’t fall behind the times – EdTech is the way forward!

Uber, Just Eat, Fiverr, Deliveroo, Shpock…On-demand apps are everything nowadays. The fast-paced world we live in wants instant gratification and options that are going to take the least amount of time out of our day.

The Department for Education has released an EdTech Strategy, which they claim marks a ‘new era’ for UK schools. Within it, they discuss how they want to cut teacher workload, support professional development and improve student outcomes – all positive sounding ideas.

Love or hate it, you must admit, technology does make things super convenient.

We know technology is the future and have seen it grow within our lifetime. It continues to develop and become more apparent in our day-to-day lives. The education sector and supply recruitment are no different, so don’t get left behind – let us help you adapt!

What is educational technology?

Education technology, aka ‘EdTech’, is quite simply the use of technology within education. It’s used to enhance learning in multiple ways and make the lives of educators easier, whether that’s inside or outside the classroom.

Some programmes can be used to monitor progress and behaviour, others have academic games or learning technology and, if you’re like us, can be used for education recruitment!

What is the significance of educational technology?

Particularly in times like this where we’re experiencing a school funding crisis, the use of EdTech can be used to help cut school spending. For example, when using an app to recruit supply staff, the middle-person is removed from the equation, meaning costs are reduced.

Schools can spend thousands each month with education recruitment agencies; minimising costs in this area can free up cash for important resources such as textbooks and updating technology.

How can mobile technologies change education?

In addition to saving money, the use of technology can also save time and make life a whole lot easier. Sticking with the recruitment example (seeing as that’s what we do!), if a school sends a booking via an app like SupplyNow, it can be with a member of supply staff within seconds. Plus, rather than calling around one-by-one, the notification gets sent to all the staff who match your requirements at once.

 

With supply bookings going to so many people in a matter of minutes, your school will reduce the need to use permanent staff to cover extra lessons – let's face it, they already have their hands full!!

 

Using EdTech to connect schools with teachers and support staff

Using technology puts the power in your school’s hands. You can select pay rates, see how much is going directly to the supply teacher, teaching assistant or cover supervisor, and send alerts for bookings at any time and place directly to the Supply Hero.

Recruitment apps vs. traditional teacher recruitment agencies

Traditional Agency

SupplyNow

  1. Call the agency, try to reach your consultant, leave a message or get put on hold and transferred. Alternatively, receive a call each morning/evening asking if you want a teacher or TA for vacancies you may not even have.
  2. Wait for confirmation from the consultant that the candidate you want is still available and hasn’t been booked for another school - often by one of their colleagues (or another agency).
  3. You negotiate the charge rate with a commission-hungry consultant who’s targeted to make as high a margin as possible (usually upwards of £55 profit per day).
  4. Consultants state a total charge rate for the day, the supply candidate’s pay is hidden, their profit margin is hidden… there is little or no transparency in many cases.
  1. Share supply bookings from your mobile device with advanced notice, the week before, a day before or the morning of a booking from anywhere in the world – even on a Sunday evening!
  2. Candidates are instantly made aware of bookings via our notifications. There’s no need to sit by the phone waiting for a consultant to call you back - you will get an email with all the vetting documents once a candidate accepts the role.
  3. We give control to you, allowing you to set the pay rate for a role in your school. We have a fixed daily charge rate – you see the breakdown of the pay rate, our profit and the on costs before you broadcast the role.
  4. We offer a #FairPayNow Guarantee to our Supply Heroes and don’t squeeze their pay for our own gain - we've said no to commission! We also charge less than a traditional agency and give full transparency.

Why choose SupplyNow?

With SupplyNow, your school can save as much as 20% from its current spend - an existing school of ours saved £5,040.00 on an English teacher who covered maternity leave for 26 weeks!

We offer total transparency, so you can set your pay rate, see where your money is going and use our unique features designed to make your life easier, such as ‘Favourites’. This option allows you to send bookings to your preferred Supply Heroes first.

Our #FairPayNow Guarantee ensures supply staff are paid honestly and to scale. We believe that a Supply Hero who is shown respect with fair pay is more likely to return, bringing consistency to the school and, ultimately, better educational outcomes!

Already have a list of supply teachers or supply teaching assistants you like using? Or staff that are retiring, looking for flexible work after maternity leave or just loves your school - no problem! They can be added onto our database alongside our Supply Heroes so that your bookings go to everyone at once.

Call us on 020 3137 1246 to see how we can help to reduce your school’s supply spend. Alternatively, head to our Schools page to learn more about using our app to fulfil your day-to-day and long-term supply needs. Register now!


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SupplyNow exists to improve upon the traditional ways of finding supply work and are using technology to guarantee teachers #FairPayNow while saving schools up to 20% off their supply budget.

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