Jobs advertising - should they stop ‘internal only’ ads?

amysdad: So we’ve had another report about the problems NQTs have in getting a full-time job. The current practice of advertising any teaching jobs as “internal only” would seem to be exacerbating this. That means that, once you have finished probation and are not employed, it becomes more difficult to find a post if you can’t apply for them. Equally, if you are a teacher living in, say, Glasgow and teaching in Renfrewshire, you couldn’t apply for a job in Glasgow itself. Why is this being preserved? Who gets the benefit from this?

kibosh: The SMT reading the applications and having to make short-leet decisions surely benefit from a smaller amount of applicants. Is it simply a time-saving (school staff) and cost-cutting (less processing work to do in HRrecruitment) exercise?

amysdad: Yes, but wouldn’t you want to have more applications initially in order to make sure you have got the best? What is the point in going back to the same pool of applicants a second time, when you could just go to a larger one first?

gnulinux: There is no such thing as a “best” applicant anyway. No one really knows that any appointee is going to be any good until they are actually doing the job.

kibosh: What about the Equal Opportunies forms? HT reports? etc etc.

www.tes.co.ukscotland.