Recapping AdvancED: 5 key concerns for Latin American schools this year
AdvanceED Latin American Conference is one of my favourite events on the global education calendar. This year didn’t disappoint. As with any meeting of the minds, there were plenty of discussions about the issues of the day, particularly those challenges Latin America are facing as they try to scale for the future. The energy was contagious as educators hopped from one strand session to another.
Over the three days, I facilitated two sessions on behalf of Teach Away, focusing primarily on the challenges Latin American schools face when it comes to recruitment. At first, the audience (made up of Heads Of School) were a little reluctant to engage because as one fine gentleman pointed out “we’re each other’s competitors, Alex.”
The mood soon changed when we started to dig into some of the research — and it became an animated discussion about their pain points when it comes to attracting and retaining teaching talent.
I wanted to quickly jot down some of the ideas that came up during those strand sessions so that attendees can recap, and anyone who wasn’t there can benefit from the insights educators shared.
1. Do we really need to recruit year round?
Some of the school heads were visibly frustrated by this topic and there was a big discussion around how teachers are looking further and further in advance for their roles. So much so, that some heads feel as if they need to start asking teachers if they will renew as they’re signing their initial contract.
With 39% of those wishing to teach abroad in Latin America researching jobs up to nine months in advance, it comes as no surprise to me that schools are feeling frustrated.
Everyone I spoke to seemed to reach the consensus that to be able to compete, schools need to consider recruitment a year-round challenge, continually looking to attract new teaching talent and build talent pipelines for the future.
This topic very naturally bled into the second big concern of the day, which was….
2. How can we incentivize teachers to stick around?
Perhaps the most polarizing topic of the sessions..
Everyone I spoke to seemed to have teacher retention on their minds. Except I’m not sure anyone was asking the right question, the focus seemed to revolve around paying out bonuses and the salaries schools could offer. Not everyone was in agreement — but the word on the tip of everyone’s tongue was “money”!
But if you look at the slide above — it’s easy to see that financial benefits are not one of the main drivers for those hoping to teach in Latin America. It seems a logical leap then that money only is part of the retention puzzle. Teachers attracted to this region are after something different, and schools can tap into more creative ways of keeping them around.
School heads debated whether or not they should aggressively incentivize teachers. Suggestions included cold hard cash for referrals, as well as leveraging connections in other schools when teachers don’t have room to grow in a particular school. The idea was to carve a future for teachers in Latin America, where future growth and professional development paths are clear.
My two cents on the matter is this — retention begins on day one. Schools need to do everything they can to ensure the individual feels part of the community, connecting them with like-minded teachers, and integrating them into local events and clubs (whether that’s finding sports clubs for schools or making sure they know about a local book club!)
If teachers connect to the place and community, they will be much less likely to leave. Cash is not the only way. And if you feel it’s your only rationing device, then you probably don’t have a real understanding of what unique values your school has to offer.
3. Is it really time to dump our old-school hiring ways (think: in-person fairs)?
What was interesting about this discussion was the discrepancy between what schools are doing (i.e. attending in-person job fairs) and what they know (i.e. teachers just don’t go to job fairs anymore).
The numbers say it all: 44% of schools rely on job fairs, while only 12% of candidates rely on them. Given the mood in the room on this, I think it’s fair to say the traditional job fair is on its last legs.
4. Could an employee referral program be our secret recruiting weapon?
So all schools were clear on one thing — recruitment is moving online. With 92% of teachers searching on the old interwebs, this was not surprising to anyone.
But what added an extra layer of intrigue to the conversation was the idea of moving referrals (which work really well for schools) into the online space. Job posts are being thrown up online, but nobody seemed to be measuring much.
My thought is this: arm your teachers with social content that contains trackable links — so you know whose audience the referral eventually comes from. Creating a UTM parameter (aka the trackable link) isn’t hard and can easily be done in Google Analytics or other social tools you might be already using.
Another thing that seemed to keep coming up in the referral conversation was bonuses. But again, I feel this is a mistake. Ask your teachers what they want and get creative with offering other referral benefits. PD, health and wellness, days off are just some of the ideas that might work.
5. Sometimes it just feels like teachers don’t want to relocate to Latin America?!
Once again proving that high salaries aren’t everything…this slide is one of my favourites. As someone who works closely with Central and South American schools it’s encouraging to see that this region saw the most growth in desirability year over year. If you take a closer look at the graph, you can see that both Asia, Africa and the Middle East have all seen a drop in desirability from candidates.
School heads need to tap into what makes life in their region unique. From my own travels, the one thing that always strikes me about Latin America is just how friendly the people are. Worry less about salary and speak to your strengths: the sense of community, the culture and the next-level cuisine.
We need to work collaboratively as a region to promote our unique opportunities. Let’s show teachers all we have to offer from quality of life to a low cost of living, a temperate climate and much more besides.
And that about sums it up….
As you can see, there’s a lot of food for thought. I’m still reflecting on a lot of my own takeaways but it’s definitely an exciting time to be working in international education. If you’re curious about some of these findings, then feel free to sign up for an advance copy of Teach Away’s second annual International Education Report.
If you’d like a full copy of my presentation, drop me a line at alex.hill@teachaway.com or if you simply want to have a chat, feel free to book some time in my Calendly.
And seeing as marketing your school to today’s teachers is partially about branding…check out my Teach Away conference socks!
