Despite being just two years old, educational support staff recruitment specialist ESP has already beaten expectations to becoming a leading supplier to one third of the companies approved under the government’s ICT procurement frameworks. This means that ESP has already established itself as a leading provider of recruitment and consultancy services to some of the largest companies in the UK.
William Townsend, Managing Director of ESP said, “Cornering 33% of the recruitment market for the government’s approved ICT procurement framework providers is impressive in itself. The fact that ESP have achieved this level of trust and market penetration underlines our expertise in recruiting support staff for education service and resource providers.”
Both ICT Services and MIS frameworks are revised and have only come into being as of the beginning of April. They have been created by the government to address perceived imbalances in previous agreements that seemed to favour large providers. The new frameworks feature a number of smaller businesses who have been selected to work with schools and LEAs, providing IT-related goods and services.
ESP’s experience and expertise in recruiting education support staff has immediately brought them to the attention of many of the larger companies, and they have successfully placed many candidates in some of the most senior roles. “Although many people think of ESP as being a recruiter for staff for schools, we offer so much more,” said Townsend, “we source candidates from an education background but who are also suitable for positions within the para-school market. We have a dedicated team who handle sales and marketing roles up to senior-level business development appointments.”
“We have even placed several candidates in board-level positions at some of the largest businesses in the country,” continues Townsend, “our candidates have gone on to oversee multi-million pound budgets and continue to drive forward some of the biggest educational IT providers in the UK.”
So far 2012 has been a year of milestones for ESP: a second birthday, a major office move to Woodford Green and securing the services of their first apprentices to complement their existing workforce. However the incredible growth of his fledgling business and impressive results are what really excite him.
“From our humble beginnings, ESP are now dealing with the very largest ICT providers in the UK, companies with multi-million pound turnovers,” enthuses Townsend, “we deal with these businesses regularly, as well as a large number of smaller ICT services companies –how many other agencies can honestly claim similar levels of success within such a short period of trading despite the negative financial predictions within the public sector?”
Despite holding close ties with a significant proportion of the approved framework providers, ESP also offers recruitment and consultancy services directly to educational establishments. “We maintain very close ties with the schools and academies we serve,” said Townsend, “many of them come back time and again because of the exceptional level of experience they receive from ESP.” “We already have a well-established history in education IT but our education finance team is where we see our biggest opportunity this year”
ESP’s core strengths rely in their familiarity with the education sector and the major players in the services market. As a result they are able to source candidates who are looking to transition between public and private sectors and who have the requisite knowledge of school operations to provide a major benefit to a new employer.
Based on the success of the past two years, ESP appears to have a bright future ahead. An increasing share of the government’s approved framework providers coupled with end-user connections and a clear vision for the road ahead would suggest that ESP will only continue to grow in stature.
Educational Support Staff and the 6 Week Holiday Debate
Posted on April 12, 2012 by William
The National Union of Teachers (NUT) has gone on record this week to explain the essential nature of a six week summer holiday for their members. During their recent annual conference, teachers passed a motion stating that the six week break was necessary “to allow teachers and pupils to gain proper rest and recuperation”.
Many support staff working in schools and colleges however are not entitled to the full six weeks holiday, receiving instead a typical allowance of between 21 and 28 days leave a year. But the long Summer break remains important.
Why so? Many of the maintenance and
development tasks surrounding a school’s internal structures can only be completed during periods of downtime. Clearly outages during the school day are unacceptable so the work must be scheduled for out-of-hours; the school calendar provides perfect opportunities for blackouts without impacting the most important factor of all – the ability for pupils to learn.
Is a six week summer holiday essential? Plans afoot in Nottinghamshire see the county council trying to change the current schools calendar to a five term alternative, shortening the summer break to four weeks in the process. Clearly this is still plenty of time to complete even major projects (barring construction of building perhaps) but there remains a secondary problem in the form of increased costs. Sourcing supplies and expertise for the scheduled six week break is already difficult and costly – businesses dealing with educational establishments know that they will be in greater demand during July and August than the rest of the year, creating upwards pressure on prices. The more in-demand a service becomes, the higher the cost associated. Should the Summer window be shortened by two weeks, projects will naturally increase in price as a result.
ESP has experience supplying technical staff to schools and colleges for many years giving them a good insight into the importance of the extended summer break for ensuring positive outcomes for projects designed to improve the learning experience of students. Be it through major computer network implementations, classroom refurbishments or management information system upgrades, six weeks of summer provides not only the time required to complete such projects, but a contingency in case problems are encountered.
The NUT may not be winning any friends through its choice of words regarding the issue, but the six weeks summer break is essential for more reasons than recovery from work-related stress.