Education and healthcare aren’t just sectors or industries – they’re the foundations of our society, and the building blocks of our collective future. By recruiting exclusively within these two areas, we’re distinctly aware of just how much what we do matters. It is of paramount importance for us to understand exactly who our education candidates are; your desires, dreams, likes and challenges as the work that you carry out impacts the future generations.

Every day, every Athona candidate affects futures and we don’t take our responsibility in your career journey lightly.

The results from our recent education survey have given us a greater insight into the habits of you; our education candidates, so we can understand more about how you search for your next job role, your training needs, motivation for working with us as an agency and how else we can better support you; both professionally and personally.

You spoke, we listened; below are five key points we are working on from the results:

1. ‘Relationship with Recruitment Consultant’ was voted as the number 1 motivating factor for working with an agency

‘Relationship with Recruitment Consultant’ was voted the number one motivating factor for working with an agency. We don’t take this responsibility lightly and continually hire the best, and invest in training for our consultants to make sure they can always offer you the best possible service. We’re extremely proud of the fact that our Operations Director and Business Manager have been with us since the beginning of Athona Education in 2007, and have built strong relationships with candidates and clients alike over the last 14 years. When the pandemic hit at the start of 2020, the way our education team worked had to change, with Rachel Smoothy, Associate Director saying ‘The pandemic hasn’t stopped our communication with candidates. Although we haven’t been able to meet face to face, we’ve registered people online using Zoom. We’ve been able to complete registrations the same day that we have been contacted, really speeding up the process!’

2. Our candidates tend to be health-conscious but time-poor

We found that you like to eat healthily, but often lack the time needed to shop for and prepare nutritious meals. We wanted to do something about this to help make your lives easier. So we’re excited to announce we have partnered with the wonderful Mindful Chef to exclusively offer you 25% off your first 2 boxes with the code ATHONA25. Mindful Chef offer fresh, nutritious recipes with all the ingredients delivered directly to your door. With gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan options all available, there’s something for everyone.

3. Our candidates rely on both job boards and recruitment consultants when searching for a job 

We found that you rely on job boards and recruitment consultant’s equally when looking for a job. We love being so highly regarded in your job search, and because of this we continually work hard to secure the best placements for you and work hard to build meaningful relationships so we can place you in the best possible roles. We’re also working hard to improve our jobs board, and are continually making tweaks to make it easier for you to use.

4. 64% of our candidates said they would be interested if we offered training to earn CPD points

We asked if it would be of interest to you if we offered training where CPD points were available, and the results were very positive. We’re working hard to start to bring CPD accredited webinars to life, as well as being in the process of becoming CPD accredited ourselves with CPD UK, so we can further grow our training offering overtime. Watch this space!

5. Our candidates have a diverse music taste!

We asked you what your favourite song and genre of music were. This was so we could give back something a little different, and from the results of this we’ve put together a Spotify playlist. On the drive to school? Planning for lessons? Marking stacks of homework? This unique playlist compiled by like-minded professionals is perfect, there really is something for everyone! You can listen and follow the education playlist here.

 

Lastly, we loved hearing some of the positive things that make you enjoy working in the education industry, and wanted to share some of them here too:

“The children you teach”

“Every day is different”

“Working with and inspiring children”

“Seeing the positive difference you make to the lives of children”