Meet the former teacher helping to bridge the recruitment gap in Sunderland's classrooms

Sunderland Echo

AK Teaching director Jonny Greener talks about the company's growth and role in recruiting new teachers and support staff for Sunderland and North East schools.

Transcript

00:00 Ok then Jonny, I want to start by asking for an overview of your care teaching, just how

00:04 many people you've got working for you, the number of schools involved?

00:07 Yeah, so we've grown quite a lot in recent years. We've got a team of around 30 staff

00:12 now working for ourselves. We've got around 250 schools, give or take, across the region

00:18 that we are currently working with and I think we've got upwards of 500 staff out, give or

00:23 take, at the moment across the region.

00:25 And what's the company's main role in terms of filling the void in the teacher recruitment

00:28 market at the moment?

00:30 It's a challenging market out there at the moment. The volume of qualified staff seems

00:35 to be, probably from the time I've spent in the sector, at probably an all-time low. So

00:39 we are a massive advocate and we work with some local companies, some local training

00:44 providers such as Cullinale Education, to try and upskill and support our staff into

00:49 the sector. We're also trying to look at other avenues, so those who came from backgrounds

00:56 of transferable skills such as support workers, ex-forcers, ex-police, sports coaches. There's

01:02 a lot of really highly skilled people out there who might want to look at that transition

01:07 into the education sector.

01:08 I mean, so obviously there are gaps in the teaching market at the moment and obviously

01:13 one of your roles is supply. Is it also trying to get people permanent positions as well?

01:17 100%. I think, again, over the last couple of years in particular, the number of staff

01:22 who start on a temporary basis or a supply basis, who then go permanent in that school

01:27 that they've been working in, is bigger than ever. I don't have the statistics at hand

01:31 but it is something that we are a massive advocate for. I'm an educated person foremost,

01:36 I was a teacher before coming into this industry, so for me I love to see, particularly a passion

01:42 of mine, is getting ECTs into their schools, that they really kind of feel valued and find

01:47 the right role for them.

01:48 Obviously the company has grown, you're now in City Hall here in the city centre. What

01:53 do you think is the main secret behind the company's success?

01:56 I think first and foremost we're just normal people and we're massively focused on our

02:03 core values which is trust and having that quality and that voice. We're driven and we

02:10 want to continue to grow but we don't want to lose who we are and the relationships that

02:15 we have with the schools, that's first and foremost what we're built on. We're a company

02:20 that prides ourselves on our partnerships and the relationships that we have, the sponsorship

02:25 of Sunderland FC and a lot of other local companies, local charities that we do support.

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