IF I SEND MY CV TO THE TEACHER NETWORK, WILL THEY HELP ME FIND A JOB AS A TEACHER?
The Teacher Network works for schools. Schools are our clients, and they pay us to find them staff as per the specifications they have given us. We find staff by connecting with teachers in our database and/or by advertising the vacancies that our clients have asked us to help them fill.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO USE THE TEACHER NETWORK?
If the school chooses to employ a teacher who we have introduced to the school, the school pays us a fee of 8% of the teacher’s annual cost to company. (If it is an admin or management post, it is more expensive). The candidate (ie the teacher) does not pay us anything. If the school offers our candidate a position, but the candidate doesn’t accept the position, the school doesn’t pay anything.
CAN THE TEACHER NETWORK TELL ME HOW MUCH I SHOULD BE PAYING MY TEACHERS?
No.
CAN THE TEACHER NETWORK TELL ME HOW MUCH MY SCHOOL SHOULD BE PAYING ME?
No.
I AM BATTLING TO FIND A TEACHING POST. WHY? THERE IS MEANT TO BE A SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS!
Read the CV MAGIC page on our website, make changes to your CV as per our recommendations, and you may find that your luck changes. Sometimes it is best to totally re-write your CV, from scratch, using a different format to the one you used. (Again, we recommend that you read the CV MAGIC page.) In addition, it is possible that your covering email is not appropriate in some way (for example, there may be spelling and/or grammatical errors, or the tone may be inappropriate). See below.
DOES THE TEACHER NETWORK HELP ORGANISE WORK PERMITS?
No. s mentioned above, we help schools find staff as per the schools’ specifications. An inherent requirement of all of our vacancies is that the candidate (ie the teacher) should be legally entitled to be employed in South Africa.
DOES THE TEACHER NETWORK HELP ORGANISE SACE REGISTRATION?
No. As mentioned above, we help schools find staff as per the schools’ specifications. An inherent requirement of all of our vacancies is that the candidate (ie the teacher) should be registered with SACE (or at the very least have submitted their application for registration).
WHY SHOULD WE USE THE TEACHER NETWORK TO FIND STAFF FOR OUR SCHOOL?
Please refer to a page on this website called “Why use a recruitment consultant – and why use The Teacher Network”.
IF I SEND MY CV TO THE TEACHER NETWORK, AM I AUTOMATICALLY PUT INTO THE TEACHER NETWORK’S DATABASE?
No. We accept a relatively small percentage of the CVs that are submitted to us. Your CV needs to meet the following requirements.
tertiary education in a subject taught in our client schools
a recognised professional teaching qualification
SACE registration
familiarity with the South African education system
written English skills appropriate for a teacher (essentially with no spelling, grammatical or punctuation errors)
a well-constructed, well-presented CV (in Word) with no factual or other errors, sent from your own email address. You could visit the CV MAGIC page on this website to make sure that you’ve included everything we feel is important. CVs should be no longer than four pages, and no additional documents should be attached
the ability to use e-mail, the internet and Word
legal entitlement to work in South Africa.
the ability to communicate clearly and professionally in both oral and written English
the ability to comprehend spoken English at first language level
contactable referees
In addition, your covering email needs to be acceptable in terms of both content and expression.
Please note: the fact that The Teacher Network hasn’t accepted your CV doesn’t mean that other organisations and/or schools also won’t. You may be exactly what another agency or school is looking for.
HOW LONG SHOULD MY CV BE?
Ideally it should be three or four pages long. Please see the CV MAGIC page on this website where we discuss this more fully. If your CV is very much longer than this, it will not be accepted.
DO I NEED TO WRITE A COVERING EMAIL?
Yes.
WHAT FORMAT SHOULD I USE FOR THE CV?
Word.
SHOULD I ATTACH PROOF OF MY QUALIFICATIONS AND COURSES ATTENDED?
No. We will ask for them when we need them. All of the important information should be in your CV. See the CV MAGIC page for more information.
DOES THE TEACHER NETWORK ONLY WORK FOR ‘PRIVATE’ SCHOOLS?
No. Most of our clients are independent/private schools, but we also work for some good state schools.
DOES THE TEACHER NETWORK HELP PEOPLE FIND TEACHERS FOR HOME SCHOOLS?
No. We only work for institutions.
WHERE IS THE TEACHER NETWORK PHYSICALLY LOCATED AND CAN I BRING YOU MY CV?
We are in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg. We only accept emailed CVs.
MY FRIEND/RELATIVE IS UNHAPPY IN HER JOB. CAN I SEND YOU HER CV?
No. She should send it herself, from her own email address. See the CV MAGIC page for more on this.
DOES THE TEACHER NETWORK OFFER A FREE GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING SERVICE?
No. The Teacher Network is not that type of organisation. It is a business, a recruitment agency, and our time is fully occupied with trying to help our clients (schools) find staff as per their specifications.
I HAVE SENT YOU AN SMS TELLING YOU THAT I WANT A TEACHING POST AND TELLING YOU TO PHONE ME, BUT YOU HAVE NOT REPLIED
If you are looking for a position as a teacher, and would like to be considered for inclusion in our database, you should email us your CV (in Word) with an appropriate covering email.
DOES THE TEACHER NETWORK ONLY OPERATE IN GAUTENG?
No. Most of our clients are in Gauteng, but we also have clients in KZN and other parts of the country. Our database has candidates (teachers) living all over South Africa.
I HAVE SENT MY CV TO HUNDREDS OF SCHOOLS! WHY CAN’T I FIND A POSITION?
There is a good chance that your covering email doesn’t give a good impression, and that recipients are not even opening your CV. There should be no errors in the subject line of your email, and the covering email should also have not one single error. Remember that when you email your CV to a school or a recruitment agent, you are competing against other candidates who have emailed their CVs to that address. You will be judged by the quality of your application. If you write “i” with a small letter, for example, the reader will quite possibly assume that this shows that you don’t know better, or that you don’t care about the correct form (“I”), or that you lack professionalism. Similarly, if you send a nonsensical covering email (e.g. “I would like to place my CV and my qualifications”) the reader will form an opinion about you that will not be in your favour.
I AM CURRENTLY STUDYING TOWARDS BECOMING A TEACHER. CAN THE TEACHER NETWORK FIND ME A JOB AT A SCHOOL?
Unfortunately not. Schools never ask us to find them unqualified staff, so we only keep the CVs of qualified teachers in our database. There is a section on our CV MAGIC page – “For newly qualified teachers” – that you may find helpful. It gives suggestions as to what information you should start collecting, and add to your CV, to give you an advantage when you do qualify. Once you are close to completing your qualification, we’d love you to send us your CV.
IS THE TEACHER NETWORK ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER?
Indeed we are! We hope you’ll “like” our Facebook page – it’s a mixture of funny and serious. See you there?