Just over a year ago, Brian McArdle and his class were welcomed onto a postgraduate diploma course in education. Since June he has been desperately seeking a teaching job, writes LOUISE HOLDEN
IN JANUARY 2008 former minister for education and science Mary Hanafin visited Marino Institute of Education in Drumcondra, Dublin to welcome 100 men and women about to embark on a post-graduate diploma in education.
Brian McArdle, a journalism graduate, was one of them. He remembers the minister’s address on that day; an upbeat, cheerleading production that left the would-be primary teachers in no doubt about their career decisions.
Boasting of the increase in teacher-training places provided by her department, Hanafin offered a particular welcome to the extra male candidates who had been attracted onto the course as part of a national campaign to bring more men to teaching.
“The Programme for Government contains a commitment to provide 4,000 extra primary teachers between 2007 and 2012. As well as filling posts vacated by retiring teachers, these new teachers will provide for the expected increase in enrolments over the coming years,” Hanafin told McArdle and his classmates. Careers guaranteed, then.
Eighteen months later and McArdle faces a very different prospect from the one described by the minister. Since his graduation in June he has been searching for a teaching job. The following is a week in the life of a Dublin teaching graduate on the wrong side of the school gates.
BRIAN MCARDLE’S JOBSEEKER DIARY
Monday, August 31st 9amAnother week of job searching begins. This is my fourth month as a qualified teacher, but looking for work is becoming a full-time job. Spent six hours on the computer today - that's about average now. It took me three hours to track down five positions.
NoonStarted writing new CVs and cover letters for the five new posts. I try to write something new in each application. However, after 125 CVs it's hard to keep coming up with ideas.
2pmOne of the schools advertising is local so I walked down to hand it into the principal. He put it on a pile that was two- feet high. No exaggeration. I asked him were they all for the same job and he nodded. That's sobering. Not much fun for him either, I suppose.
4pmCalled it a day. No post, no replies.
Tuesday, September 1st 9amFound three positions pretty early this morning so created more new CVs. At 18 pages a piece it takes all morning to put them together. One is in Galway. That's further than I've ventured before, but Dublin and the surrounding counties are not working out.
10amPost arrives. A rejection letter! That's only the third I've received after 125 applications. It's nice to get some acknowledgement. Mind you, one of the jobs I applied for in St Olaf's in Dundrum in July got 1,200 applications (see panel right) so it's hardly surprising the principals aren't writing back.
3pmFollowed up on two subbing positions but the numbers went straight to message. I can't even get experience of teaching so I don't stand a chance against teachers who've already worked.
Wednesday, September 2nd 9amChecked my e-mails. Nothing. It's funny really, there was such an emphasis on ICT in Marino, and the importance of using technology in teaching, but this whole jobseeking process has been one ream of paper after another. Can't schools download a file, or send out an automated rejection?
NoonFound ads for a couple of part-time posts in language support and special needs. Both asked for "Fully Probated Qualified Teachers Only". That's starting to crop up more and more and without some class time I can't get around it.
3pmOut to catch the last post. It's costing me €4 per CV, all in. That's €500 so far, just sending out paper.
Thursday, September 3rd 9amThis nine to five business is becoming a habit. Got out of the office this morning, sent myself down to the shops for a 500-sheet block of paper. I reckon I've sent out 2,125 sheets of paper in this effort so far. Think of all the teachers and the bits of paper - not such a green business this. At 18 pages a CV, that school in Dundrum must have had more than 21,000 pages to read! Yikes.
NoonChatted to a friend who just got a temporary post in a local school - says she feels like she won the Lotto. To think I thought teaching would guarantee a job!
4pmAnother five CVs gone out. Spent quite a bit of time trying to make myself stand out, but with so much competition it would take a pop-up CV dipped in Chanel No 5. I wonder . . .
Friday, September 4th, 9amNo post, no mails, no ads. I look at a few general recruitment sites to see if I could get a job else- where, but the feedback hasn't been good before. When they see you've got a teaching degree, they know you're going to leave as soon as a school wants you. The postgrad is actually becoming a liability. That said, I've no regrets. I've always wanted to be a teacher and I have to keep reminding myself that this isn't personal. I'd make a great teacher. I have my journalism degree, I've taught children in Australia, I play several instruments and coach Gaelic. Plus, I'm a man - aren't the schools crying out for us?
11amGot some voluntary work coaching ball skills in Croke Park. No money but at least it will get me out of the office.
5pmToday was very unproductive. Just kept hitting the refresh button on educationposts.ie, but nothing turned up in Dublin, Meath, Louth, Kildare, Carlow, Wicklow, Offaly or Westmeath. It's days like these I get pretty downhearted. The lack of feedback is the hardest to take - an average of one reply a month! I know I have no divine right to a job. A lot of people are struggling. Just disappointed not to be in a position to use my training to help the next generation of jobseekers. Seems like an awful waste.
The X Factor: Finding the one in 1,200
Just as Ger Murphy was wrapping up the summer term at St Olaf’s primary school, Dún Laoghaire, last May, he placed an ad on a website for temporary teacher to replace a member of staff going on leave in September.
This bit of admin triggered a deluge of response andmonth of work for Principal Murphy. “I’ve had up to 300 responses to job advertisements in the past, so I expected to be busy for a few days,” said Murphy.
The postman delivered 300 applications within days of the posting, and they just kept coming. “After two weeks I had over a thousand applications,” says Murphy. “The postman couldn’t carry all the responses in his normal schedule. By the end of the process I had over 1,200 applications for one part time job. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Murphy enlisted the help of his secretary, the Board of Management and even his children in the operation, but he managed to read every application over the course of three weeks and whittle the entries down to 50. “I put an application by a man with my son’s name into the ‘maybe’ pile. That really made me think about the people behind the CVs and how hard this must be for them.”
In the end, Murphy interviewed 15 candidates over three days and he standard was challengingly high. “If I had five posts I would have hired all five interviewees on the first day. It was very tough.” Ger Murphy did invite applicants to send CVs by email - about 300 obliged but more han 900 paper applications will now have to be stored.
Murphy will keep them for a set period in case another position comes up. Then the long process of shredding will begin.
