The International Schools Review Forum

"On Search, I have been told that I am assigned to an associate within the UK office, and so don't have to pay the fee each time. Does anyone know what this is about?"

It's the law. In the UK, employment agencies are not allowed to charge job-seekers. In situations like this, SEARCH bills the schools a higher fee to compensate the SEARCH Associate.

Walter wrote:
> It's the law. In the UK, employment agencies are not allowed to charge
> job-seekers. In situations like this, SEARCH bills the schools a higher fee
> to compensate the SEARCH Associate.

Do you know if that would influence a school's decision to hire someone?
When it's between two equally impressive candidates, one of which is registered with a UK associate.

Illiane_Blues wrote:
> Walter wrote:
> > It's the law. In the UK, employment agencies are not allowed to charge
> > job-seekers. In situations like this, SEARCH bills the schools a higher fee
> > to compensate the SEARCH Associate.
>
> Do you know if that would influence a school's decision to hire someone?
> When it's between two equally impressive candidates, one of which is registered with
> a UK associate.

To me, the $225 registration fee would be a trivial additional cost on a 2+ year hire compared to the expense of the overall compensation package of a teacher. Any school that pinches pennies so hard that this would be a deciding factor would be one to avoid anyway in my opinion.

chiliverde wrote:
> On Search, I have been told that I am assigned to an associate within the
> UK office, and so don't have to pay the fee each time. Does anyone know
> what this is about?

In the UK there is a law the you can't charge someone for the potential of them getting a job from you. So, there can be no fee. I wish it was the same for USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, essentially the world over.
So, lucky you chiliverde and if you know people who plan on signing up with Search Associates tell them to do it through the UK or use a UK address if they can. :)

Illiane_Blues wrote:
> Walter wrote:
> > It's the law. In the UK, employment agencies are not allowed to charge
> > job-seekers. In situations like this, SEARCH bills the schools a higher fee
> > to compensate the SEARCH Associate.
>
> Do you know if that would influence a school's decision to hire someone?
> When it's between two equally impressive candidates, one of which is registered with
> a UK associate.

That's a very good question. I would be concerned about this. Because I bet the fee difference for the school is big and so a factor especially for small schools with a lean budget.

It looks like ISS also has a teacher recruiting website separate from ISS-Schrole. I wonder why and what the difference is.

Thanks. I am not from the UK myself (from the U.S.), nor have I ever lived there, so not sure how this happened.

1. The SEARCH Associate in question seems to do pretty well in placing those teachers in his portfolio, so the additional fee can't be much of a disincentive;
2) The school that would use the few hundred dollars extra as the compelling criterion in selection is probably not the school you would want to work at in the first place.

I’ve had good luck with Search. I do agree that the fee is expensive though. The database is extensive. I found that many “Tier 1” schools contacted me by browsing the database. I’m not a hard to fill position either. You would be surprised at the number of quality schools that reach out to candidates by using the database.

chiliverde wrote:
> On Search, I have been told that I am assigned to an associate within the
> UK office, and so don't have to pay the fee each time. Does anyone know
> what this is about?

Chiliverde - UK law prohibits charging a fee. They make their $$ from you being recruited. Nice perk for you! Personally, given how much my time is worth (at least to me!) vs doing all the leg work myself, Search is an invaluable resource to aggregate information and postings. I don't begrudge them a penny.

When applying to Search vacancies received in automatic email updates is it best to click the 'Apli to this vacancy' embedded link or to contact them through the email address provided in the school's profile....or both?

Email address

sid wrote:
> Email address

Can you tell us why?

Joining ISS-Schrole I believe is $75. Not too much but trying to keep expenses down. I really wonder if I should bother as I have a Search Associates membership and I'm directly contacting schools I'm interested in that are not with Search. Could it really be worth the $75? I know I may have come across a couple of big schools where people love to work and which no longer use Search.

DomeVet - you will have to get all your references redone again, upload all your documentation again, etc for Schrole/ISS.