New teachers campaign 2023: helping trainee teachers find their first job

Introduction

This case study presents a summary of the Teaching Vacancies (TV) new teachers' campaign, which aimed to support trainee teachers in finding their first teaching job through TV.

The campaign ran from February to April 2023, sending emails to trainee teachers in Initial Teacher Training (ITT), who would qualify as Early Career Teachers (ECTs) from September 2023.

I recorded a video presentation of this work for GOV.UK services week 2023, I am happy to share the link for this if anyone is interested!

Key highlights

• The campaign generated over 12,000 unique visits to the TV service from the first email to the last.
• Users who visited the TV service via campaign emails or the campaign website conducted over 25,000 site searches.
• On average, a third of users across the campaign looked at a vacancy on the TV service.
• over half of users who clicked on the job alert email created a job alert on the Teaching Vacancies service.

The task

We wanted to design an email campaign that provided practical guidance and information on how trainee teachers could secure their first job, with clear calls-to-action to using the TV service. The campaign's success was to be measured based on various performance metrics, such as visits to the TV service, accounts created, job alerts set up, and user engagement with the service.

I was responsible for leading on the design, build and launch of the campaign.

Research with Early Career Teachers

Research conducted with early career teachers and trainee teachers revealed four key insights:

1. The job application process was confusing and challenging for many trainees.
2. Employability support and information received by trainees were inconsistent.
3. Early career teachers found it difficult navigating the education employment market.

Planning and Designing the Campaign

The campaign launched February 2023. The initial plan included eight emails focusing on specific pain points teachers had when getting a job and service features. This ranged from advice on personal statements to setting up job alerts on the Teaching Vacancies service.

Monitoring Performance

If users accepted cookies when visiting the Teaching Vacancies website we could review, understand and improve interactions across the service. Key metrics measured included visits to the TV service, accounts created, job alerts set up, user engagement with jobs, open rates, and click-through rates.

User Research on Concepts, Improvements, and Strategy Changes

User research conducted in January 2023 provided valuable insights. Positive feedback on brand imagery and confusion over who the email was from led to improvements. Users' preference for job searches over guidance articles informed changes to email content.

Launching the Campaign & Email Performance

Additional emails were sent, reminding users of the new candidate profiles feature on Teaching Vacancies, promoting a webinar, and requesting feedback through a survey.

The campaign site is constantly evolving over at: teaching-vacancies.campaign.gov.uk (link opens in a new tab).

Ending the Campaign

A series of emails were sent to trainee teachers, providing guidance and information on the TV service. Results showed an impressive open rate of around 70% for the first email, and user engagement remained strong throughout the campaign.

Next Steps

Future plans include exploring ongoing traffic management for the campaign site, and cross-referencing TV's audience with the Early Career Framework to assess the campaign's impact.