Recruiting via Schools, Colleges & Universities

Recruitment of coaches is an activity that continues all year round.  We are always looking for the brightest, most conscientious and talented individuals to join the S4K brand.  Schools, colleges and universities represent a low cost method of accessing the best prospects and will allow us to put our business front and centre to attract the best candidates.

Where do I start?

The first thing to do is build a directory of contacts in your workbook for the local secondary schools, colleges / sixth forms and universities in the area. You can check the institutions websites to find out what courses the

y offer and then focus your attention on contacting the following individuals:

• Head of Careers:  This is a good place to start. These individuals also tend to wear multiple hats within the school, so are not working on careers fulltime.  This means that if we do not hear back from email / phone calls, we should not assume they are not interested, but instead continue to contact others within the school.
• Head of Sport / PE:  This is a great idea, particularly in colleges as these contacts tend to have Work Experience (WEX) and careers as a top agenda point and key result area.  A quick note on work experience for colleges and universities: The courses that students take require them to carry out a minimum number of hours of work experience.  This can be carried out in any of our services and is particularly useful in Skills Classes, Academies and Holiday Camps (particularly if individuals do not drive so are not able to go to different schools and nurseries).
• Head of Drama / Performance:  Not all S4K coaches come from a sport background.  We need entertainers to join us too and the students from these departments like to get involved with S4K for our story telling and analogous learning style.
• Head of Psychology:  People who take psychology tend to be interested in human development and as such like working with people and children.  Again, another good avenue for recruiting part-timers and casual staff as well as careerists.

Contact the above individuals by phone and email and be prepared to have to try and make contact multiple times (log this in your workbook). Always try to secure a face to face meeting.

What do I share with them at the meeting?

Generally speaking, S4K will be viewed as “just another sports coaching business” that are looking for “free work experience” candidates.  So we need to wow them from the beginning with the sophistication of our careers proposition and training journey.  When meeting with contacts, it is best to share:

• S4K Coaching Badges & Pathway:  Take your laptop and open the S4K University, showing them a Training Pathway for one of the coaching badges. Explain the cumulative developments of skills across the number of sessions and how every individual is placed on these pathways to develop their skills and capabilities.
• S4K Career & Job Opportunities:  Speak about Work Experience (remember you can also mentions WEX for business, admin, marketing as well as coaching if you need some support), apprenticeship roles, part time and casual roles and full time coaching positions.  Make notes of any key dates of events or Work Experience requirements.
• S4K Digital Suite:  Take time to demonstrate the digital delivery that sets us apart from our competition with the S4K App, PESS, Camp MS and EYMS.

What is the key call to action?

It is worth remembering that – like us – teachers have a lot of different roles and responsibilities within their institution.  They can be extremely excited about working with you but then forget you exist once you leave the room.  So the best thing to do is to agree some very specific small actions that kick start the relationship.

• Connect to Talent:  Ask the contact if they can identify 5-6 students who they believe would be suitable for the roles that you have spoken about.  Send them email content to forward over to these students (template available on Dropbox) and ask them to forward to the students and copy you in so that you can help to reduce the admin stress on them.  Reference that this is the best way that we have achieved success and penetration in other schools.
• Job Advertisements:  If you are currently recruiting (e.g. for Casual Holiday Camp Team Members), tell the contact that you will send over the job adverts after the meeting.
• Posters:  Leave some posters to display in communal areas that are offering jobs and roles at S4K.
• Case Studies:  If you have a team member who went to the institution, produce a case study and send to the contact.  This is really good for emotional buy in (see Dropbox for template).
• Careers Talk:  Agree times of year where you can pop in and speak with the students.  It takes 2-3 occasions to get cut through.

Make notes from the meeting and then execute the actions, sending a follow up email to your new contact to keep them enthused and engaged in the process.  Also arrange a follow up meeting date for the following term to come and see them.

What works well?

• Alumni:  As above, case studies for any individuals who work with S4K.
• Successes:  Once you enjoy success through the WEX program or part time recruits, make sure to inform your contacts at the school to reinforce the relationship.
• Visits:  Set the months to visit the institution.  In locations where they operate sport, it is best to connect to the students in October / November, January and April (this is when they are making decisions on their futures).
• Climate:  Become part of the fabric in the school – make sure students know who S4K are through multiple touch points (posters, talks, adverts etc)
• Seasonal Comms:  Ramp up your involvement and messaging from January to May to ensure that we are top of mind for the best students.

What doesn’t work well?

• Sending Emails: And waiting for contact…
• Assemblies:  These are fine to speak to a mass of pupils but need a clear call to action at the end.  A scannable QR code is useful (careers talk presentation template is available on Dropbox).
• Mass Sending:  It is OK to have job adverts sent out on mass to the student population, but it should be a very small part of the mix of marketing.  It will not drive lots of candidates.
• Mass Offering of WEX:  Careers advisors need to fulfil WEX quotas so will send as many students as they can to you for work experience.  Avoid this happening in office based environments or you will find yourself baby sitting for a week.
• Not Following Up:  As with all marketing and sales, relationships need to be maintained so keeping in touch and following up with actions is vital.

Materials and Assets:

S4K Network Partner Resources\People and Performance\Recruitment\Schools Colleges & Universities\Alumni Case Study

S4K Network Partner Resources\People and Performance\Recruitment\Schools Colleges & Universities\S4K College Presentation

S4K Network Partner Resources\People and Performance\Recruitment\Schools Colleges & Universities\S4K Colleges Uni Email Templates

S4K University:

Recruiting Sources