Prospero - Senploy interview with Specialist Consultant, Alex Wood

Alex Wood, Specialist Education Recruiter at Prospero Teaching speak with Senploy's Founder, Amy Allen, about how his own experience working in Special Education enables him to better support his candidates in their job search.

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Hi i'm Amy Allen i'm the founder of senploy.co.uk and i'm really excited to be continuing our um our series of interviews with the specialist education recruitment company Prospero teaching and today we have Alex so hi Alex do you want to introduce yourself and tell everyone what you do at Prospero hi everyone and so i'm part of the primary education recruitment team at prospero and so i work with our client primary schools across south Manchester and Stockport we do often recruit for sdn specialists within those schools more and more schools have got their own sen provision units within them and we are constantly

recruiting four one-to-one support staff or small group intervention as well so there's lots of education recruitment Why Prospero companies out there Alex so why should it's come to you um well i think some of the things that set Prospero apart from other agencies and to begin with a lot of our staff within the office have also worked in schools as well so we understand how it works on both sides and i used to be a teacher myself and also an scn teaching assistant and it was actually Prospero got me my first ever sdn teaching assistant job way back in the day now it feels like a lifetime ago and also we have long-standing relationships with our clients as well so we're a really established company um with you know very strong relationships with our client schools fabulous so if you were trying to entice Benefits of working in specialist education people to come and work in specialist education what would you say the benefits are of working in our sector well i think for me the standout thing is how rewarding it is and you know just having those light bulb moments and and just seeing the children flourish and seeing like the positive impacts that you're having on the young people's lives that you're helping to support Job titles so what type of job titles are you advertising on this employee at the moment um quite a variety at the moment actually um looking for behaviour mentors working people referral units are within the mainstream schools and one-to-one support staff and asc tas and sem teaching assistants and learning mentors as well okay so if What would you do on a daily basis someone was to go into one of these roles Alex what would they be doing on a daily basis well i think depending on the nature of the needs of the children that you're supporting and it could be general classroom support in terms of just

helping them within the classroom setting and it might be that you're delivering interventions in um you know a smaller secluded space where it's a bit more quieter and could be building on things like social skills social interaction speech and language development um it's such um a varied role that no day is the same and but there's some of the things that you might you might end up doing okay so what personal qualities are What personal qualities are important to work in special education um well for me i'd say one of the most

important thing is having empathy and understanding of the children that you're supporting and something you've got to be passionate about as well and you know having patience and um active listening skills as well uh you know just really helping the children feel there's already being listened to okay yeah i can feel you really speaking Recruitment from experience here so it is for the candidates to know that that you've been in that situation so you can give them lived experience if they did have any questions yeah recruits do you recruit for individuals that don't have any experience Alex we do we do offer um online cpd and we also offer a training regime called team siege which is all about the escalation strategies i'm actually one of our um instructors for that um so training is provided um and you know you will have your own dedicated consultant as well to help guide you through every step of the way and so whether that is preparation beforehand and also afterwards as well after your first day or your first couple of days we'll have a feedback in a bit of a catch-up and see what's gone well anything that can be improved and just support you all the way through awesome so if someone sees a job on Senploy. what do they do what's the process um just click apply it'll come straight through to the relevant consultant uh

consultant will then give you a phone call and we'll run through the job spec

and get an understanding of each other and just so we can make sure it's going to be the right fit for you as well and then we need to get you registered and cleared to work and then yes start preparing for interviews and trials and get your artwork in excellent when you say cloud for work this is the dbs that we're talking about a lot and everyone needs that don't they so how do you support people to get that Alex um so it's really quick and easy process is just an application form to fill out we look after the whole application process and it does come at a cost of 45 pound 80 but it is something that you will need to work in in the school setting and yeah Prospero will look after the full application process for you amazing and then you said earlier that Placements once someone is placed into position you will keep in touch with them and talk about how it's going and that sort of thing what if they don't think where they are what happens then well if you don't like where they are um i you know i feel there's a school for everyone and if something has not been necessarily the right fit we take

everything on board and make sure you know the next placement is going to be the right one

and yeah like i said i do strongly feel that there will be a uh a right school for everyone

brilliant it's really good to hear that Job satisfaction you're so confident that someone just

joined Prospero teaching there is a job for them so i think that's really reassuring yeah and so what's the best thing about your job Alex um i think it's having like mentioned early just having that positive effect on someone like when they get the feedback of someone who's just started a new job role and they love the job just that satisfaction in itself is really rewarding and yeah just uh but when people are really um you know appreciative of the job roles that they that they get you know it's a really nice feeling

amazing and it sounds good to be a Outro really safe pair of hands for people to register with you and for their career so it's really nice to speak with you Alex and i hope you have a really great day bro thank you amen you too you take care bye

thank you bye bye