Helping the FE sector achieve its international ambitions

Over the last 12 months, we at Protocol have had the pleasure of working with a number of key UK Clients to establish their staffing requirements internationally. Until this point our work had been almost entirely focused as being the leading provider of staffing to the Further Education sector in the UK.

One project in particular has been the opening of 27 new colleges as part of the “Colleges of Excellence” programme in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Providers signed their contract in March but had to start delivering teaching in September, the successful providers had so much to do and so little time to do it.

For us, our work with Lincoln College International involved us appointing a complete management team and a full cohort of EFL teaching staff. However, with a little help and a lot of expertise, we achieved this. Many of our existing processes stood firm, although a combined experience of over 50 years recruiting was put to the test.

On the other hand, approaching lecturers was a tougher task. We offered clients the flexibility to utilise Protocol for all or just part of the process and adapted our procedures to align with their own in-house processes.

But this is where the largest database of FE Lecturers in the UK really helped and we were inundated with expressions of interest. However, turning interest into an application was a challenge. Within three weeks we had accumulated over 1000 CV’s, each to be screened and categorised. Those that got through the first stage would be telephoned and put to the test again.

We had to do this as a move to Saudi is not like any move you may make within the UK. Lots of research proved one thing. Don’t believe all you read on the internet! Our own research took significant time, energy and resource.

We faced many hurdles such as very different employment laws allowing us to recruit based on gender and age, something as UK recruiters which was alien to us. We developed a greater understanding of culture, religion and even international visa requirements. We established from the outset that the only way we could do this was to be open and upfront in highlighting the highs and lows of working overseas and promoted a honest portrayal of what life was really going to be like.

Overall our processes amounted to the most rigorous assessment process I have ever been involved with for any lecturer role.

And do you know what? It worked. They all turned up and they all stayed. Lincoln College KSA were the only provider to achieve 100% retention after the Hajj break. Feedback from candidates has also been exceptionally good, many commenting on how our process, although rigorous, far exceeded their experiences with other providers.

It has been an exciting journey for us and we would love to share in greater detail our experiences with you and see if there is some way in which Protocol International can help you. We are at the AoC conference on Stand 34 in Hall 3 this year, or please feel free to get in touch.