Softwire wins two DfE Teaching Recruitment Projects worth up to £6m

Digital design, engineering and consulting business to deliver three key platforms to transform education provision in England. 

Softwire the bespoke software development company has been selected from over 40 providers by the Department for Education to provide skilled team members to the Teaching Vacancies, International Teacher Recruitment, Apply for Teacher Training, and other services that will continue to transform teacher recruitment for years to come.

With schools spending £75 million a year on teacher recruitment advertising and more teachers needed in our classrooms, these digital platforms will play a crucial role in saving schools money in advertising vacancies and make the process of becoming a teacher easier than ever.

Softwire will – for example – support the roll out of the Teaching Vacancies Service, a free, national search and listing service to help publicly funded primary and secondary schools in England recruit teachers.  As well as the Apply for Teacher Training Service, which will be launched nationally in October 2021 and will radically simplify the system for becoming a teacher in England.

“This is an incredible achievement for our team” commented Alex Wolff, Client Director at Softwire

“We are delighted that the Department of Education has chosen Softwire to transform how teachers are recruited in England. We have a lot of experience in working with the public sector and are very confident that, working with the DfE, we will help launch an easy-to-use, experience that will have a tangible impact on schools and teachers across England.”

In response to the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy, published in January 2019, the Department of Education is looking at introducing new digital systems designed to make becoming a teacher easier while addressing the fact that growing number of pupils of secondary school age means more teachers are needed. This project will incorporate previous initiatives such as the Find Teacher Training Service and the Get Into Teaching website and will ensure current and potential teachers can find the right roles quickly while admissions administrators can select the right candidates easily.