Education Resourcer Review

I am currently undertaking my placement year within the Education division at Hays Recruitment in Brighton and have just completed my eighth week with the company. During the short time that I have been with Hays, I have grown in confidence and feel that I am very much a part of the team.

I have very much felt a part of the team at Hays, assisting my colleagues throughout various job roles, from helping with the process of registering and clearing candidates for work through to updating job adverts.

My manager has been very supportive during these first couple of months at Hays. He has always been there to answer any questions and has assisted me with anything I have been unsure of. At the start of the placement, my line manager showed me the process of registering candidates and various other aspects that were required from me within the job role. I have also been given a great deal of support in terms of training. I have been required to complete some online e-training to assist me with my job role as well as attending additional classroom training.

Already, during the short amount of time I have been with the company, I have experienced educational daily and seasonal demand fluctuations. For example, during term time, I would receive a high number of candidate references which needed to be actioned before their employment offers could be given. Recently, I have been receiving less academic references due to school closures for the summer holidays however, the office has still remained busy in terms of registering new candidates.

I have been given a fairly high level of responsibility within my placement. The Education division I am working in has a very stringent clearing process, which all candidates wishing to teach must go through before working. I have a responsibility in this process, making sure that the various candidates have the necessary documentation and qualifications in order to be cleared for work.

There are a number of valuable skills that I am currently learning and developing during my time with Hays that will benefit me in the near the future. Teamwork is a skill which I think I have developed further during my time with Hays. It has been evident when working and assisting my colleagues with the process of registering and clearing candidates. Time management is also a skill which I feel I have been developing during my time with Hays in which I have been managing a large number of candidate files ready for clearance. Professionalism is something I am developing during my time with Hays. I have had to ensure that I remain professional throughout my role. I have also developed in confidence from speaking to candidates and colleagues over the phone.

The general atmosphere in the office was very good. All the staff were incredibly friendly and very motivated to succeed, which is why I think I felt settled in very quickly.

The placement was organised well and I was also invited into the office to meet the rest of the team that I would be working with prior to starting my placement. This made me feel less nervous when starting my placement.

I felt like Hays really did care about my personal training and development. During the first few weeks with Hays, I was invited to attend a welcome meeting. This was something organised by the MD of the Home Counties, and gave new Hays employees a chance to meet other new employees and learn more about the company and the work they do. This made me feel valued by the company; to be able to meet other new colleagues and learn more about Hays as a company and their core principles. As well as the initial online e-training that I was required to complete, I also had arranged compliance and classroom training. I attended a ‘New Starter Compliance Training’ day at the Hays compliance Leicester office. The training was organised by the Senior Compliance Manager at Hays and was based around documentation requirements for candidate registrations as well as the chance to meet the compliance team (Compliance Administrators and the Auditors) based in Leicester and gain some tips from them about the clearing process. Attending the training definitely benefited me within the job role.

The future employment prospects with the organisation are very appealing to me. In the short time I have spent with Hays so far I have really enjoyed myself and would love to be offered an opportunity to work there in the future.

There were no other placement students/colleagues within the Education division that I have been carrying my placement out with however, from attending the arranged Welcome Meeting and training events, I have been able to meet other new placement students/colleagues from different offices.

The Hays office that I have been undertaking my placement at is based in Brighton and the cost of socialising in the area is fairly reasonable.

Being situated within Brighton, there is a large choice of nightlife in the area.

One of the activities included the Education team's end-of-year party. This was held to celebrate the years success.