Job ve škole An advertising portal aiming to change the search for work in the Czech school system
When a teacher or a graduate of a teacher training college is looking for a job, common advertising portals are not sufficient. Although they work great for office positions or in industry, they do not allow you to filter by teaching qualification or type of school. The consulting company TOP Priority discovered a business opportunity and gave us a task: help us create an online portal that will simplify recruitment in the education system.
advertising portalweb applicationscredit systemschools and teachers
Traditional advertising portals annoy school heads, teachers and janitors
When a primary school head is looking for a new math and biology teacher, a well-written
advertisement often doesn't help. In the flood of vacancies from other fields, it doesn't even
reach the relevant candidates. And if it does, they will easily overlook the fact that a
teacher with their qualifications is being sought.
Universal ad templates on large portals do not take into account searches by parameters that are essential for people in education:
type of school (kindergarten, lower primary school, upper primary school, secondary
school, vocational school, technical college);
the size of the institution (number of teachers and students);
type of teaching offered by the school (classical, vocational, practical, Montessori,
Waldorf…);
the necessary qualifications of the teacher, or a combination of subjects.
In addition, the advertising of vacancies in education is fragmented, which is why non-teaching positions such as janitor, matron, or psychologist are difficult to fill for school heads.
About the target group
Teachers change jobs only rarely. That is why it is important to focus on recent
graduates who are no longer looking for a job through advertisements in teachers'
newspaper Učitelské noviny. They expect an easy search from web applications.
Transformation of wireframes into the final design
About TOP Priority
A consulting company from Hradec Králové focusing on education and helping schools with
project management and obtaining grants. Project managers are in regular personal
contact with the heads of kindergarten, primary, secondary or higher technical schools
soon found out that that conventional job portals do not work well in the education
sphere.
Looking for developers who come up with a technical solution for a web application and speak
clearly
TOP Priority project manager Filip Karel approached us following a recommendation.
During a series of initial meetings, we listened to the intention for a specialized job
portal and presented ideas on how to build the solution technically, for example:
credit system for paying for advertisements;
rewards for recommending the portal to another school head;
a simplified way to register candidates using their Google or Facebook account.
Software development is similar to building a house - first you prepare drawing
documentation, then you break ground. That's why we started with an initial technical
analysis and the creation of wireframes. These are key to a detailed
understanding of the web project's features and allow for more accurate pricing and work
scheduling.
„We had no experience with software development, so we feared
the complexity of IT at the beginning of the collaboration, but during the initial
analysis, our concerns were dispelled. COex guided us through the project and always
strived to give clear communication.“
Filip Karel, TOP Priority
Wireframes administration for schools, credit top-up section
We clarified the categories for easy creation and search of advertisements
We set out to analyse and looked for ways to make the portal as easy as possible for both
types of users - school heads placing advertisements, as well as teachers or non-teaching
staff looking for vacancies.
We identified the correct categories and classification of advertisements as essential, on
which we built the invitation and search of advertisements:
location;
type of school;
profession;
qualification (we had to take into account different combinations);
work load; or
type of contract (for a definite and indefinite period).
Insight from technical analysis
The form for placing an advertisement varies depending on the type of school. A
kindergarten head does not need to fill in the qualification data. For grammar school
heads, on the other hand, these data are crucial.
Sample categories and endorsements
The ads are paid by credits. It is more convenient and increases the motivation to recommend
In order to be able to create advertisements, the head has to register their school and fill
in a simple profile - the name and a description of the institution, the teaching method, the
number of students or teachers. It is up to them whether they upload photos to the profile in
order to present the school sufficiently to candidates.
When creating an advertisement, the head has a choice of three pricing plans - the basic
price includes common functions such as publishing the advertisement and collecting
answers in the administration, the most expensive pricing plan enables advanced features,
such as highlighting the advertisement in the vacancy list or browsing the profiles of
jobseekers.
Publishing the advertisement is paid for by credits. The credit system has
an advantage - the school profile administrator does not have to re-enter payment card details
and confirm the authorization code. This is useful, for example, in a situation where the deputy
head needs to publish an advertisement and the payment card is managed by the head who is currently
teaching.
The credit system will also facilitate the start of the project. System administrators can
allocate credits to selected heads, who then try out for free how the search for teachers
or non-teaching staff works. And if they recommend the portal to another head, they will
receive additional credits as a reward.
Example of tariff selection when inserting an advertisement
User profiles save time and increase the chances of getting a good job
We made working with the portal as easy as possible for teachers, teaching assistants and
other jobseekers. Ads can be responded to without registration. However, if a person
registers, a user profile with name, contacts, education or qualifications
is created. As a result, they don't have to enter the same data when responding to other ads.
A registered user can subscribe to the newsletter with vacancies by order
of preferences - for example, according to the location or subjects they want to teach.
And in the settings, they can also ask for the publication of their profile to schools
that have an advertisement for teachers with the same qualifications so that they can be addressed directly.
Timeline of cooperation
2019
April
TOP Priority addressed us with the first requirement
2019
May
start of analysis and wireframes
2019
July
start of development
2020
January
beta testing with school headmasters
2020
February
official launch of the portal
Both the front-end and the back-end of the portal are powered by proven technologies
We built the advertising portal on modern technologies:
Python - a proven programming language in which applications such as Spotify,
Instagram and Uber are created,
Django Django web framework,
GraphQL for communication between front-end and back-end via API,
front-end is powered by the Angular framework by Google,
We used PostGIS to search for a school or job at a certain distance from the
specified city (e.g. all ads within 20km of Brno).
You can find out more about the tools and technologies we use at COex on the web technologies page.
Highlights of the portal: anonymity from one´s school head and search for vacancies in the
area
If a teacher is looking for a new position, they may not want their current head to know.
We solved this issue by requiring schools to log in to the portal using their ID number.
The teacher only needs to state that they do not want their profile to be published to a specific ID number, and they then remain anonymous.
We made it easier for candidates to find vacancies with another handy feature. If the user
enters the location in the search, they can also use the commuting distance parameter.
Thanks to this, relevant offers in the area will also be included in the list of
advertisements. Thus, a candidate from one city can easily find a great job in a place not
too far away.
Sample of the mobile version of the website
The main benefits of the advertising portal from the user's point of view
Search by key parameters for employees in the education sphere - especially
qualifications and type of school.
Newsletter with vacancies.
Direct addressing of candidates who show interest.
Quick registration without having to upload a traditional CV.
Prepaid credit system for advertising.
Credits for free on the recommendation of the portal to a new principal - for both of
them.
An innovative way of looking for a job in education, which will also attract
graduates of teaching faculties.
The portal is currently suspended as it is more difficult to address school heads due to
the pandemic. TOP Priority have been working on a new strategy for the post-pandemic
period.
Portal homepage - the user can select from a list of professions or use the autofill
feature
„We are pleased to have worked with COEX to create the Job at
School portal. We appreciate the most that it was not just a customer-supplier
relationship. It was a mutual creative collaboration from which a lot of good ideas
emerged which were immediately implemented. All the work was done well and on time,
communication during the creation was at a very good level.“
Filip Karel, Project Manager at TOP Priority
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