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Since Sub Seeker launched last Thursday 12 December, over 800 primary teachers have registered with the service and more than 200 searches for a substitute teacher have been made by schools.

A number of schools have made multiple offers for substitute positions for the same day. Where there are multiple vacancies for the same day, that’s no problem. However, where there is only one vacancy and a teacher has accepted a position, schools will need to withdraw any other offers from teachers who have not yet responded. Note: The school cannot use the ‘withdraw offer’ function once an offer has been accepted by a teacher.

Where multiple offers have been made for the same position, one or more of these teachers could accept these offers.

Significant Implications
The implications of this are significant:

• More than one teacher could turn up at the school for the same position
• It could open the school to a potential liability due to breach of contract (per terms and conditions outlined when a school makes an offer)
• The teachers will be unavailable to any other school for the relevant day(s). This will cause considerable frustration to both schools and teachers and will potentially also lead to an avoidable loss of income for the teacher(s).

What schools need to do
Sub Seeker is designed to send email notification to teachers and it also updates the teacher’s Sub Seeker dashboard. It does not send text messages. When you have identified the teacher to whom you wish to offer a substitute position, you can ‘View Number’ on the teacher’s profile to access the teacher’s mobile phone number to follow up with them after you have sent their offer, should you wish to do so.
Sub Seeker retains a history of all offers and experience gained through the service. To protect the accuracy and integrity of Sub Seeker information, it is essential that schools send offer emails, and teachers accept or decline job offers through Sub Seeker. This also ensures that the Job Advertiser’s search history is accurate and the Job seeker’s experience on their Sub Seeker profile is updated with completed substitute work gained through Sub Seeker.

How Sub Seeker works
When schools have a vacancy for a short-term substitute position, they input their search criteria (county, dates, subjects) in their Sub Seeker dashboard on EducationPosts.ie. As Sub Seeker is designed for short-term substitute vacancies, they can select a maximum of seven days.

Job Seekers (teachers) with availability and relevant experience will be displayed in the ‘Available Subs’ results for the school. The teachers who best match the school’s search criteria will be displayed at the top of the list, and are prioritised in terms of the relevant availability, qualifications at the chosen level, or experience teaching the chosen subjects (post-primary). All teachers fully or partially matching the criteria will be listed.

Schools can select ‘View Profile’ to see the individual teachers’ profiles. When they have identified the most suitable teacher for their particular needs, they contact the teacher via Sub Seeker to offer them the position. This updates the teacher’s Sub Seeker dashboard (via the Offers tab) and also sends an email to the teacher with a link to view the details of the vacancy.

The teacher views the ‘offer’ with the details of the school and the substitute position and either accepts or declines the offer via Sub Seeker. If the teacher wishes to accept the substitute position, s/he accepts the offer via Sub Seeker, which notifies the school immediately. If the offer isn’t suitable, the teacher should decline the offer via Sub Seeker, which also notifies the school via their Sub Seeker dashboard and via email. The status of the offer is updated on both the school’s and the teacher’s Sub Seeker dashboard. All of this happens almost instantaneously and Sub Seeker information is refreshed every 30 seconds.

Sub Seeker retains a history of all offers and experience gained through the service. To protect the accuracy and integrity of Sub Seeker information, it is essential that schools send offer emails, and teachers accept or decline job offers through Sub Seeker. This also ensures that the Job Advertiser’s search history is accurate and the Job seeker’s experience on their Sub Seeker profile is updated with completed substitute work gained through Sub Seeker.

As schools use teachers’ profiles to select suitable substitute teachers, it is advisable for teachers to provide as much information as possible in their Sub Seeker profile, including subjects in which they are qualified to teach, to facilitate schools’ decision-making.

Sub Seeker FAQ for Schools

If you have any queries, please email subs@educationposts.ie.