Looking for new job!

[DRogers]

Hi all, haven't posted on here for a while! Anyway, I finished my modern apprenticeship at the City of Preston High School, in Preston, Lancs, at the end of last month and am now jobhunting! Anyone know of any techie jobs in the area please let me know! Thanks!

[Ric_]

I can't help you out at the moment but, out of interest, what sort of remuneration would you be seeking as a fresh-faced techie in the land of education?

[DRogers]

Whats the going wage these days? 2 I saw at schools which were about the same, £14,000 pro rata which worked out at about £11,000 Term time only.

[woody]

The going wages are different in every LEA, even different in schools within the same LEA. Depends on how much a school is in touch with the real world (not many are) and how much they want to keep hold of their tech staff. Usually though, the higher the wage, the more experience they will be looking for.

[CyberNerd]

The going wages are different in every LEA, even different in schools within the same LEA.

 

If wages vary in different schools within the same LEA - and your contract is with the LEA. ie. the LEA is your employer - not the school, then this is illegal under the sex discrimination act.

 

All you need to do is find someone employed by the LEA, of opposite sex, doing a broadly similar role and you can claim, speak with you unison rep. Local Authorites are notoriously bad for ignoring this type of legislation and usually give in without a fuss.

[woody]

If wages vary in different schools within the same LEA - and your contract is with the LEA. ie. the LEA is your employer - not the school, then this is illegal under the sex discrimination act.

 

Thanks for advice, but I was just talking in general. When I lived in Oldham over four years ago now, jobs where coming up all the time in different schools, and for virtually the same role, wages ranged from 11k up to 20k.

 

Currently, I feel my school pays me very well, that is why I have been here for over four years. Plus we are a foundation school, which means the school can opt out of any payment scale proposed by the LEA.

[Pear]

Unfortunately I think you might have missed the boat. There was one going at Moor Park in June. Most schools seem to have advertised the position early and have themselves sorted for September.

[indiegirl]

If you fancied a relocation dahn sarf, there'll be a vacancy going shortly in Milton Keynes.....

 

...... wouldn't give recommend it to my worst enemy though, so you're safe oop north

 

That's interesting about the varying pay scales in schools within the same LEA umbrella. I'm sure that many of my fellow secondary school techies in MK (all male, to my knowledge) would be very interested to hear what salary I'm on...

 

ETA: Ah, just seen that it only applies if your contract is with the LEA. All MK schools (that I know of) employ their support staff directly...

[russdev]

also a school can decide to employ somone as tech at certain grade and make them do network managers job...

 

so can be differences but not difference between the grades just what grade your employed at...

 

 

Russ

[tarquel]

also a school can decide to employ somone as tech at certain grade and make them do network managers job...

 

lol.... like me

 

there's like a 6k gap between me and someone doing what I do in a different school in the LEA...

 

shocking stuff indeed.

 

Nath.

[MkII]

In our LA [tarq n me] Job Evaluation is nearly done, and i've been told that the recommended grade for IT Techs is between £18 and £23.

 

When that's out there'll be a justifiable re-grading route and we'll be on comparable rates across the LA.

 

I'm also told that in that process [Job Eval] the comparison is made with neighbouring authorities.

 

Trouble has been, and it's the same in my school, that we're seen as 'technicians' as a group, and not paid the going rate.

[tarquel]

Yep.

 

The head thinks i'm here to support the kids & staff more than i am here to fix things.

 

While I dont mind that too much, the problem is that isn't what the system needs, as no-one will be looking after it and things will suffer.

 

I've had to still do it without her knowing about it, otherwise there would be nothing for me to use to support the staff / pupils lol

 

At the end of the day, I'm not SLA / NTA - i'm better than that lol [no offence intended ]

 

/rant

 

Nath.

[ANiceEnglishman]

 

Trouble has been, and it's the same in my school, that we're seen as 'technicians' as a group, and not paid the going rate.

 

I think you've hit the nail on the head there Mark. 'Technician' has quite a different meaning in education than it does in IT elsewhere.

 

In IT proper it means someone with recognised technical skills. In education it can mean someone who is there to assist teachers by doing menial tasks and giving them more time to teach.

 

I was originally taken on as a technician but soon found myself doing the Network Manager's job as well. Fortunately my SMT recognised that and now pay me a Network Manager's salary (in line with the Site Manager for example). I'm also recruiting a technician to do the lower-level stuff and give me more time for the technical (in the IT sense) /managererial/financial work.

[limbo]

I think in most cases there are two main factors that SMT consider when deciding how to grade any particular position - Availability and responsibility.

 

Availability is how easy it would be to replace somebody when they left - and in most cases what they will look at is not what a person does for a school, but what a person needs to do for a school. So all the added extras you do that are nice, but not essential, will generally not be taken into account if the school does not consider them essential things to look in your replacement. And if there are plenty of people out there willing and capable of doing your job then you can expect to have to fight for every penny.

 

Responsibility is mainly talking about staff rather than resources. If you have staff working for you then you should really notice your salary being higher.

 

So the formula for getting pay increases tends to be making sure that you find something not many people would be able to do, getting it embedded into the working of the school so that they cannot do without it and then make a big deal about how difficult it was to achieve and how not just anybody could do it. And of course pointing out how to keep it running you need at least one assistant if not fifteen.

 

I think there does have to be a difference between what technicians are paid at different schools (although not a huge difference) because some schools will have trouble attracting and keeping hold of staff for different reasons – I can think of a couple of schools I would want to be paid considerably more to do the same job as I am doing now!