Press release: Playwork jobs

New jobs service for out of school clubs


Out of School Alliance launches the OOSA Jobs Service to help out of school clubs recruit playwork staff.

The Out of School Alliance, the national organisation for out of school clubs, has launched a new job listing service to help out of school clubs recruit suitable staff. The out of school sector, which includes breakfast clubs, after school clubs and holiday clubs, has rapidly expanded as all primary schools are now required to provide wrap-around care. However many clubs are experiencing difficulty in finding sufficient staff with the right qualifications.

A recent report by Skills Active, Playwork People 4, highlighted the fact that there is a shortage of qualified playworkers. This, coupled with the non-standard working patterns at many out of school clubs (typically 1.5 hours in the morning and 3 in the afternoon) can make it difficult for clubs to attract appropriately qualified staff.

One solution to this problem is to advertise the vacancies as widely as possible, but to place an advert in even the local press typically costs several hundred pounds, which is too expensive for most clubs to consider, especially the smaller ones. Realising that what the out of school club sector needed was a cost-effective, national job listing service, the Out of School Alliance decided to launch the OOSA Jobs Service.

Catherine Wrench, a director of the Out of School Alliance, explained, "We have deliberately kept the new service very simple and the pricing structure very low to enable all out of school clubs, whatever their budget, to benefit from it. You can advertise your vacancy on OOSA Jobs for as little as £10.00 per month. This is far cheaper than any other online recruitment site."

The OOSA Jobs Service is open to members and non-members of the Out of School Alliance and can be accessed at www.outofschoolalliance.co.uk/oosa-jobs. This online listing service is entirely focused on vacancies in the playwork and out of school club sector so prospective candidates don't need to wade through loads of irrelevant adverts from day nurseries and pre-schools.

Catherine Wrench commented, "Although it is still early days for OOSA Jobs, we have received a lot of interest already and expect that it will quickly build into an invaluable resource for the out of school club and playwork community."

9 September 2010