How to find a good teacher for a programming school?

Finding a good teacher is difficult. You need to post vacancies, prepare for an interview, check the skills of a potential teacher, etc. Coddy franchise has prepared a few tips that will help you avoid the most common mistakes.

Setting the right goal

Before you start looking for a teacher, you need to define the tasks he or she will perform. Teaching children is too abstract a goal, specifics are important. For example, he should be able to program in Python and have experience in several complex projects.

Decide how many hours per week the teacher will work. Some will enjoy a full-time job, while others are interested in teaching classes as a part-time job.

Goals also depend on who can submit a resume. If it's computer science teachers, think about what tasks they can do better than others because of their experience. Here are just a few examples:

• During the coronovirus, many people switched to remote work. This means a huge number of teachers know how to work through Zoom or another program with kids.
• In schools, teachers often moonlight as tutors. Such experience is useful for one-on-one tutoring.
  
• Pay attention to where the teacher has worked before. Experience in teaching classes in a gymnasium or a good school will always be a plus.
  

There can be more objectives. These are used to make portraits of suitable candidates. Additional advantages can be specified in the desired skills of the candidate.

Under students and programmers with experience are usually selected other targets, since they did not study in pedagogical institutes or in humanitarian specialties. In this case, the emphasis is on the technical side of the issue, and a good presentation of the material can always be taught.

Compose and post vacancies

Specialists are easiest to find through hh.ru, Avito, Superjob, etc. Sometimes regional sites where you can place ads help with this. But there are a lot of vacancies in such places, so you need to look no worse than others.  Here are some tips on how to write an ad:

• Show that your conditions correspond to the market, otherwise there will be more incompetent people in the responses.
• The description should be simple and easy to understand.
  
• When participating in a franchise, it is better to state its merits. Everyone wants to work in well-known firms with a good reputation.
  
• Use the advantages of the service. Hh.ru has paid services to promote vacancies. Avito offers to add students to possible applicants. This will increase the number of responses.
  
• Work on the details. Don't chase creative but obscure titles, use bulleted lists, clearly spell out the applicant's responsibilities, etc.
  

Private school is also a business. You need to know how to work with people, attract clients, and handle equipment purchases. To keep everything in your head, you need a business plan. It helps you move forward, consider risks and estimate costs. Share the secrets to creating such a plan here.

Spend less time on vague requirements. Stress tolerance and responsibility are qualities of any normal employee.

Expand the search if the response is not enough

Private schools have different budgets, you can use these methods if you want:

• Social media advertising. Use themed services to get more responses. For example, you can post a vacancy in a telegram channel where programmers are looking for work.
• Publication in newspapers and magazines. This method is the least effective, but you may get more responses to the vacancy.
  
• Ask teachers who are already working. Subordinates probably went to university either as a computer programmer or as a teacher. Some of them can keep in touch with classmates.
  
• Full-time internships or practicums for students. Many are about to graduate with fresh knowledge of the subject and a desire to work for a good firm.
  
• Find schools and internships for students. Private schools pay more than regular schools, and their schedules are often more comfortable. This can serve as motivation for teachers.
  

There are dozens of employee search sites on the internet. Choose a few if hh.ru and Avito and Superjob didn't help. People are looking for jobs on dozens of services, take advantage of this.

We check if the staff is competent

We are looking for a good teacher, so we need to remove those who will not be able to interest the children. People often go to teacher training institutes who end up with low qualifications. And sometimes they go there only because they couldn't get in anywhere else.

A similar situation happens with programmers: some schools teach you to lie on your resume to get a job. To solve the problem, run the future candidate through the issues that will be involved in his work. And then see how he gets along with children. Tests, interviews, and a probationary period will help with all of this.

Don't be alarmed if you get a few dozen responses after posting the job. This is a normal situation, especially when it comes to remote work.

Tests

Work on testing, it can be given to each candidate who responds to the application. To create tasks, you can hire qualified programmers or ask for help from those who already work at the school.

Interview

A good job has a lot of responses, so you should expect at least a few candidates who passed the test. In order to select the best one, conduct an interview. Evaluate the following criteria:

• Education.
• Work experience. Since there are many self-taught programmers among programmers, it is best to look at projects they have completed.
  
• Personal qualities. Some people have a hard time working with children. They are unresponsive, withdrawn and behave strangely. Try to find someone who will inspire confidence.
  
• Additional benefits. Students participate in activities, employees may have completed a programming course from well-known schools, programming teachers have a pedagogical background.
  

Do not delay the interview and its results. There may be a lot of responses, but if a person does not have a job, it is unlikely that he will wait for the opportunity to get into your company specifically. Better yet, warn them how many days to wait for the results.

Trial session

A lot of self-respecting companies have a trial period. Test the newcomer's skills with practice. You can offer to give him an individual lesson or a class where you have to tell him about something simple. But you should only proceed to this stage if you are confident in the employee.

Is training necessary?

Even a good teacher will not be able to do his job perfectly. Mistakes can be in reporting, presentation, etc. Give help and guidance, especially newcomers to teaching need it. You can start with onboarding. This is when you help the person get used to working in a new place. You can also help with useful information on the topic of teaching children and teenagers.

But should you trust people with no experience?

The answer to this question depends on the specific situation. There are teachers who are excellent at programming, but do not have much experience working with children (there are people who hold a good position and teach on a half-time basis rather for the soul). This is common in many specialties, including programming.

It is good if the teacher has been with the school or company for a year. It is suspicious when he or she has been in some company for only a month or two. It may be because of a bad team or cheating at work. But it could also be that the person was simply fired. Such details should be paid attention to.

If the cadre is promising, he can be taught everything. You can justify this decision as follows: the average teacher of a private school receives more than a novice programmer. Also in franchises there is often a pleasant team, which means that the cadre is likely to stay for some time and will definitely work off the efforts spent.

Hiring employees is just one aspect of opening a school. If you're reading this article, you're probably interested in the topic. Below is a selection of articles related to business development in education:
     1. Here we talk about the nuances of opening a school.
     2. Here about the selection of premises and equipment.
     3. And in this section about the founding of the school CODDY. The article describes the experience of a person who went through fire and water on the way to opening a franchise.