Worksop agency celebrates its best year ever

Barry Simmons and Katie JonesBarry Simmons and Katie Jones
Barry Simmons and Katie Jones
A recruitment agency is celebrating its tenth anniversary with its most successful year yet.

Provide Education was set up a decade ago, has expanded into two new counties this year and increased turnover by 15 per cent.

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The company, which is based in Shireoaks, opened a new office in Teesside in August, and began working with schools in Greater Manchester from its Brighouse office.

Along with its branch in Barnsley, the agency now works with around 3,000 teachers to help them find supply teaching posts, and sometimes permanent jobs, in more than 600 schools across the East Midlands and the north of England.

The expansion saw the company take on five new employees in 2016, boosting the staff team to 22.

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Director Katie Buckle, who co-founded the company with Barry Simmons, said: “When we started out ten years ago, we worked with just 30 schools, so to be now working with 20 times that amount is fantastic. It hasn’t always been plain sailing, especially being a young company during a recession, but we’ve grown year on year and have a great team behind us.

Recruitment is a competitive industry but we’re specialists within our sector and have worked hard to build a reputation that has helped us both retain clients and attract new ones too.”

As well as expansion, 2016 also saw Provide Education retain the industry gold standard for the way it vets teachers and support staff before sending them into schools. The agency was one of the first in the UK to attain the REC Audited Education Gold Status in 2014.

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Every new candidate has a face-to-face interview with one of the company’s consultants to ensure thorough vetting procedures and paperwork is carried out, and so the candidate can discuss what kind of jobs and schools suit them best. The company then provides support, training and development.