Background
RVF International is an organization that partners with schools across Spain to help them find English speaking teachers to work as language assistant teachers.
The Founder and CEO of RVF International, Harrison, started RVF International back in 2017 with the humble mission of bringing more English speakers interested in traveling to Spain to teach.
While local and regional governments in Spain operate and manage school placements for teachers, RVF International oversees the process of attracting teachers and supporting applicants from placement to visa processes and residency to support for everyday matters throughout their time in Spain.
RVF International works with schools all over Spain; a lot of the schools in its network are located in more rural areas of the country.
Today, RVF International is looking to expand its network of public schools, private schools and Catholic schools in places like Catalunia or Barcelona to make it as accessible as possible for teachers looking to relocate and experience Spanish culture.
But with a larger network of schools comes the need for a wider pool of teacher candidates interested and willing to move to Spain to teach.
More than anything, RVF International wants to fill its candidate pools with adventurous, travel-minded English speakers looking to move abroad for a year for an enriching experience.
The Challenge
For RVF International, the target candidate typically falls into one of two categories:
- New grads looking to take a gap year or go on a mini-adventure before starting their career or heading back to grad school.
- Experienced ESL teachers looking to move to Europe.
The requirements for the program are relatively straightforward:
- Must speak English fluently (ideally as their mother tongue)
- Must hold a passport from the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, India or Fiji
- Must hold at least a bachelor’s degree
- Must have an adventurous and independent spirit and be up for the experience of a lifetime
- No prior teaching experience is required
A year and a half ago, the team at RVF International was starting to feel discouraged because they kept running into challenges finding the right teachers.
They knew there were teachers around the world looking for adventure, but they were having trouble locating them. Unfortunately, they spent a lot of their marketing budget on various recruitment portals that weren’t bringing desirable results.
Determined to get better results, the team at RVF International tried different ways of marketing their opportunities. Next, they advertised their jobs online on their website and ran ads on social media, but these tactics were fruitless despite all their efforts.
They knew their adventure-seeking candidates were out there; they just struggled to get their job postings in front of the right audience.
Our Solution
Harrison, the founder and CEO of RVF International, knew things needed to change and so he pivoted their recruitment efforts.
Rather than working with the usual online platforms, he decided it was time to partner with platforms that specifically cater to the niche audience of adventure-seeking teachers he was looking for.
He set off to find a site already successfully marketing teach abroad programs with a wide audience.
Switching gears, he googled “Teach Abroad in Spain” to find out which sites were attracting his ideal audience.
One of the first search results that appeared was Teach Away. At that moment, he contacted our team to arrange a meeting. The next day he had a zoom call with one of our team members and was given a free demo of the Teach Away platform.
While Teach Away looked promising, Harrison was understandably hesitant based on the lack of results from previous recruitment platforms.
He wondered if Teach Away would be just another recruitment platform that offered lots of promise but little results.
Harrison decided to put his trust in Teach Away and signed on for a 6-month contract.
It was a decision he wouldn’t regret.
The Impact
“In the first week, we probably had more leads come in than we had in the previous 4 or 5 months combined. It was just unbelievable.”
We spoke with Harrison in October, which is historically one of their slowest months of the year for recruitment. But this October was different, RVF International nearly surpassed one of their best hiring months from last year.
Harrison believes their success is because of Teach Away and the amazing, qualified teachers on our platform that have shown an interest in their program.
“It wasn’t until we connected with Teach Away that we found the perfect match of very qualified educators that were looking for a job – actual teaching experience – as well as the adventure, so it’s been a perfect marriage.”
With the results they’ve seen from Teach Away, Harrison decided to make Teach Away the sole recruitment platform RVF international uses.
“We are completely in love with Teach Away and we hope this will be a long and mutually beneficial relationship.” Us too, Harrison.
If you’re in need of qualified ESL or K-12 teachers, request a demo of the Teach Away platform to learn more about Teach Away can help you find the teachers you’re looking for.