company overview Welcome to the Business Owners Magazine quick interview – conducted in a very socially distanced fashion! Here we try and get an insight into a company leader and their industry to find out what makes them tick and how their challenges and lessons could help you in your business. - Name
Faye Harding
- Company
The FE People
- Position
CEO
- Industry
Further Education
What does your company do? The FE People is a new development, short for ‘The Further Education People’. It is a web-based platform that allows colleges and training providers to connect with further education freelancers. Currently if a college of training provider require a member of staff for an interim role, or short-term cover for sickness/holiday cover, or last-minute courses they have to approach agencies. Agencies can be inefficient. They have multiple clients they are trying to support and a limited database of candidates. The FE People aims to build a national database of all freelancers working across a range of roles including: Tutors, Assessors, IQA’s, EQA’s, EPA’s, Curriculum Writers, Bid Writers, Interim Directors plus enrolment and invigilation staff. Every freelancer is fully vetted before being added to our platform. We ensure they are on the DBS Update system meaning they can instantly start work the next day, we also check their ID, insurances, right to work in the UK and certifications to ensure they are qualified to do the role they are being hired for.
This means a college or training provider can literally start a candidate the next day without waiting weeks for recruiters to source candidates or hold ups due to DBS checks. Also, freelancers have an availability calendar, so when a college does a search for a freelancer, they only see the profiles of those that are available on the dates they need them, meaning they aren’t wasting time discussing opportunities with candidates that aren’t available. The benefit for freelancers is that we market them for free, there is no charge for them to use the platform and they get exposure to colleges and training providers across the UK. Since Covid there has been an increase in courses being ran online and remote working which this platform supports. There is also an app coming in the next few weeks meaning that freelancers can manage their bookings on the go. What changes or challenges do you foresee for your company in the next three years? The FE People is the first of many platforms, we own the software which has taken a year to develop. We plan to revolutionise the recruitment industry across multiple sectors. Watch this space.
