In August 2023, we decided to add a new question into the find a course flow on Find postgraduate teacher training (Find). The question asked the user if they have the right to work or study in the UK and they could answer ‘Yes’ or ‘Not yet’.
If they answered ‘Yes’, they would see all courses based on their search criteria. If they answered ‘Not yet’ they would see courses based on their search criteria, but the ‘Only show courses with visa sponsorship’ filter would also be selected. The aim was to stop candidates from applying for a course that they are not eligible for.
We were concerned that the question needed improvement because it:
- was unclear why we were asking the question
- needed an explanation about why we were limiting their search results
- lacked any guidance on how to find out more about visas
What we changed
We made the question more direct to specifically ask the user if they need visa sponsorship. We added content to explain more about what it is. We also linked to an advice page on Get Into Teaching about applying for a visa.
Finally, we changed the radio button labels to ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ as we felt this made the question less ambiguous and easier to answer.
Further considerations
We have been looking at ways to make it easier for international candidates to understand which courses they are eligible for. We need to test the introduction of this question to make sure it is well understood by both domestic and international candidates. In testing, we could also explore having an ‘I don’t know’ option for the radio buttons.
We need to make sure we are not excluding eligible candidates from browsing as many courses as possible. At the same time, we want to avoid candidates applying for courses that they are not suitable for.