In September 2023, we reordered the filters on Find postgraduate teacher training (Find).
The order of the filters on Find matched the order of the information listed for a course on the course results page. Although this made sense initialy, we believed we could order the filters to better match the needs of the high number of international candidates we get.
We also wanted to improve matching the right course to a candidate’s own situation. For example, some international candidates need visa sponsorship so using this filter would help them see all courses that offer this.
The issue
During the 2022 to 2023 recruitment cycle, we saw a high number of international candidates apply for teacher training. Many of them were unsuccessful because they were applying for courses where the training providers could not sponsor visas. In total, 4,849 applications were rejected for this reason in the 2022 to 2023 recruitment cycle.
For the 2023 to 2024 recruitment cycle, we wanted to improve helping candidates find courses that were right for them. This meant making it more obvious for international candidates to find courses where visa sponsorship was available.
What we did
We reordered the filter list.
The original order was:
- Special education needs
- Applications open
- Full time or part time
- Qualifications
- Fee or salary
- Degree grade accepted
- Visa sponsorship
‘Visa sponsorship’ was at the bottom and we thought candidates might be missing this because they would have to scroll down the page to see it.
The new order of the filters is now:
- Visa sponsorship
- Full time or part time
- Qualifications
- Degree grade accepted
- Special education needs
- Fee or salary
- Applications open
‘Visa sponsorship’ is now right at the top and easy for candidates to see.
Further considerations
This is not the only intervention we’ve put in place to help international candidates find the right courses. We’ve also:
- included a new question about visa sponsorship in the Find course flow
- added visa sponsorship information to the course summary list
- improved a question asking candidates about their right to work in Apply for teacher training (Apply)
- introduced a new design to block international candidates who need visa sponsorship from submitting their application if they are applying to a course that cannot sponsor visas
We need to revisit these interventions to see if they have had a success. We also need to do more research into the international candidate journey with other services to understand how we can help them find the right course.