South African teachers as mobile knowledge workers in a global labour market
Globally, the popularity of South African teachers is increasing. The recruitment of South African teachers has become an easy solution to fix a shortage of teachers in many industrialised countries. It is being speculated that the aggressive recruitment has a negative impact on South Africa as a source country. This theoretical study addresses South African teachers’ motives for migration, marketing strategies of recruitment agencies, the implications for South African teachers due to the revised migration policies of the United Kingdom, and the impact of teacher migration on the South African education system. Career dissatisfaction, poor salaries and unemployment were identified as push factors. Higher salaries, international teaching experience, family or friends overseas, travel opportunities and recruitment agency persuasion were identified as pull factors. Recruitment agencies are using several methods to recruit teachers such as direct marketing activities on university campuses, online marketing, newspapers and magazines. Online ‘pitching’ to schools and teachers is discussed. It is predicted that South African teachers will seek greener pastures (especially the United Arab Emirates) due to the implementation of the recent United Kingdom Youth Mobility Scheme. South Africa’s education system is being stifled by international recruitment. Huge loss of teachers to receiving countries has a serious negative impact upon the education system of South Africa.
Newly qualified South African teachers : staying or leaving? : research article
The international recruitment by countries of the North of teachers from less developed countries has become a controversial aspect of the problem of 'brain drain'. As a political and economic issue, the argument is that it reduces human capital within the education system and leads to the movement of highly skilled teachers from countries that can least afford to lose them. In South Africa the issue of teacher mobility is more complex because opinion is divided on the extent of the problem, what the trends are, and how best to assess what is going on. There is also no reliable data on how many teachers the country loses to international recruitment. This article presents a study that explored the career plans of a sample of final year students who graduated at the end of 2004 and 2005. The study drew from two large-scale survey questionnaires of final year student teachers from eleven higher education institutions (HEI) in 2004 and fourteen HEIs in 2005. The study found that 27.4% of the 2004 sample and 23.4% of the 2005 sample had indicated that they were definitely going to teach abroad or were considering teaching abroad. Age, race and teaching phase are significant variables in the decision to teach abroad. For the 2004 sample, white and Indian teachers, primary teachers and teachers from particular institutions are more likely to choose to teach abroad. For the 2005 sample, white, BEd Foundation phase students who are younger than 27 years are the most likely to choose to teach abroad. However, it appears that the majority of teachers are planning to return to South Africa, perhaps signifying a 'brain circulation', rather than a 'brain drain'.
Gender Pay Gap in the European Union Labor Market
The participation of women in the European Union labor market has been increasing over recent years, putting an end to the notion that women are a marginal part of the labor force. However, such increased integration of women into paid work has neither ended the traditional gender divide between jobs nor it translated into gender equality in terms of economic opportunity and economic participation in the labor market. The purpose of the paper is to briefly discuss the gender pay gap in the EU labor market. The paper defines gender pay gap and provides a brief theoretical overview of the underlying causes of such pay asymmetry between men and women. Statistics provided for EU 25 reveal that the current policy attempts to reduce such a gender asymmetry still lack improvement in practice. The paper concludes with selected policy suggestions aiming to make a progress in the issue of the gender equality in pay.