This December 4-5, Senior Associate Gez Hayden hosted 164 candidates and 65 recruiters at the 2022 Africa Virtual Job Fair. The 26 participating schools represented 60% of Search Associates member schools in Africa. Under consideration were 156 overseas teaching vacancies.
Search Associates (SEARCH) Africa Virtual Fair is a bespoke regional job fair at which international schools in Africa can meet candidates, from anywhere in the world, strongly inclined to live and work on this exciting and varied continent. African international schools offering any curriculum, and candidates from all countries, with experience of any curriculum, are welcome to attend.
This year’s candidates represented 28 different countries from almost every continent. While 17 participating teachers were seeking their first international teaching position, 60 arrived with over 10 years of international teaching experience.
Before the fair began, Gez offered a Zoom Q&A session for candidates to ask general questions about the fair. Most attending schools offered live Q&A sessions, attended not only by candidates but also by Senior Associates Gez and Bill Turner. Candidate Shingi Gabi thanked Gez for organizing the event:
I thoroughly enjoyed it and found myself applying to more schools after having been part of the Q&A session. . . My 1st option without a doubt is International School of Lusaka; I connect with their mission and am excited to hear the plans of the school's vision for the future. . . I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to be part of a fair as travelling from Japan for a job fair can be costly financially and time consuming too. . . Keep up the good work.
To allow schools to review and, if desired, preliminarily contact candidates attending, Gez opened the Fair Portal one week before the event began. Candidates requested interviews through the portal December 3rd and 4th, and interviews continued until December 09, after the fair had closed.
Search Associates aims to enable its Africa schools to interview candidates who are motivated to live and work in Africa, wherever their current location may be. School participation in the Africa Virtual Fair will again be offered to Africa member schools free of charge, in December 2023. The virtual format allows any such candidates, anywhere on the globe, to have the opportunity for interviews directly with Africa schools, and is unique in its sole focus on partnering with our member schools in Africa to serve international education on this continent.
