The Government is seeking to partner with a recruitment firm to help it hire teachers and staff for the public school system.

A request for proposals, published last week on the Government Procurement website, said the Government wanted to procure comprehensive recruitment services to aid in its transition to a new education authority model.

“This service will include resource planning, advertisement of roles, candidate screening, interviewing and onboarding of both Bermudian and non-Bermudian professionals,” the RFP said.

“The selected provider will collaborate closely with the Department of Education and the Department of Employee and Organisational Development to ensure compliance with recruitment timelines specified in collective bargaining agreements.

“Key deliverables include facilitating transfers, contract renewals and new hires, while also providing regular updates on recruitment progress to support the Government's commitment to maintaining high-quality educational services throughout the transition period.”

Documents included in the RFP stated that the Government encouraged proponents to put forward an “innovative framework” that aligned with established recruitment timelines to ensure “efficient and effective” hiring of staff.

“Proponents should propose creative strategies, methodologies and technologies that enhance the recruitment process while maintaining compliance with collective bargaining agreements and regulatory requirements,” the documents stated.

“The Government of Bermuda welcomes approaches that optimise candidate sourcing, improve efficiency in screening and interviewing, and support seamless onboarding to meet the evolving needs of the Bermuda public school system during its transition to a new Education Authority model.”

The successful applicant would be expected to develop and publish job advertisements using multiple local and international platforms, screen applicants and prepare a shortlist of the strongest candidates.

It would then need to arrange interviews with shortlisted candidates and conduct assessments in collaboration with the education department and the Department of Employee and Organisational Development.

The deadline for proposals was listed as 5pm on March 14.

The RFP comes after the Ministry of Education last year acknowledged hiring challenges that left some signature learning programmes short of qualified teachers.

Diallo Rabain, the Minister of Education, told The Royal Gazette at the time: “It has come to the ministry’s attention the difficulty with the recruitment process and that is something that has been discussed with the DoE and the DOED of how we should look at different ways to recruit, especially these difficult-to-find teachers.

“These are conversations that are taking place now, how it can be more efficient. That is something we promise to work out.”

It was reported last October that the engineering strand of the Stem programme at CedarBridge Academy had been without a dedicated qualified teacher since it was introduced in September 2022.

It was said at the time that the cosmetology strand of the Trades and Profession Learning SLP at the school was also understaffed.

No specific schools were named in the RFP.