| What if children were to choose their own teachers for their day care centres? Sounds impossible? And yet we have found a way for children to shape the job advertisements: Through short video clips in which they express their everyday life, their wishes and ideas.
That’s how it all started: Offenbach is growing. And with this growth, the need for child day care is also growing. And with it the need for educators. But the Eigenbetrieb Kindertagesstätten Offenbach – EKO did not want to go looking for staff in a scattergun approach, but rather find those “who fit us” and to whom the day care centres fit. It was to be a hit for both and the start of a long-term, fulfilling and successful cooperation. The city of Offenbach dared to take a new path and approach potential applicants in a very personal, emotional and individual way. The EKO runs numerous day-care centres throughout Offenbach and these were also the filming locations for the recruiting clips. In these clips, children describe terms that they are given and that have to be guessed. The terms are not allowed to be named. For example, the term “educator” is described as “superhero”, “protector”, “rescuer in distress” or “storyteller”. What triggers this? Potential applicants for a job as an educator in Offenbach are directly involved, learn more about their job from the children’s point of view and get a feeling for the cooperation and the diverse tasks at EKO. During the filming, it was surprising how committed and enthusiastic the children were about their day care centre, how openly they expressed their opinions and how curious they were about the camera team. Simply infectious. Such a format makes very good use of the communicative strengths of the medium of film by allowing invisible aspects such as values and feelings to be expressed. If you put on the applicant’s glasses, you have already taken a decisive step towards successful recruiting. Curious now? You can watch the image film “We love Offenbach” here. If you want to try your hand at guessing, click here for the recruiting clips. |
