Failing to find a freelancer to teach at my Riding School?

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Zipzop

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I have had a member of staff leave and am looking for a qualified instructor for 4 hours on a saturday and 4 hours on a sunday.

I am happy for for a job share and have advertised at all the local tack shops and on facebook, I have had barely a sniff of interest! :(

What am i doing wrong? Do instructors not want to work at riding schools these days?

Is there something wrong with our going rate of £10 per hour?

This is how i started off once i'd qualified and i would have been really happy to take these hours on, maybe it's just me!

We are a lovely busy yard, the horses are treated well and we have a great atmosphere with some really fun clients.

Any ideas about where i can summon up some staff from would be lovely, thank you :)
 
4 hours on both weekend days means no competing or time with your family but equally isnt an actual job So no good for most people.

£10 an hour is a tiny wage as well. I was getting £15 a few years back and that was for a full day so worth my while.
 
I pay my cleaner that. I'm in an expensive area, but still... I would expect a qualified professional to be earning more than my cleaner.

Plus, obvs, as pointed out above, the hours are more 'Saturday job' than 'career'
 
I also pay my cleaner £10 an hour. A self employed qualified person can earn several times that doing freelance teaching. You will need to pay far more to attract one.
 
I think you ought to be offering more like £25 an hour. Are the hours back-to-back? If it's actually four hours, in one block, that makes better economic sense for somene than two hours in the morning and two hours after lunch.

It's not remotely appropriate to offer £10 per hour for someone with expensive, relevant qualifications. Once you allow for their professional expenses (travel, insurance, current First Aid quals etcetc) it would work out at minimum wage if they're lucky.
 
I agree that £10 will not get you a quality candidate. Don't forget that freelancing needs to account for insurance, holiday pay, sick pay etc, as well as travelling. This would be like minimum wage, and after tax that is not much. Plus, not all, but many people who are qualified instructors will also have other clients who are also only available at the weekends plus competing/hunting to do.
 
I'd think that £10 per hour would be a insult to a qualified instructor. I'm guessing that is why your getting no interest.
You need to pay twice that I'd have thought.
 
Hi all,
Many thanks for your input.
Regarding the wage, I have had a secret snoop of the going wages in the area I am based in, all the other riding schools are also paying £10 per hour! :(

One offered me £12 per hour but that was because I was travelling in from an hour away! :(

Oh dear, we may have to make some changes
 
£10 an hour is a poor - but probably acceptable - wage for a job that is at least full time or equivalent. So you have a reasonable number of guaranteed hours during the week. For what is in effect that Saturday job it is too low. My daughter qualified as a BHS AI with the intention of working weekends during uni in a riding school exactly as you describe. And for that level of qualification - an AI or UKCC level 2 - for Uni student without much otherwise in professional experience. Perhaps if you are in a Uni catchment area. But for an experienced professional - well its a buyer's market and I think you have found your own answer. No-one replies to the ad.

There is a world of difference between an advert you want people to reply to and a cold call from an unknown individual asking how much you would pay for something. Of course the latter is lower.

And I should add - my daughter opted not to work in an RS but for Pony Club. Minimum pay £25 per hour..
 
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Zipzop said:
Hi all,
Many thanks for your input.
Regarding the wage, I have had a secret snoop of the going wages in the area I am based in, all the other riding schools are also paying £10 per hour! :(

One offered me £12 per hour but that was because I was travelling in from an hour away! :(

Oh dear, we may have to make some changes
Click to expand...

I think £10 as a full time job, with holidays/sickness etcr might be acceptable but not to a free lancer who needs to cover themselves. Also I would expect weekends to be busy and profitable for most good freelancer and them to be able to earn more than that.
 
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Are there are less trainers out there at the moment. There was a moment when the tack shops were bursting with adverts but recently, there have been very few.

I wonder if it was my business whether I wouldn't first go for the right person and then work out a salary that suits and how you work the finances - the wrong teacher can quickly destroy a business, while the right person will enhance it and give you freedom to do other things. It maybe that there is a charming newly qualified teacher looking to establish themselves who would love the job, but it does depend. Maybe you need to be a little bit more imaginative and employ 2 so they can work out their rota and have some weekends off?
 
I think it is probably wage related, and other schools may pay the same, but would probably also struggle to find people. I don't teach in riding schools any more, but I seem to remember being paid that 20 years ago. I pay my poo picker £10 an hour.

These days, I'd rather clip 2 horses, which would take me an hour, and pay me the same as a weekends teaching.
 
I work as a cleaner. Charge 12 pounds an hour mid week. When I clean the offices Saturday pm then it’s 15 pounds per hr as is unsociable hours. So, 10 pounds an hour for a qualified instructor to stand in the wind and rain teaching every Saturday and Sunday does seem rather low
 
I responded to an ad on facebook for a freelance instructor, and they said £10 an hour, I told them it was much less than I earned elsewhere, and they couldn't believe it. Personally I wouldn't teach on a weekend for that, as I compete my own horses. Yesterday I clipped 3, and it was 2 days of teaching at that rate!
 
I don't think you really want a freelancer, for that wage what you need is an employee. Someone working towards their BHSAI would probably go for it, someone already qualified can either go freelance for more money or hold out for a full time job. A freelancer who wants to remain a freelancer isn't likely to apply for a weekend job anyway, or even to look at job ads, they advertise their services and people contact them to ask their charges/conditions etc. People in general are more wise now than they used to be about employers advertising jobs but wanting their employee to be self-employeed (illegal), so your ad could be putting people off, making them think if the ad is dodgy what are the working conditions going to be like?

Would it not be a legal minefield using a freelancer in a riding school anyway? In the event of an accident there's the client who could potentially sue, there's the freelance instructor who could potentially be sued for bad instruction and there's the riding school who could potentially be sued for providing an unsuitable horse/tack/facilities. What would you do if, during a lesson, the freelancer decided that a client hasn't been well matched to the horse they're riding and they're unwilling to teach them on it?
 
Surely the whole point of freelancers is that they set their fees and you decide whether you want to pay it or not? Otherwise you get into the realms of whether they are actually self employed.

Why go that route rather than employ someone part time, in which case you can offer what you want but yes £10 seems ridiculously low for a qualified professional, for split weekend hours.
 
I’m not sure in the eyes of the law whether a free-lancer that does regular hours long-term isn’t considered to be a direct employee and entitled to statutory sick pay and paid holiday in any case. If they are I think they should be PAYE.
 
I'm not a RI but I was a freelance cleaner while at uni and charged £15 per hour and that was until three years ago. No qualifications needed and in the warm and dry!

My mum is a freelance AI and charges £35 an hour for group and £40 for private 45 minutes approx. I read her your ad and I'm afraid she burst out laughing -weekends are her time for going to shows with clients or competing her own horse and she reckons at that rate, she'd not be able to cover insurance or anything. She suggests tou look for a part time employee.
 
Sussexbythesea said:
I’m not sure in the eyes of the law whether a free-lancer that does regular hours long-term isn’t considered to be a direct employee and entitled to statutory sick pay and paid holiday in any case. If they are I think they should be PAYE.
Click to expand...

My understanding is that that's only the case if the worker only works for one employer. I'm sure there's loads more to it, but I'm no employment law guru!
 
Well this is an eye opening post!

I work as head instructor on saturdays for a charity and only charge £10/hour freelance. I have total responsibility for all other instructors /helpers, horses and riders!
I have my bhs ptt and ukcc2. Worked for the charity for a while now and worked my way up to this.

Maybe need to have a think about what I'm charging, though I had a look around the area and thought this was reasonable!
 
Must depend where you are, £10 for cleaning!I do accounts for £9 per hour, my husband is a Plummer on average £23 pounds per hour. I think it's the only at weekends that also put people off
 
I agree with the comments, its too little. My freelance groom charges £12.50, and she's not earning me money. I would work back. What money are you making on those lessons, and can you afford to employ someone? Skill mix, if its tiny tots and children would someone who is wanting to get their hours do it, if you provide some supervision. No one wants to give up all their weekend, so split the job.
 
Your rates are too low. I employ ukcc2 instructors in other sports. We employ most (it's safer to assume employment for legal status, insurance is easier and it lets us, the employers, have more control). As employees (so with paid holidays, pensions, sick pay and other benefits) they start at £10 per hour. And get training, uniform etc as part of their role.
If you can satisfy the self employment tests (and that will be difficult to do) then that rate would translate to at least £18 per hour.
If you want experience as well, then the rates need to be higher than this.
 
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