Why some schools book external speakers and how to choose a good one (2024)

So, for the last four years I have been delivering motivational workshops and talks in schools around the UK and in Ghana. In fact, in the last 12 months, myself and my team have delivered in more than 50 schools around the UK. We love what we do. Its exciting, fun and we get to make a real difference in lives of young people.

Teachers often do whatever it takes to find the money from a budget somewhere to have us come in and work with their students. The question is why do school's hire people like myself to come in and do what we do? What value do they find with our work.

I sat with a deputy head at a school in Birmingham a few weeks ago that had booked us to come in and deliver an 8 week programme for a group of year 11 students that needed to get motivated prior to their exams. Here's what he said were the reasons why they hired us.

The teaching staff have other priorities

Teachers are very busy with being teachers. On top of that they're doing a lot of pastoral care and the competing priorities they have simply mean they don't always have the focussed time to be able to deliver some of the extra curricular and motivational activities that external facilitators and speakers are brought in to deliver.

Not having dedicated focussed structured time

The school timetable is packed and staff are under increasing pressure for students to be in their classes for as many hours as is possible. This just means that it's very difficult to find dedicated time outside of the timetable where staff and students can meet where the focus isn't around academic subjects. Any spare time is often given over to revision classes. Having external speakers or facilitaors in often forces schools to carve out time where there seemed to be no time. Especially if they are confident that what a speaker is going to say is going to add real value to the students.

Teachers are too familiar to the students

Often times the message an external speaker or facilitator comes to share is the same message that the teachers have been sharing all the while. The students get so used to hearing the teachers voices that they sometimes switch themselves off. Having someone else come in reinforces the message and the message seems to get through. Even some of the most hard to reach students respond more when external speakers come in.

If your thinking of booking an external speaker or facilitator to come into your school consider these three things before you book them.

Don't just look at the quality of a website

Having a website is good but don't be guided purely by a flashy website. Get some references on the speaker to ensure they are a right fit for what you need. If possible ask for some video footage of the speaker in action. The last thing you want is for someone to turn up at school that is unable to connect with your students and the students are unimpressed, you've wasted you're budget and the opportunity is wasted.

It's all about value for your money

Although the price of your speaker and availability of your budget is important, you want to be able to get the most value for your money. So how do you measure someones value before you've ever heard them speak? Do your research. Google them. Take into account the experience of the speaker, what other schools have they worked in and what do those teachers think of them? Do they have any testimonials from students and or teachers? Do they have any video content you can watch? What do other professional speakers think about them? Will there be any sort of follow up for the students after they have heard them speak? These are all good questions to ask to help you ensure that you get value for your money.

Try and meet face to face with the person beforehand

I do my best to meet up with the teachers that book us beforehand. Ill go down to the school, have a look around, even meet some of the students. It allows me to get a feel for the school and find out what their values are. This is the beginning of a long term relationship. It's all about relationship. As the person booking the speaker or facilitator you have to ask yourself, "Do I get a good vibe from the person?" "Do I get the feeling that they will understand our students and our school context?" The fact that the person has taken time out to connect with you face to face beforehand is a really good indicator.

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To see examples of the work we have done in Africa click here and here

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Errol Lawson,