What PK Education does

PK Education is a UK-based teaching supply and recruitment agency that places qualified teachers, teaching assistants, cover supervisors, and SEND support staff into schools across England. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Sheffield, the company operates through five regional offices covering South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, North East, East Midlands, and West Midlands. Its service portfolio spans daily/contract supply work, long-term contracts, and permanent placements, organised around four branded offerings: core supply teaching services, PK Pathway (a structured entry programme for candidates without formal teaching qualifications), the ECT Pool (a single-form application system for Early Career Teachers), and the PK SEND Specialist Team (dedicated SEND staffing division).

The underlying platform is a fairly traditional recruitment operation rather than a technology business. The website functions as a self-serve job portal and CV registration system with LinkedIn/Twitter SSO and CV upload integrations (OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive); there is no proprietary AI, ML, or automation layer described. Consultants are the primary value-delivery mechanism, supported by regulatory credentials (REC membership, ISO 9001, Investors in People) that differentiate PK Education from less-disciplined competitors.

PK Education monetises through transaction-based fees on temporary supply placements (daily rates ranging from £98 for TAs to £250 for senior secondary roles) and permanent placement fees, with temp-to-perm conversion as a structured commercial motion. End customers are schools (primary, secondary, SEND, alternative provision), while candidates (QTS, ECT, unqualified career-changers via PK Pathway) form the supply side of a two-sided marketplace. The company is independently owned, privately held, and bootstrapped — no funding rounds, parent company, or institutional investors are disclosed.

Name

PK Education

Legal name

PK Education Limited

Website

https://pkeducation.co.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2001

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

PK Education is a UK teaching supply agency placing teachers, teaching assistants, cover supervisors, and SEND staff into schools across England via five regional offices, monetising daily supply rates and permanent placement fees.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Education Staffing Services

NAICS

Educational Support Services (61171)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Special Education Staffing & Contracted Providers (Paras, Therapists, Specialists) (EDAJAKAL)

Keywords

• Teaching supply agency
• Education recruitment
• School staffing services
• Supply teaching jobs
• Teaching assistant recruitment

Headquarters

HQ city

Sheffield

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices5 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Teaching Supply/Staffing Services: PK Education acts as an intermediary placing teaching staff (teachers, TAs, cover supervisors) in schools. They earn revenue by charging schools for finding and supplying qualified candidates. Both temporary/daily rate work and permanent placement services are offered.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

PK Education operates as a teaching supply agency that places qualified teachers, Early Career Teachers, teaching assistants, cover supervisors, and SEND support staff into primary, secondary, and special schools across England. Services span daily supply cover, long-term contracts, temp-to-perm conversions, and permanent recruitment, with dedicated divisions for ECTs (ECT Pool) and SEND (PK SEND Specialist Team), plus a PK Pathway entry programme for non-qualified candidates.

Product overview

PK Education is a teaching supply agency operating as a single unified service model (not a modular platform). The core offering is connecting schools with supply and permanent education staff. Key product lines include: PK Education Supply Teaching Services (core staffing), the PK Pathway entry-level programme for non-qualified candidates, the ECT Pool for early career teachers, the PK SEND Specialist Team for special needs placements, and Permanent Recruitment Services for long-term hiring. Together these cover the full spectrum of education staffing from daily supply to permanent placements, across primary, secondary, and SEND sectors.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• PK Pathway: A structured, supported programme designed for people with real world experience who want to work with education but lack formal teaching qualifications. Provides comprehensive training (safeguarding, Prevent, SEND and more) and places candidates into partner schools.
• PK SEND Specialist Team

Products and services

• PK Education Supply Teaching Services Core staffing service placing qualified supply teachers, teaching assistants, cover supervisors, and pupil support staff into primary, secondary, and special schools across England on a daily or contract basis.
• PK Pathway Structured supported programme for people with real-world experience who lack formal teaching qualifications, providing training in safeguarding, Prevent, and SEND, and placing candidates into paid entry-level roles such as cover supervisor or learning support assistant in partner schools.
• ECT Pool (Early Career Teacher Pool) Centralized system allowing Early Career Teachers to apply to hundreds of teaching jobs across primary, secondary, and special needs schools through a single application form, with consultants promoting candidates to matching schools.
• PK SEND Specialist Team Dedicated specialist division recruiting and placing Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) teaching assistants, behaviour support, and autism support specialists into specialist schools, alternative provisions, and SEND settings.
• Permanent Recruitment Services Permanent placement service helping schools fill long-term teaching and support staff positions, including advertised permanent roles (e.g., Business Studies Teacher £32,916–£45,352 per year) and temp-to-perm conversion.

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC)coreOthersPK Education is a member of the REC and adheres to their Code of Professional Practice. This membership provides regulatory compliance framework and industry recognition for the company's recruitment practices.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Career Teachers: London-headquartered education recruitment agency placing teachers, TAs, and support staff across England. Competes with PK Education in supply teaching and permanent placements, particularly in regions where footprints overlap.
• Aspire People: UK-based education recruitment agency specializing in supply teachers, ECTs, teaching assistants, and SEND staffing. Operates a comparable regional-office placement model and directly targets the same school buyer personas as PK Education.
• Academics Ltd: UK education recruitment firm placing teachers and support staff across primary, secondary, and SEND settings. Similar regional office footprint and service offering to PK Education, making it a direct competitor for school contracts.
• Tradewind Recruitment: UK education recruitment specialist with regional offices placing primary, secondary, and SEND staff. Similar service portfolio and target customer (schools) with comparable scale and operating model to PK Education.
• Teaching Personnel: Major UK education recruitment specialist placing teachers, support staff, and SEND professionals in schools nationwide. Competes head-to-head with PK Education on daily supply, permanent, and SEND placements with similar product structure.
• Simply Education: UK education recruitment agency providing supply teachers, cover supervisors, and support staff to schools across multiple regions. Direct competitor with a comparable operating model and product mix to PK Education.
• Protocol Education: UK-based education recruitment agency placing teachers, TAs, and support staff in primary, secondary, and SEND schools nationwide. Operates a very similar supply-and-permanent placement model with regional offices, making it one of the closest direct competitors to PK Education.

Broad incumbents

• Hays Education: Education recruitment division of Hays, a global listed staffing group. Competes in the same UK teaching supply and permanent placement market but operates as part of a much larger multi-sector portfolio with national coverage and superior brand recognition.
• Reed Education: Part of Reed, the UK's largest privately held recruitment group; Reed Education is a large-scale, multi-sector education staffing arm competing across the same supply teacher and SEND verticals but with far greater geographic reach and brand recognition.

Emerging players

• Zen Educate: UK-based tech-enabled education staffing platform using digital matching to connect schools with teachers and TAs. Targets the same supply-teaching segment as PK Education with a software-first approach that could disrupt traditional relationship-led agencies.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/pkeducationuk
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCeJPIZXlseUnvTMqjPN9DGQ
• Facebookfacebook.com/PKeducation1
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/pk-education
• Instagraminstagram.com/pk_education

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about PK Education