A remote island off the West Coast of Scotland has added Facebook to its recruitment mix as it continues it search for a new teacher for the new academic year.

The BBC reported yesterday the tiny Hebridean island of Muck is having trouble recruiting a teacher for the start of the new term. Consequently parents on the 2.2 sq mile island, home to just 61 people, have launched their own online search for someone with a love of the outdoors who can cope with the “unique” lifestyle this Scottish island has to offer.

Speaking to Recruiter this morning, Mary Fichtner-Irvine, who runs the island’s Gallanach Lodge hotel, revealed Muck has turned to Facebook to raise awareness of its teacher vacancy, with the island’s current teacher Julie Baker due to leave her post next week.

She explained the Facebook campaign was in support of an advert placed by Highland Council on job board S1 Jobs over the summer. 

According to Fichtner-Irvine, that initial advert attracted just six applicants but only one who came out to the island. The applicant was offered the job but subsequently pulled out two weeks later, she added.

“It’s a great place to live but it’s not for everyone,” Fichtner-Irvine told Recruiter. “You’ve got to like the outdoors life and you’ve got to be pretty self-reliant out here. There are no shops and you can’t pop down to the cinema or any of those activities. Especially during the winter – it’s a long hard winter out here with wind and rain most of the time.

“That said, it’s a beautiful part of the West Coast and also there’s no crime out here. There’s a lot of freedom if you’ve got a family. It’s got a great community, so there’s all these benefits as well.”

For now the search goes on, with the Highland Council due to place a new advert for the vacancy next Monday but if this latest search does not prove successful, the island’s half a dozen or so children will be taught by a supply teacher, Fichtner-Irvine says.

“We have got a supply teacher who’s going to start the term but for the continuity for the kids, that’s not a ideal and how long she would stay? You have to work to find another supply teacher – all of that is up in the air.”

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