Education recruiters Areté Leaders and Special Agent are to merge to create ‘Randstad Education – leadership, management and consultancy’ in January.

The new company will provide one point of contact for recruiting senior leadership and business support staff. Operational efficiencies will be created through collaboration of office locations across the country (London, Birmingham, Manchester, Essex).

Steve Pugh, general manager of Areté,  who becomes head of service, says: “Currently there is a significant amount of overlap in our processes, so it seems logical for us to combine, helping to provide customers with better value for money and one contact point for all their senior leadership and business support staffing requirements.”

The Randstad Education Group currently consists of Select Education (soon to be Randstad Education), Special Agent, Arete Leaders, Supreme Education and teachanywhere.com.

Paul Smith, managing director at Special Agent, who will becomes the company’s new managing director, says: “This is a strategic decision that has been made with our customers in mind. We believe that our combined expertise will help us to strengthen our services proposition. Through the combination of both senior leaders and business expertise, our new partnership will ensure that customers get the best of both worlds.”