A new Internet recruitment drive to combat teacher recruitment shortages in Hertfordshire schools was launched by the children, schools and families department of Hertfordshire County Council.

The site launched at Wheathampstead Development Centre on Friday allows teachers to look up vacancies in the county that are best suited to their qualifications and then apply on-line for the position.

There are currently 252 teacher vacancies across Hertfordshire and teacher recruitment and retention officer for the county council Stephen Lavender believes that this project could help to begin filling those positions.

He said: "We are confident that this scheme will address many of the problems we have with staffing levels and go a long way to overcoming them.

"Some of the main reasons why this site was developed was demand from schools for a new system, poor response from traditional methods, and it is a means of ensuring that the information about jobs is always current.

"When you log on and find a vacancy you can be confident that it is still available, unlike printed advertisements.

"There is also the question of the cost of advertising, last year it cost half a million to advertise vacancies in the Times Educational Supplement alone.

"This site is free to teachers and to schools."

The website went online on April 15 and has aided nine teachers to gain positions.

Newly qualified teacher Sarah Ponting used the site to apply for four positions in Hertfordshire and she gained a position at Bowmansgreen JMI School in London Colney almost immediately.

She said: "Filling in application forms in the traditional way was so time-consuming.

"To be honest I filled in so many different pieces of paper that I can't even remember the exact number.

"With the online system I only had to feed my details in once and the system came back with appropriate jobs.

"It is still really expensive to live in Hertfordshire and I am going to have to live with my parents until I can find a reasonable house but I have always wanted to teach here and so I am over the moon."

The main features of the site include posting a vacancy online, the ability to scan through details of interested candidates using search criteria and the speeding up pf the selection process.

Recruitment officer Alison Parkes demonstrated the use of the software with a member of the teachers returners club a group of qualified teachers who have left the profession but are looking to update their skills.

The address of the new site is www.hertsdirect.org/teachinherts.