ClassCover vs EducationPosts.ie: What SNAs Should Know
- EducationPosts.ie is a jobs board you apply to and wait on. ClassCover is a booking platform: local schools send booking requests straight to you and you accept with a tap.
- Sub Seeker, the booking tool inside EducationPosts.ie, is open only to Teaching Council-registered teachers, so it cannot book SNAs. ClassCover books SNAs and substitute teachers on the same platform.
- ClassCover does not carry out or speed up Garda vetting. A centralised "vetted once" model for SNAs was proposed in June 2026 but rejected in a July 2026 Fórsa ballot, so nothing has changed this school year.
The short answer: EducationPosts.ie is a jobs board. If you are an SNA looking for sub work, you use it to find schools advertising for SNAs, then apply and wait to be picked. ClassCover is a booking platform. Local schools that already know you send booking requests straight to you, and you accept with a tap. One has you watching listings and waiting. The other has schools coming to you. And it books SNAs and substitute teachers alike, free for SNAs, always.
EducationPosts.ie is a jobs board. ClassCover is a booking platform.
This is the whole distinction, and it is worth being precise about.
A jobs board is a noticeboard. A school posts a vacancy, the listing goes up, and then everyone waits. You scan the listings, put yourself forward, and hope to be picked. There is no way for a school to know who is free today, and no way to confirm anyone on the spot.
A booking platform works the other way around. The school does not post and hope. It opens its own list of trusted subs and SNAs, sees who has marked themselves available, and sends a booking request. You accept with a tap. Cover is confirmed.
The Irish substitute and SNA pool exists. What is missing is the system that gets the right available person in front of the school in time. That is what a booking platform does.
Here is how the two models compare for an SNA.
| Capability | Jobs board (EducationPosts.ie) | Booking platform (ClassCover) |
|---|---|---|
| How schools reach you | You watch listings and apply | Local schools send you booking requests |
| Availability | Schools cannot see if you are free today | You set your availability on a calendar |
| Getting confirmed | Apply and wait to be chosen | Accept with a tap, booking confirmed |
| Your details | Re-check listings and re-apply | Uploaded once, kept on your profile |
| Messaging | Email back and forth | Two-way messaging in the app |
A jobs board waits. A booking platform confirms.
How SNAs use EducationPosts.ie today
Right now, if you are an SNA after sub work, EducationPosts.ie is where you go. You scan it for schools advertising SNA vacancies, make contact, and put yourself forward. It is a genuine, useful noticeboard, and for a lot of SNAs it is the main way of spotting who is hiring.
But it is still a noticeboard. You are the one checking, applying and waiting to hear back. There is no way for a school to see that you are free this Thursday, and no way to be booked on the spot. The platform does have a dedicated booking tool, Sub Seeker, but it is open only to Teaching Council-registered teachers, and it was never available to SNAs. The job board is as far as the platform goes for you.
ClassCover changes who does the chasing. Once local schools have added you to their list and vetted you, booking requests come straight to you. You are found, not left hunting listings.
Where Garda vetting fits in
Garda vetting is the part SNAs ask about most, so it is worth being straight about it.
ClassCover does not carry out Garda vetting, verify it, or speed it up. That responsibility stays with the school and the National Vetting Bureau, exactly as it does now. Vetting is also not portable: a disclosure is issued to the specific organisation that requested it, so in most cases you are vetted again by each school or patron body that takes you on. The one exception is within a single Education and Training Board (ETB), which acts as one organisation for its own schools, so vetting done through the ETB carries across that ETB's schools, but not beyond it.
There has been talk of change. The June 2026 SNA Workforce Development Plan proposed a centralised, NCSE-led model where an SNA is "vetted once" and recognised across every school, the way a teacher's Teaching Council vetting already works. It is a proposal, not a rule. The wider plan was rejected by Fórsa members on 1 July 2026, and it would need legislation, so nothing changes this school year. You are still vetted by each school that takes you on.
Where ClassCover helps is around the vetting, not the vetting itself. A school can add you to its list before your vetting for that school is confirmed, so you are not lost in the gap, then move you onto its bookable list once it comes through. It can request your vetting certificate and documents through the app instead of chasing them by email. And it stores the expiry dates it holds, with a reminder before they lapse, so once a school has vetted you, you stay in its pipeline instead of quietly dropping out of it. For the full picture, see our guide to Garda vetting for SNAs.
What this means for SNAs
For years, most SNAs have had a single channel to work: the phone call from a school that already knows you. That relationship is not going anywhere, and ClassCover does not replace it. Your regular schools stay at the top of your list.
What changes is that you are no longer reachable only when that one phone rings. Set your availability once, and you become visible to other nearby schools that have vetted you, with booking requests coming to you directly. You go from one channel to several. If you are weighing up whether this kind of work suits you, our guide to building an SNA career in Ireland walks through it in more detail.
What this means for principals
If you employ SNAs, the practical win is that you stop running two separate systems: one route for teachers and a scramble of phone calls and WhatsApp messages for SNAs. On ClassCover, both sit on the same booking platform. You see who is available, you send a request, and you get a confirmation, without a public listing to the whole county. For the fuller picture of how this works day to day, see how subs and SNAs actually get booked in Ireland.
The model is already proven
ClassCover operates this booking model at scale:
- 1 in 2 Australian schools rely on ClassCover for substitute teacher and SNA bookings
- 500,000 bookings confirmed per year
- Average booking confirmation time: 2 minutes 17 seconds
The model works. Irish schools and SNAs have not had access to it until now. For the full breakdown of why the category itself matters, read booking platform versus jobs board.
Coming to Ireland
The question SNAs keep asking, how is this different from EducationPosts.ie, has a simple answer. One is a jobs board you apply to and wait on. The other is a booking platform where local schools book SNAs and teachers alike, directly, from a bench they keep vetted and ready.
ClassCover Ireland is open for waitlist sign-ups now at classcoverapp.ie. Schools can apply for the pilot programme. Substitute teachers and SNAs can register their interest. The platform launches in 2026.
Don't post and wait. Book and be done.
For schools
Apply for the ClassCover Pilot Program. Selected schools get 2 months of full access free. Every school that applies gets ClassCover Lite at launch.
For subs & SNAs
Register your interest now and we'll notify you when ClassCover goes live in Ireland. Connect with schools in your area and get booked, at no cost.
ClassCover is free for substitute teachers and SNAs. Always.
Further reading
For broader Irish education and vetting context: Department of Education and Youth (gov.ie), National Council for Special Education, National Vetting Bureau (Garda vetting), Fórsa (SNA representation).
Frequently Asked Questions
EducationPosts.ie is a jobs board, where you find schools advertising for SNAs, apply and wait to be picked. ClassCover is a booking platform, where local schools send booking requests straight to you and you accept with a tap. A jobs board waits. A booking platform confirms.
You can use the EducationPosts.ie job board to find schools advertising for SNAs, but it is a noticeboard, not a booking system: you apply and wait. Its booking tool, Sub Seeker, is open only to registered teachers, so it does not book SNAs. ClassCover books SNAs directly, the same as substitute teachers.
No. ClassCover does not carry out or verify Garda vetting; the school and the National Vetting Bureau stay responsible, exactly as now. What it does is organise everything around the vetting: a school can hold you on its list before your vetting is confirmed, request your certificate and documents through the app, and it gets a reminder before any vetting it holds is due to expire.
Not yet. A centralised, NCSE-led vetted-once model for SNAs was proposed in the June 2026 SNA Workforce Development Plan, but the plan was rejected in a July 2026 Fórsa ballot. For now, you are still vetted by each school that takes you on.
Yes. ClassCover is free for SNAs and substitute teachers, always. You build a profile, join the lists of local schools, and get booked directly, and you are paid by the school.
