What is with these ‘schools’ demanding 176 hours of attendance and only paying a standard $6-750.
Are people actually going to accept these offers?
Jobs are scarce, but really?
[quote=“Angie96”]What is with these ‘schools’ demanding 176 hours of attendance and only paying a standard $6-750.
Are people actually going to accept these offers?
Jobs are scarce, but really?[/quote]
I’ll take it. In case you can’t do the math, that’s over 120K a month.
They get you with the old bait and switch - give you an offer that seems great but once you’ve signed the contract and you’re working you might not think so anymore.
In this kind of school, you must be at the school from 8 until 5, but they pay you only for the teaching hours. You may end up teaching about 100 hours a month or more, but get paid only $60K per month. And they do expect you to do a lot of work in these schools, too - grading monthly tests for classes you teach once a week for 40 minutes, spending time with kids that drop into the office, helping kids prepare for whatever GEPT test or speech contest that is coming up, plus whatever other work you’re given to do.
The kids can be lots of fun, but if you’re being paid by an agency that places you into a school, you’re getting the short end of the stick, for sure. The school demands you do a lot of work because they’re paying a load of money to cover the agency fee, which is likely 50% or more of your salary. To top it all off, the agency, being on the edge of legality, might not be providing you the healthcare or insurance they are required to do so. The CLA advice desk says that if you’re in a situation like that, working for an agency at one of Taiwan’s private Junior or Senior High Schools, that you should get a different job. :loco:
[quote=“twocs”]They get you with the old bait and switch - give you an offer that seems great but once you’ve signed the contract and you’re working you might not think so anymore.
In this kind of school, you must be at the school from 8 until 5, but they pay you only for the teaching hours. You may end up teaching about 100 hours a month or more, but get paid only $60K per month. And they do expect you to do a lot of work in these schools, too - grading monthly tests for classes you teach once a week for 40 minutes, spending time with kids that drop into the office, helping kids prepare for whatever GEPT test or speech contest that is coming up, plus whatever other work you’re given to do.
The kids can be lots of fun, but if you’re being paid by an agency that places you into a school, you’re getting the short end of the stick, for sure. The school demands you do a lot of work because they’re paying a load of money to cover the agency fee, which is likely 50% or more of your salary. To top it all off, the agency, being on the edge of legality, might not be providing you the healthcare or insurance they are required to do so. The CLA advice desk says that if you’re in a situation like that, working for an agency at one of Taiwan’s private Junior or Senior High Schools, that you should get a different job. :loco:[/quote]
Have you been spying on my life :bravo: Time to send out more resumes :s
TWOCS, thank-you for the intelligent response.
$65 000 for 176 hr/ month just does not cut it.
[quote=“Angie96”]TWOCS, thank-you for the intelligent response.
$65 000 for 176 hr/ month just does not cut it.[/quote]
Did you mention the monthly salary in your OP?
65,000 for 8-5. You have to be there all day for that. I wouldn’t do it, but it’s better than some offers I’ve seen. Awful lot of time at the school though.
Let’s face it though… it’s better than ‘most’ offers that you will see.
The salary band in Taiwan for foreign teachers is heading down. I don’t expect that it will head lower, but… let’s look at it this way… exactly how many hours would you really expect to get from 8am to 5pm anyway? Not many. If you want a day job and don’t want to work into the night, suck it up and go for it. It’s not that bad. You could always pick up some extra work with another work permit or two. OR you could work afternoons and evenings. The ball is in your court. It doesn’t seem that bad for mornings and afternoon work, although, probably illegal kindy stuff.
If you like to work hard and are always preparing for your classes before work like me it’s not such a bad deal at $65K. The only difference is where you prepare for your classes.
But there are too many people working for agencies in Taiwan for $60K a month. The biggest problem is that with an agency you now have two bosses. The agency tells you one thing and the school tells you another thing. The agency is collecting 25-50% of what should be your paycheck and the school thinks they are paying you well so you should go above and beyond. The agency might not even give you your paychecks on time or take random deductions in multiples of $1000, both of which happened with the agency I foolishly signed up with. The CLA told me to avoid that kind of company. Technically it’s illegal but there’s nothing that any officials do about it. I’d advise you to stay clear of that situation.
Maybe you can find a school to hire you directly. If they give you an ARC the name of the school where you work should be on it - all legit-like (not the name of some cram school kilometers away from where you go each day for 8.5+ hours).