Early in my career, I had a wonderful time working at a non-profit school (AUA - American University Alumni Learning Center) in Thailand. The course fees were (and presumably still are) very affordable because the school was supported by the Thai Royal Family. There were branches of varying size all over the country. The main school in Bangkok had perhaps 20 classrooms, and was open six days a week, from 9am till 9pm.
AUA offered a very supportive work environment. As a non-profit, they were concerned with the quality of the lessons, not making huge profits. They didn’t pay the best wages (tho they were competitive) or have the latest technology…but it was a pleasant place to work.
I don’t image that anything of the same scale exists in Taiwan…but anyone know of decent non-profit schools? (I’m not currently in Taiwan, and feel compelled to add that this is not a joke.)
Taipei American School is non-profit. Taipei European School might be non-profit as well. Kaohsiung American School is most likely non-profit too. The British Council in Taiwan used to be pretty much non-profit but they seemed to have swung more toward the profit side of things with some recent changes.
Non-profit only means the entity doesn’t make a profit. It doesn’t mean investors, directors, or whomever aren’t paid a fair whack of cash before the bottom line is calculated. Plus without certification, it would be hard to get into TAS or similar schools.
Thanks for the feedback, everyone! It is true that “non-profit” can make a school seem more altruistic, when in fact it’s a pocket-lining sham. Still, it can’t hurt to ask, right? I’ll investigate the schools mentioned above. Thanks again.
Also, the British Council being ‘non-profit’ has traditionally been because they are supported by British taxpayers as some kind of retrograde post-war ‘soft power’ bollocks. Recent governments want to stop that, for obvious reasons. Its current mandate in east Asia is to get under-qualified Asian rich kids to drop 14 grand a year in tuition to prop up funding for low and middle-ranking unis in Britain, not to ‘provide’ anything.
[quote=“Ermintrude”]Also, the British Council being ‘non-profit’ has traditionally been because they are supported by British taxpayers as some kind of retrograde post-war ‘soft power’ bollocks. Recent governments want to stop that, for obvious reasons. Its current mandate in east Asia is to get under-qualified Asian rich kids to drop 14 grand a year in tuition to prop up funding for low and middle-ranking unis in Britain, not to ‘provide’ anything.
Feeling nostalgic about AUA![/quote]
I’ve done some work for them here and there, although I am not a UK citizen. I was told they are approximately 20% government funded and therefore they must adhere to a lot of rigid bureaucracy. Very recently, they have changed a lot of stuff and they were quite vague about it. They have changed their business model and they’re something more of a buxiban now than they were before. Don’t know all the details, as I said, what they told me was quite vague.
[quote=“gavmasterflash”][quote=“Ermintrude”]Also, the British Council being ‘non-profit’ has traditionally been because they are supported by British taxpayers as some kind of retrograde post-war ‘soft power’ bollocks. Recent governments want to stop that, for obvious reasons. Its current mandate in east Asia is to get under-qualified Asian rich kids to drop 14 grand a year in tuition to prop up funding for low and middle-ranking unis in Britain, not to ‘provide’ anything.
Feeling nostalgic about AUA![/quote]
I’ve done some work for them here and there, although I am not a UK citizen. I was told they are approximately 20% government funded and therefore they must adhere to a lot of rigid bureaucracy. Very recently, they have changed a lot of stuff and they were quite vague about it. They have changed their business model and they’re something more of a buxiban now than they were before. Don’t know all the details, as I said, what they told me was quite vague.[/quote]
You don’t need to be a British subject. That would be against British law anyway.
I dunno. I hated working there, but it’s kind of an apprenticeship for British EFLers and I did make a couple of lifelong friends. It’s a good thing to do when you’re a kid, because it teaches you to be versatile and to suck up admin shit so that when you work in Britain proper, it’s water off a duck’s back.
Politically, I think the British Council is outmoded in the modern age and doesn’t provide value for money for British taxpayers. Why they are subsidising shit such as IELTS (my IELTS rant about how IELTS is an elitist, not fit for purpose pile of shit used to control immigration in the UK, and to get overseas’ kids who only have band 6.5 in IELTS wasting their educations and fucking up English speakers’ educations in Brit unis is fairly long and detailed ) and English lessons for wealthy east Asian countries and collaboration with dance troupes, etc, is actually fairly sinister, in my mind, and it pisses me off. There are better things the money could be spent on. By ‘better things’, I don’t mean sending a bunch of twenty-something with shiny new DELTAs into Libya or North Korea or other such hare-brained crap! The whole thing should be dismantled and reconstructed, which won’t happen for another 20 or 30 years because it’s too tied up with the establishment.
I agree with a lot of what you’re saying there, although I have far less detailed knowledge of the BC and less personal investment since I am not a UK citizen. I really don’t like the idea of the training that they offer to teachers because it is very expensive and very limiting. Personally, I think a DELTA is a COMPLETE waste of time and money. One would be much better off putting that into a real (proper) teacher certification program (programme).
There aren’t any for adult TESOL, in the UK. The PGCE is a course for schoolteachers and nothing to do with TESOL. The PGHE would be the closest. It’s not great. I’ve taught on it.
The DELTA’s just a short thing. It’s not terrible, but I’d still hire a DELTA person over a PGCE to teach EFL/ESOL/EAP because someone who has gone through the PGCE is more of a risk as they’ve only done teaching practice with children, and because their subject knowledge may be patchy. That’s a generalisation, though. EAP/HE people can be brilliant with kids, just as kids’ teachers / real (proper) ( ) teachers are often able to hold their own in HE or ESOL or whatever. DELTA’s a starting qual, a step up to your masters which is a step up to your doctorate, if you’re going all in. It’s supposed to be practice-based and the proof’s often in the pudding. The problem with DELTA is that many look at it as an endpoint, not a beginning. Of course there’s not much there: it’s a basic training course, the next step up from a one-month ‘taster’ of CELTA. The key is how a teacher springboards from it and what’s on their CV in the few years following their DELTA. No training will really improve your skills, it’s just a space in which you can explore stuff. And, obviously, the stoopid certificate you need to get through the door in the first place.
My thoughts on DELTA / CELTA are similar to the IELTS test: they piss me off for political reasons, as much as anything.
) teachers are often able to hold their own in HE or ESOL or whatever. DELTA’s a starting qual, a step up to your masters which is a step up to your doctorate, if you’re going all in. It’s supposed to be practice-based and the proof’s often in the pudding. The problem with DELTA is that many look at it as an endpoint, not a beginning. Of course there’s not much there: it’s a basic training course, the next step up from a one-month ‘taster’ of CELTA. The key is how a teacher springboards from it and what’s on their CV in the few years following their DELTA. No training will really improve your skills, it’s just a space in which you can explore stuff. And, obviously, the stoopid certificate you need to get through the door in the first place.