Job Discussion Forums

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Just browsing through the posts on this thread.

It appears that astr0_b0y has really struck it lucky, in a job where he is payed well, and has a garenteed exension on his visa, in a school where all he has to do is teach there course.

Just goes to show, you don't even need to be good at spelling to be an EFL teacher these days.



On a more serious note, I run a small training outfit in Romania, and while rates here are still pretty low by western standards, I am indeed surprised to find that they are so low in Germany too.

What I can state here, as one of the "middlemen", is that typically, a teacher gets paid about 40-50% of what the school gets.

At some outfits, the teacher gets as little as 25-35%, but we are not one of those. The reason it is no higher than 40-50% is multifold: our own expenses; taxes; the fact that we do the marketing; and last, but not least, the fact that we do most of the preparation and course writing, and thus accept full responsibility for keeping the client company happy.

In fact, one of the challenges we face is that there are many freelancers out there offering their services to companies at much lower rates. However, the vast bulk of them are not native-speakers but Romanian teachers getting paid a pittance in the state system, and who in many cases cannot even speak pre-intermediate English, let alone teach the language. Not only that, but they are even being hired to teach advanced and even proficiency level trainees. [Well, there are a few native-speakers around but they are mostly backpackers who know very little about EFL. I myself wouldn't touch them with the proverbial 40 footer.]

The result? Many disgusted company personnel already speaking high levels of English are coming to us to pay more out of their own pockets than their employers are paying under the table to low-competence Romanians. Even some Romanians themselves, who are well-qualified and experienced, cannot compete on the price front.

I would also add that most of the companies who hire these cheap, poorly qualified teachers are local, with the multinationals (most of our clients in fact) having a far greater awareness of the wider implications and importance of good training and thus using reputable outfits.

I would reiterate that the above relates to Romania, and not to Germany, a market of which I have very limited knowledge. Are there any similarities, I wonder? I would be keen to know.

I would also be eager to discover what percentage of school operators are or have been actual EFL teachers, in Europe or elsewhere.