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TBI (The BritisH Institute) Opening in Bali in 2013?

 
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bradleycooper



Joined: 12 Apr 2013
Posts: 310

PostPosted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 8:16 am    Post subject: TBI (The BritisH Institute) Opening in Bali in 2013? Reply with quote

http://id.jobsdb.com/ID/EN/Search/JobAdSingleDetail?jobsIdList=200003000699742

A couple of days ago I posted that TBI Malang has closed and re-opened under the new name TBI The Boston Institute. Today someone got in contact with me and said that maybe the long-delayed TBI Bali is actually happening and may be open later in 2013. It was originally supposed to open in early 2012 but it then appeared to be put on for over 15 months. It could actually be happening this time though. They are now advertising for office staff to set it up.

Will they have tough competition in Bali? How popular is EF Englishtown?
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SiThep



Joined: 30 May 2013
Posts: 39
Location: Thailand

PostPosted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 7:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A school in Bali hey? Might be very popular. Any idea whether it is going to be centrally managed?

Last edited by SiThep on Wed Aug 21, 2013 9:15 am; edited 1 time in total
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bradleycooper



Joined: 12 Apr 2013
Posts: 310

PostPosted: Fri Jun 14, 2013 7:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The word is that it is going to be centrally managed. They call the centrally managed schools "group schools". There are only 5 left after TBI Malang folded a few months back. This will be the first new "group school" TBI has opened since 2007. (That one, TBI Paskal, was eventually sold off because of cash flow problems.)

TBI opened a whole heap of franchise schools between 2006 and 2009 but these have gone really badly. Two of them- TBI Semarang and TBI Cengkareng- ended up going belly up. Another one, TBI Bekasi, has a bad reputation for reneging on promised salaries and airfares and so on. The franchise system is completely broken and in 2011 they announced they wanted to move away from selling franchise schools to opening more "group schools". Apparently both TBI Bali and TBI Palembang had been slated to open in early 2012 but it is now mid-2013 and neither of them have opened. They are finally advertising for staff for TBI Bali, which means they have probably scraped the money together for that branch at last. There is still no word about TBI Palembang. I have no idea whether it is a "someday" or a "long forgotten" proposition.
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bradleycooper



Joined: 12 Apr 2013
Posts: 310

PostPosted: Tue Sep 03, 2013 11:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Still no trace of this one. They were advertising for staff back in May, but then everything went quiet. It may be on the back-burner. It may be cancelled. Who knows? The road to Hell has always been paved with good intentions at TBI.

Plans to open TBI Bali have fallen through several times in the past, so a new failure should surprise no one. There is now no sign of TBI Bali on their website or anywhere else on the net except the original job ad. They have often had trouble getting the cash together to open schools and so rely on investors. Problem is their former employees have posted so much negative stuff about them online that attracting investors is hard.

We received emails a few weeks back thanking the former teachers who have blogged about TBI scams. There was a woman who contacted us and said she had planned to invest in a TBI franchise but had pulled the plug based on the negative reports from TBI Bekasi teachers. She said she was glad to get the warnings before it was too late. When we checked her Linked-In account, she did indeed own several PT companies, so this was probably legitimate. Whether she pulled the plug on TBI Bali in particular has yet to be confirmed, but it has certainly disappeared off the radar.
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princesss



Joined: 28 Mar 2007
Posts: 152
Location: japan/indo/aust

PostPosted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 12:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I saw that TBI have now started to advertise for teachers for this alleged school. Again. They tried to open it in 2012. And 2013 when this thread started. And then nothing happened both times. Do you think they might get their act together this time? This is, what, the 6th time they've been boasting their TBI Bali would open?

Overall they still seem to be in the doldrums. I recently heard that TBI Kuningan has only 6 foreign teachers now. They had 10 a few years ago so they certainly aren't doing well. Maybe they think opening a school in Bali will improve their image. They certainly need a boost.
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bradleycooper



Joined: 12 Apr 2013
Posts: 310

PostPosted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 5:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

SiThep wrote:
A school in Bali hey? Might be very popular. Any idea whether it is going to be centrally managed?


Judging from the job ad, it will be another one of their "Indonesians only" schools so expat teachers needn't apply. They have asked for an IELTS score of 7.0, which means they only want Indonesians. This no expats policy is the same as TBI Malang which has only had Indonesian teachers since it re-opened after an 8 months closure (due to being dumped by their JV partner).

TBI is now becoming more of a "locals only" affair like LIA. They are now Indonesian-managed at all but one branch. They have struggled to attract expat tecahers since the DIKNAS regulations, so maybe it is a realistic plan for them to move "down market" and give up on the Native Speaker component. Qualified teachers go to Wall Street or international schools. One wonders if they have adjusted their prices down accordingly, however. Somehow I doubt it.
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Tazz



Joined: 26 Sep 2013
Posts: 512
Location: Jakarta

PostPosted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 5:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Given this change in policy-away from hiring 'native speakers'....I wonder what is remotely 'British' about this institute anymore? Smile
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bradleycooper



Joined: 12 Apr 2013
Posts: 310

PostPosted: Mon Apr 14, 2014 3:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tazz wrote:
Given this change in policy-away from hiring 'native speakers'....I wonder what is remotely 'British' about this institute anymore? Smile


There is nothing remotely British about The British Institute. They no longer employ a single British manager in any of their 16 schools. I know of former British teachers who were ripped off for their salaries at TBI Bekasi who consider it an absolute insult that these grifters use the word British in their company name. A more appropriate name would be "The Betawi Institute" these days.

TBI is fast becoming the new "LIA". LIA is a massive English-school chain in Indonesia. They have multiple branches in all major cities but you never hear about them on here because they have a "zero foreigners" policy. They have 100% local staff. They are very cheap too. You can study with them for 3 months for less than $50. I understand the appeal of LIA in an emerging economy like Indonesia- the Indonesian middle-class have very little disposable income by Western standards. What I don't understand is who would want to pay TBI prices (3 times LIA approximately) for the same product- English classes from local tecahers. Then again, it isn't as if most of their schools are at all popular.
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