Job Discussion Forums

[jm2505]

Anyone got any experience of working for this school?

[spiral78]

'to incorporate' is a verb, not a noun (I just checked Webster 2009 to be totally sure).

Is this really the name of a school? Or a job title? It's weird.

[jm2505]

Incorporate appears to be part of their trading name

[tefl_john]

There is a company called Target who have regular job openings on tefl.com. They have done for years.

http://www.tefl.com/jobs/job.html?jo_id=39052

Would appear this is the company you are talking about.

They are always advertising, so either they have lots of jobs to offer or they have a high turnover of trainers.

[Hod]

Target do a lot of in-house work, where a teacher is based at a company for two years. There was a poster here called Chris who did two years at Siemens, possibly in Karlsruhe, and he sounded happy with his lot.

Years ago, I had an initial telephone interview with Chris (a different Chris, but this guy is the same contact as in the job ad) and also spoke to the in-house teaching manager, Scott, who was based at Siemens. They seemed professional enough and gave candid answers to my questions. It would�ve been a good job, but I wanted to get out of Germany. Looking at the figures in the advert it looks a good deal, but it�d be a demanding job, and I�d imagine only very good teachers need apply.

[March Hare]

Does anyone have any new info about this company?

[johncoan]

[targetrecruiting]

Hi,

I'm responsible for the initial stages of the recruitment process at Target. Maybe I can clarify a couple of points that have come up here so far:

- we have an on-going recruitment process. We're an expanding company and want to have trainers ready to fill jobs that come up because of a) new contracts or b) trainers completing their contracts and moving on.

- yes, the positions we advertise are demanding and yes, we do want well-qualified, experienced trainers to fill them. The initial contract is 2 years, but many of our trainers have been with us longer.

- InCorporate is a rather clever play on words. It doesn't work if you don't respect the capitals.

@Hod: Thanks for the comment.

[Robert M]

I've done freelance work for Target for many years, and I've never had a problem with them. They pay well, always on-time, and everyone in management is very professional and treat their trainers with respect. I know that their business has grown a great deal over the years, which is why they keep recruiting new trainers (usually an existing client decides to offer training to more people or departments, necessitating a new trainer). I also know from experience that their interviewing process is very rigorous, conducted in stages over a long period of time, so that's probably why they cast such a big net when recruiting.

[Sansibar1]

[Clay_C.]

I also had a similar situation 5+ years ago with a seemingly positive interview experience followed by a promise to get back to me within a week that was not kept. If you know anything about the market in Germany, I suggest considering whether you believe anyone has REALLY been growing THAT steadily for 6 or more years to require the constant adverts.

[escuto]

I don't think any of these companies who frequently post on the tefl website are terribly desirable: Easy English has a dark cloud over its head, Logos-Sprachinstitut is a veritable revolving door in a sleepy part of Germany, Steven's has a rather mixed record, the people working the registers at your local Aldi Markt make more than teachers at Inlingua, and the jury is still out on this Target bunch (the only positive reference stinks of collusion). Have I forgotten anyone?

[Hod]

[escuto]

[Minny]

These guys are good and I have worked for my share of dodgy schools so I can tell you these guys are the real deal. I certainly wouldn't bother with any other company in Germany besides these guys.

Good concept - fair remuneration - fair contract - good for both trainer and client.

Yes the interview process is very difficult and it took me over 3 months from beginning to end to be offered a job. (Admittedly I prolonged the process - explained later.)

Having said that I applied for this job several times over a 2-year period and whilst they always mentioned they were interested in my application they said I still didn't quite have the experience they were looking for. So all in all it took me nearly 3 years to land this job.

There was an initial phone interview followed by a second phone interview followed by an online psyche test and you have to submit a demo-lesson plan based on something they give you (and it's not present perfect like usual thank God.), then this is followed by a face-to-face interview that lasted almost 3 hours. It was tough and I made mistakes but I actually enjoyed the process - I like the fact they were interested enough to test me so hard to see if I could do the job.

This school is serious about getting good trainers and not only is this reflected in their long recruitment process but also by the fact that they compensate you for travel and accomodation to travel to the face-to-face interview. (This school is willing to put their money where their mouth is.)

Not only did they check my references but I was allowed to ask some of their current employees questions about the company.

I had actually grown so annoyed with the EFL industry by this stage I actually put a halt on the interview process until I had spoken to enough people to convince me I wanted to work for these guys. The company was very understanding and patient with me during this time. I would even say supportive and quietly confident they knew I would come back after speaking to their people.

Now you might say yeah right ok they only let you talk to the people that are happy well not all the feedback was fantastic but it certainly was honest. (I was actually shocked firstly by the fact that they let me talk to so many people and secondly that the employees were very honest in their replies.)

I asked a number of questions ranging from teaching methods to employee turn-over rates. Most feedback was generally very good there were only a few small complaints that are normal for any organisation.

This school has a high employee retention rate which is an exception for the EFL industry. Many long serving employees who have been with the company between 5 and 8 years and at a minimum people finish their initial 2 year contracts.

Finally, any company that is willing to give you a full contract for 2 years with full employee benifits under German law must have confidence in their business and must be doing something right. In other words they are willing to take the business risks not shift them to the trainer like most freelance contracts do. This is one of the only positions I have seen that offer this not only in Germany but most of Europe.

I think good teachers need to get behind schools like this it is the only way we are going to help improve the industry.

Need I say more?