Job Discussion Forums

[wangdaning]

I have met many teachers with a CELTA who feel that makes them experts

[vikeologist]

[choudoufu]

[BlueBlood]

vike, In which city do you work? I'm guessing GZ.

[pennywise]

It seems that the criteria for what constitutes a 'TEFL certificate' for most advertised jobs is lax at best it seems then. At the moment I only have a 20 hour classroom based cert I completed a couple of years back, but I'd like to trade up to a celta before I go (as much for the benefit of myself as my students). It looks like it would be a tricky proposition to make it all work out though - I would need to quit my job in January and take a month to do the course, then immediately fly out on completion. Would a university entertain a speculative application with the caveat that I would be completing a celta just prior to joining them, and in February? Given that of course a pass at celta is not guaranteed.

[vikeologist]

[Bud Powell]

"...I think NQTs might be better off at Unis that have a lot of experienced teachers..."

My experience at public universities is that almost all of the other FTs are NQTs in every sense. My colleagues got their degrees out of boxes of Cracker Jacks. (You know, those 4"x 6" degrees in leather- bound cases). It's obvious to everyone, including the students.

That must be why I've been offered five year contracts at most of the universities I've taught for. The universities I've taught for know when they've got NQTs, and they don't seem to care enough to vet these people.

[vikeologist]

I'm not really sure what the problem is (according to another thread) finding contact details for Unis.

I wanted to find out how much the Unis in Ningbo pay, because I think that there is an increasing perception, albeit a false one propagated by the CFTU clown, that Uni jobs should pay 6k a month. Anyway I searched for Unis in the city. A lot of the job ads are very out of date, and thus I still don't know whether they're paying more now, but I had no problems finding and verifying contact details for all the Unis from 2 or more sources.

Perhaps my city is an exception. The interesting thing is that the recruiters are advertising higher salaries than the Uni websites themselves. Now there is one Uni that pays more, and perhaps all the recruiter ads are for that one, but it did make me think that people might decide to apply through recruiters in the perhaps mistaken belief that they're applying for better paid jobs. I suspect that some Universities actually advertise lower salaries than they actually pay. My Uni does, though I'm going to try hard (once more) to change that.

I would advise people to ignore the salaries that Unis advertise, and obviously to ignore absolutely everything that recruiters advertise if they're not giving the name of the University or school.

When searching for schools in a city, take their 'location' with a grain of salt. Once somebody asked about a school in Ningbo, and I'd never heard of it. I eventually found the school, and it was a long, long way from Ningbo. This is fairly common.

BudPowell - I take your point, (I think). If someone did a CELTA / Trinity, and wants to embark on an ESL career, Chinese Universities may be a dispiriting disappointment. I've found it impossible to get my Uni to become the professional, competent environment for foreign teachers I wanted it to be, though that may be my fault even more than due to the nature of 'Chinese universities'.

Incidentally, the first ESL job I mentioned wasn't in China. I'm far from convinced that anybody should start an ESL career in China. I'm afraid I'm extremely dispirited by the level of language teaching in China.

[Bud Powell]

[ben.detw]

Thanks for all the helpful information, I really appreciate it!

If anyone is looking to leave their current job and thinks I would be a suitable replacement, please send me a message. I am flexible with location if the job is suitable.

Have a good day everyone!
Ben