Job Discussion Forums

[lk003]

As mentioned in another post, I'm looking for my first ESL job (I have a Bachelor's degree and a CELTA). I've read some pretty bad things about ILA Vietnam online- can anyone confirm/ deny that it is a bad place to work? Seeing as I have no experience, I am not expecting to be working in a top-tier school, but also don't want to be taken advantage of. Is ILA a good school to start an ESL career at?

[I'm With Stupid]

They recently got new investors and it's just expanded massively in HCMC. From what I've heard (I still know a lot of people who work there), it's gone a bit downhill. A lot of managers are now in charge of multiple schools and so are ridiculously stressed out and less able to offer personal support to new teachers than they used to. I've heard of teachers having classes taken off them half way through courses with no notice, for timetabling reasons, rather than educational reasons, and there's certainly an impression that business decisions overrule pedagogical decisions nowadays (they always did to some extent, of course).

Having said all that, this is from a starting point of being one of the best schools for recently qualified teachers. The professional development, the working environment and the social life are all still great. They might not be quite as good as they were 5 years ago, but they're still probably better than 99% of schools in the country that would take on a new teacher. And they're certainly a reputable company. They're not going to forget to pay you or anything like that.

[ExpatLuke]

Yep ILA is fine. They're definitely entry level, but that's exactly what you are. They'll probably teach you a lot of good things in how to teach effectively.