Job Discussion Forums

[Longing for Nippon]

I was wondering what peoples view on the demand for efl in Japan was at the moment. Are the big schools still expanding and making profit? Is there room for the private school? I notice that people have said the salaries have remained the same for years, maybe even decreasing. What is the future of efl in Japan? Maybe there will be more demand by the Japanese for Chinese language skills in the future.

It would be intersting to hear from people who have started a school by themselves, how have you found the experience? Success or disaster?

[Glenski]

As of recently, the Ministry has allowed English classes to be taught in the elementary schools, but it did not give Japanese teachers any inkling on how to teach such kids, nor did it lay out a plan for any specific curriculum. So, I think the J teachers are relying heavily on any foreign ALTs to provide guidance. The J teachers also need training in English, so a private school that focuses on them would be a benefit.

The Ministry also canceled the requirement to teach on Saturdays, so public schools no longer do this. A few private schools have followed suit, although they did not have to. This was intended to allow time for kids to spend with families, and thereby reduce the amount of juvenile crimes that had recently been seen. However, with fewer classes in the week, students had less opportunity to study for their college entrance exams. The Ministry didn't change that aspect of education, so parents were worried that their children were not going to get enough out of the cut courses, and this opened potential for sending them to eikaiwas, jukus, and private lessons. A school that focuses on getting kids to pass the college entrance exams would be a benefit.

Businesses are also requiring a certain level of TOEIC scores for their employees to get promotions and/or overseas assignments. A school that would help them seriously study would be a benefit.

The EFL market is changing in these three ways and in one more. Many universities are hiring teachers through dispatch companies and/or eikaiwas instead of hiring FT teachers. This will probably have a negative impact on the level of teaching at universities.

Will a private business succeed? Who can say? People are constantly asking for lower and lower fees in private lessons. Desperate teachers are out there, and they are willing to accept 2000 yen/hour for lessons (or even less), so that would draw potential students away from businesses.

[PAULH]

[Akula the shark]

Some good points. Where I live there are Eikaiwa schools everywhere. How well the schools do financially is a case in point, but there are so many schools, and occasionally you hear of one or two closing. Whether or not demand for English will fall or rise is a case in point, but as long as Japanese keep going to English speaking countries on holiday, and as long as there's trade between the English speaking world and Japan, and as long as Japanese researchers and scientists need to be able to read academic articles and journals in English, there'll be a demand for English. However, I see a trend of employers and students wanting more for less these days. Salaries for teachers seem to be going down, and there are many more part time jobs than there were.

[canuck]

I see the future being with more dispatching companies. They are pure evil in the ESL world. Seems like the schools contracting out to dispatching companies are just not willing to do the work in the hiring process themselves, which really hurts everyone. Look at schools like Zenken in Osaka. They will hire anyone, and I mean anyone if you can get a visa. They will send people to public schools to teach with a Japanese teacher in the elementary schools, junior and senior high schools. They prey on people new to Japan, people who couldn't get another job, people looking for experience or people that just don't know better. The people that get jobs there are either as qualified as a JET teacher, without the salary and the support or even less so. On average, the school pays Zenken (or other dispatching companies) around the 400,000 yen mark every month including holidays, and Zenken pays people around 220,000, don't offer holiday pay during the summer but offer a small completion bonus. They are pure evil

With ECC and other companies getting in on the act, they are taking higher paid jobs away from teachers, just to increase company profits, without the same regard to the hiring process.

Along with the Japan yen continuing to nose dive, there also could be a massive nose dive of teachers leaving, and others not wanting to come because "they can earn more closer to home". Hopefully it will reach a point where that will start to drive salaries higher, but I doubt it.

I really feel for the people stuck doing harder work than a JET teacher for example, but only making 50% without the paid flight home.

[Longing for Nippon]

Thanks for the replies. They are very interesting.

Its sad to see these outsourcing companies making so much money from the alt positions. I suppose in the recent past the money would have gone directly to an efl teacher and there would have been more decent jobs out there.

PaulH:

I meant setting up by yourself, teaching at home or at rented premises.

I thought chinese would be popular as more business is going in that direction now. The Japanese economy seems to be benifiting from the boom in China.

[PAULH]

[PAULH]

[BradS]

Just something I've noticed in the ads... there are quite a few English Schools up for sale if you're thinking of starting one.