Job Discussion Forums

Babala · Joined: 28 Jan 2005 Posts: 1303 Location: Henan

My school has been looking for teachers for a month now. They hadn't had much luck finding qualified applicants. Finally they resorted to going through an agency. The way this agency works is that the school pays the agency the salary & housing allowance and the agency then pays the teacher it places and provides housing for them. I knew the teacher would be receiving less money then the other teachers, as the agency would take a fee out but...

She is getting less than half of the salary we are paid
We have private apartments in the city centre, within a 4 minute walk from the school
She has to share an apartment and take the bus to work as she is not close

The sad fact is that if she had gone directly through the school, she would have the same benefits as the rest of us. I am not saying that all agencies are bad but I would advise newbies especially to try and go directly through the school as you will get a better deal.

mlomker · Joined: 24 Mar 2005 Posts: 378

Babala · Joined: 28 Jan 2005 Posts: 1303 Location: Henan

Agreed, definately the FT had not done her research before coming so most of the blame must fall to her. Hopefully though this piece of advice will help out someone else.

Chris_Crossley · Posted: Sat May 07, 2005 5:56 am Post subject: Can she leave?

Does the FT have the means to quit in case she decides that she well and truly has been screwed (or maybe she already has decided this) and wants out? In the circumstances, I would quit unless I simply had nowhere to go and could not return home for lack of funds.

Hence, the moral of the story is: always have a contingency plan, and never dig yourself into a (proverbial) hole that you can't climb out of without your employers being the ones to provide the (proverbial) rope ladder.

NateM · Joined: 19 Apr 2004 Posts: 358

A good resource worth checking out for contacting schools directly is www.findaschool.org . Has links to websites at hundreds of universities. Not all work, to be certain, and many don't have English websites. But it's a start.

http://www.findaschool.org/index.php?Country=China

Babala · Joined: 28 Jan 2005 Posts: 1303 Location: Henan

Thought I would just give an update

We let the owner of the school know how much less the new teacher was getting from the agency he went to. He suggested to her to break the contract with the agency. This is the one time a teacher is lucky that the agency had violated the contract several times so she is able to get out of it.

Lesson to the newbies. Do your homework! Look at all the job posting and you will be able to get an idea of the average salaries people are paid for working ___ amount of classes.

Queenslander · Posted: Tue May 17, 2005 7:27 am Post subject:

Is anyone familiar with Angelina's Cafe? They are a recruiting agency and many of the schools and universities seem to advertise with them. Does anyone know how they are paid or how they get their cut?

nolefan · Joined: 14 Jan 2004 Posts: 1458 Location: on the run

do not trust an agency that handles your salary. An agency's main job is to get you a job and provide the schools with a suitable teacher. The agency should also standby to help clear any misunderstandings that arise between the school and the employee.
Your salary should go directly to you.

As far as that teacher goes, they were happy when they signed the contract but now they want out because they're not getting as much as they could? give me a break!
As long as there is no violation on said contract, they should stick it out or do whatever it is that is required to get out of it.

Babala · Joined: 28 Jan 2005 Posts: 1303 Location: Henan

Nolefan,
I agree with you. It was her fault she signed a bad contract. The contract she did sign with agency was violated. She was damn lucky it was otherwise she wouldn't have to been able to get out of it. My boss is great guy and he didn't want to see her get screwed. Your other advice about agencies/recruiters is also good. They just find you the job, they don't pay you your salary.

Girl Scout · Joined: 13 Jan 2005 Posts: 525 Location: Inbetween worlds

If you're interested here is another site that will help FTs contact school directly.

http://www.chinatefl.com/indexe.asp

This is the site I was using while looking for a university job.

Keath · Posted: Tue May 17, 2005 3:06 pm Post subject:

Actually, this type of arrangement is usually VERY dangerous for both the school and the teacher.

We are a program provider so we also make placements with schools and sometimes third party organizations. We do alot of research on these groups before we decide to cooperate with them.

One sinister organization in particular AITA - Australian International Trade Association run by Michael Guo, charges the school both an introduction fee, and at least 6 months salary up front. The school pays this to AITA.

CONSIDER THIS:

1. Many of the schools dont