Job Discussion Forums

[czary]

Hello,

I'm in the process of starting a school and I'm trying to figure out how many native speakers that I will need. How many hours does a typical native speaker teach in a week? Also, does anyone know if it is common for schools to be able to fill the class rooms in the morning till noon hours? I appreciate any feedback.

Thanks,

Chris

[Bialonoz]

It very much depends what type of school, and specifically what type of town/city. If you give more details, it would be easier to reply.

[Kymro]

[Szeliczka]

No to be rude, but if you don't already know the answers to these questions, you don't know enough about the industry to go into business...

[czary]

In the process of creating a business plan. After I have gathered all of the information I will make a final decision to move forward or not. The purpose of the post was to confirm or repudiate already gathered information from the community of teachers. I was purposely vague about which city because I figured that I would get some posts like "if you don't know this yada yada yada" and I don't want to create a bad reputation for the school before I have started. Nevertheless, I understand that the teacher community has a lot of valuable information that could be extremely helpful to my venture and any information that could be provided would be much appreciated. I am an attorney and will not be involved in the actual teaching. I do not have that skill set.
Thanks,
Chris

[Kymro]

Your enquiry doesn't seem to have produced much of a positive result, does it.

Poland is absolutely saturated with language schools.

There are 60 in my city, and new ones open every year.

For a new school to get even a few students you would need to spend perhaps 100k PLN on advertising.

To be honest I don't really think there is much room for the clueless in this game.

[gregoryfromcali]

[paulmanser]

Bitchy comments aye guys. Cut the guy some slack. People need to start somewhere, like basic questions.

Greg, you into the hitman games then yeh? (icon picture)

[paulmanser]

In my opinion I would stick to TEFL teacher.

Private schools, *Too much competition*

[bennyr81]

i think like has already been mentioned it depend where! if you go into the smaller towns/cities where there are less schools you may hit a niche because you school could be the only one offering native teachers! As you already have found out, i guess, that certain cities are just inundated with schools, and what could you offer that no one else is!
On a question of hours...hmmm...say 25! but if you are opening up in a smaller or bigger place it will take time to build up this clientele, and you might have to be prepared to employ the english teachers before getting the hours. risky business, but in the long run could work out. my opinion is forget the bigger cities, start up costs etc ccould ruin you (advertising etc) and go for the smaller towns and branch out from there!

[Grrrmachine]

I'm currently doing a 45 hours week (because I agreed to do saturdays too) but this really isn't sustainable. I was comfortable at 35 hours a week, and if you're a start-up and can convince your native that it's in his best interests (either fresh and naive, or experienced enough to cope with it) then anything up to 35hpw should be acceptable.
And thats 60min hours, not 45s or the 70min "administration" hours.

Yes, Poland does have a saturation in certain areas (Warsaw has 350 apparently, once you include the agencies) but I hope you succeed. If you're not a teacher though, finding a decent DOS will be a must; especially ones willing to cover a class when a teacher goes AWOL.

[gregoryfromcali]

BTW, when I say 25 hours that's I also meant 45 minute hours. 15 minutes preparation time and 45 minutes in the classroom.

Although personally I think that a teacher should be able to refuse to work more than 30 hours a week. In Shanghai I am paid over time if I work more than 30 hours and overtime for working split shifts.

Hi Paul,

Yeah, Hitman's the best. It's all about being sneaky. Like Taiji.

Speaking of which you might like this.

http://web.archive.org/web/20010616221058/sardonia.org/karate/

Grrrmachine,

45 Hours. Now, I know why they call you the machine.

Good times and good luck.

[Grrrmachine]

ah, 45hours isnt TOO bad, that includes 5 FCE classes who are all using the same book, so prep is minimal (even if it is FCE Gold *yawn*)
It's the numerous hours of conversation that are the killer, on a Friday evening when the students really havent got the energy for stimulating or glitteringly witty conversation. Thats when it feels like pulling teeth. And I can always refuse to do the classes - I have 45hours because I work for two schools.
It's probably do-able for the whole winter when you dont want to leave the building at night anyway, but now Spring's here I want my evenings back.

[czary]

I want to say thanks to all of you that provided constructive feedback. The words of advice about taking precautions to have a back up native speaker was especially useful in this phase.
Curious, that there are so many language schools in this city and across the country. It is not exactly a high margin business. I have crunched the numbers and will move forward but only because we are in a unique situation. Namely, we need to only make more than we would otherwise rent the floor for and the opportunity cost of our time and multipliers for the capital risk. That said the multipliers are very low if you make a few conservative assumptions about enrollment 1st year. Also, I suspect that it is probably cheaper in the long run to pay more than the going rate to your teachers and give them great housing to keep them from leaving the school mid year.
Two quick questions. First, we may be out of time but looking into summer camps with the primary purpose to market the school before fall and if we break even that would be a bonus. Anyone taught at a summer camp? If so any thoughts would be great. Lastly, we will bring in the right people to design the course materials but for purposes of crunching the numbers we figured that the beg and intermediate groups would split hours with a non native speaker. Will that be marketable. From our research we have found that about half of the schools do this but the method schools and some others do not. Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Chris

[Kymro]

On what grounds do you believe students would choose your, (completely unknown), school

Or do you happen to have vast amounts of cash to burn on advertising

Do you expect to make a profit in your first year