Job Discussion Forums

[tw]

One of my colleagues is a licensed teacher in his home country. He is not a native English speaker but English is commonly spoken in his country. The question here is: can he make the big money, i.e. 10,000+ RMB/month as licensed teachers from USA/Canada/Australia/UK/New Zealand can at an international school, or do those schools only hire licensed teachers from countries of which the students will be studying in?

[johnchina]

Yes, he might be able to get a job. I know of one similar person in Beijing working at an international school. I imagine that it will be more difficult for him though. Many international schools have a hard time finding the right people for maths and science, so if that's his background ...

[danswayne]

Real international K - 12 schools have different hiring criteria than the average Uni or Language Mill. I returned to China to teach in one, but got burned out on real teaching in Florida so now I have a much easier job running my own company. Anyway to answer your question yes he should be able to get a job with a good school if he meets their qualifications. There is usually many more candidates for these positions than there are jobs to be filled so it is tougher. He needs to go to some of the job fairs that are held around the world. Tieonline . com is a good company that advertises for the schools. Also Ciss and something along the line of iss are two of the biggest recruiting agencies for the schools.

[jammish]

I think you will find that International schools pay substantially more than 10,000 a month

[jammish]

Re. the OP's question. I'm really not sure. I teach ESL at an International School (which pays just over the 10,000 RMB mentioned). I'm British (It's a canadian school) and they accept me because I'm only teaching ESL, but apparently, even if I do get my UK PGCE, I still couldn't get a job as a subject teacher there, because I would have to be not just qualified in Canada, but qualified to teach in British Columbia (even a qualified teacher from other parts of Canada couldn't work there!)

[kungfucowboy83]

it greatly varries on the school but non-native speakers with teaching certification in their home country and masters degrees can be hired in some, especially the lower end international schools.

[SnoopBot]

Some of these places will hire people to form a "diversity" pool. However, teaching certifications are very different across the spectrum. The Real International schools are based on the Big 5 education system.

NZ, AUS, USA, CA, UK

If you are not certified from one of these places it is much harder to get.

Certain subjects have a shortage, like Calculus and Physics. (Maybe easier to get placed if a background in this area)

The level taught is not very difficult, but for their IB accreditation but you must have some paper to show. (You don't need to have a PhD)

2nd tier International schools will hire non-native speakers as long as their English speaking level is very high without accent problems.

In general terms to answer the question of the OP. NO to the big bucks Beijing International schools that pay 30,000 RMB a month.

If international schools are going to hire non-native speakers, why not hire qualified western educated returning Chinese with good English speaking ability. (And pay low)

To justify the high tuition that they charge, having only the Big 5 teaching staff is considered a major SELLING POINT. This indicates the teachers are part of the Western Education system and Ding and Ling are going to attend Harvard or Oxford after they graduate from a IB school.

Therefore, they are looking for teachers from the big 5.

International schools usually hire from the same country the top management came from. (Example: UK headmaster = most teachers are from the UK and teaching is based on the British System)

Best chance is to look at 2nd tier international schools that are located outside of Beijing or Shanghai.

Most of these are not real International schools and salaries are much lower, but often much higher than the typical ESOL jobs.

I'll give you an example of comparison.

A few years back I was going to work for a well-known International School.

Teaching Physics at 12,000 RMB a month 40 hours a week.

No housing because I was married, they had teacher shared rooms???(Big turn off but common at 2nd tier schools)

Rent would be at least 3000-4000 RMB a month in that area (I would need to pay this out of pocket)

12,000 - 4000 = 8000 RMB a month after housing

I was earning more at a 6500 @ 18 hour University job and a weekend 1500 Private. 1500 X 4 weeks in a month = 6000 private + 6500 University= total 12,500 a month for 26 hours a week.

12,500 for 26 hours (privates +university w/housing)
12,000 for 40 hours (no housing except shared)

Be careful while looking at 2nd tier International Schools if the highest salary is the primary goal. You can get a higher salary if you get the better private jobs coupled with the lower hour University positions.

All less than 40 hours a week. My interest was teaching Physics, and I almost took the position even though I would take a pay cut. However, the wife wasn't too keen with the area so I didn't take the position.

Jeeesh I hope this post makes sense I'm posting tired.

[william wallace]

nil

[saint57]

[arioch36]

I have found that they hire who they need at the price they can get them for. I taught calc and precalc 10 hours a week last year at a school certified from Australia??? But is seemed they were really running two schools in the same building. One "certified" and one just a "language " school. I know see they were offering low wages. I know they had at least two Filipinos, all other UK CA US or Oz. The Filipinos were used in both "schools"

They had a hard time telling me what they wanted as certification. I have a teaching certificate (4 weeks training then three weeks teaching class under the eye of a certufying supervisor) T.A. experinece at my uni, multiple years here in China, and said I could show them my transcripts. They wanted some other cert. I said forget it. Then they said okay, okay, we'll check with the "home office". Oh, you are accepted I accepted, and should have asked for a lot more
Had the same experience this past spring looking at other jobs.

I guess my moral is that what kind certification or license you need, what country you need to be from.... surprise surprise depends on who else they have to teach at what salary

I am said to say... I have never seen a black teaching at an international school, But in my time, of the 20 blacks I have known well, only two were from native speaking countries,

[malu]

A lot depends on which non native-English speaking country your friend comes from. I'm talking about 2nd tier 'international' schools here - never having worked for one of the big hitters myself.

EU nationals able to teach in English are in a strong position as subject teachers - especially so with IB experience. I know a few Germans working as science and humanities teachers, for example. A similarly qualified Nigerian would undoubtedly have more trouble landing the same job.

Bear in mind that there are also German, Dutch, Korean and Japanese international schools - among many others - and that all these may have the odd vacancy for teachers in the English medium.

I'm surprised that the OP considers 10k a ballpark salary in this market and I'd suggest aiming rather higher.

[waxwing]

[SnoopBot]

[waxwing]

First, SnoopBot, thanks for sharing so many interesting details. I apologise to the thread starter, I know we're off topic. I sometimes wonder whether we could start up a science or general subject-teaching forum for China, since more and more people seem interested in it.

[arioch36]