Job Discussion Forums

[vikuk]

[zanne]

I feel Trevor has done his best and feels he shouldn't have to justify himself. I agree.
It so happens the Witt Beijing are somewhat better than most companies that advertise. I have also worked for them and, apart from not really knowing where you are being posted, can't slam them on anything.
They can be very helpful and assist in sorting out many of the problems one encounters working in a strange environment, and with strangers to boot.
But, as with all companys, one can never tell exactly what your fellow workers are going to be like. That's all part an' parcel for anywhere. But if you have a good school, and good companions, all the better.
I'd work for them again.

[fitzgud]

Yet another plant to water, or am I just a sceptic?

[Trevor Wadlow]

See what I mean about paranoia? You will accept any old negative comment without question and little evidence. Positive comments seem to require years of experience and documentary evidence. All very strange. If people really don't have a clue who to trust then what on earth is the point of this forum?

[vikuk]

So Trevor tell us exactly what is so good about WITT (so far you've been a bit secretive on the details of your daily WITT employment) -
lets have look at the job/jobs they've found for you - type of job, rates of pay/hours, housing, traveling details if you have to commute to your work. That's the kind of stuff that makes an impression in these threads!!!!

[Trevor Wadlow]

Fair enough. I knew where I was being posted before I arrived in Shanghai. Qidong is a provincial town a few hours from Shanghai. As a Londoner I hated the place on sight. It reminded me of shabby parts of London that I don't visit. I also hated all the stuff that others have dealt with in these forums, especially the inefficiency and casual way we are treated by the Chinese. Witt were helpful on all matters, advising me not to lose my temper. When it became unbearable they tried to organise a move to Fuzhou. For logistical reasons this didn't happen but I was moved briefly to Yancheng to help out with a view to this being a pemanent position. If Qidong was a bad dream, Yancheng was a nightmare (none of it Witt's fault. The co-ordinator was useless, the accommodation was crap and we would turn up to empty class rooms). I then returned to Qidong to cover for a new teacher who would be late arriving. In the interim something miraculous had happened. Everything is efficient (I like to think it's because I blew my top with the co-ordinator and absolutely refuse to be treated casually), my flat is bigger than the one I have in London and I have acquired two Chinese friends. I requested staying here and Witt fixed it. I teach 1 classes of 13 year old kids per week, I design my own lesson plans to reinforce what the Chinese teachers are teaching. I grade papers at the senior school and am writing the copy for the school brochure. I should be teaching the FEC programme but the school has other ideas. Not Witt's fault. My flat is on the main campus, it takes about ten minutes by bus to get to the junior school. I'm not sure if I should be revealing what I earn (if it's important I'll check that it's OK) but I save most of what I earn and it increases yearly. My flight here was reimbursed in the first month. Excuse me, does this sound like a bad company to work for?

[Trevor Wadlow]

sorry, it should have read 13 classes of 13 yr olds.

[vikuk]

The events/circumstances you're writing about sound like the typical type of things you can expect when taking up a badly organized Chinese EFL job. The way WITT handled the problems seem have satisfied you, and indeed all they did was fulfill their role as recruiter in the light of possible lousy planning (its their responsibility that they send you off to places you find a bad teaching location � and it seems to me that you don�t need a recruiter to find them) - but your account at least seems to place WITT at a standard that lies above the worst in the China EFL circus.
So in the defense of WITT, you have rightly pointed out the organisation helped you out of the situations � in a damage control exercise. So the most positive thing we may deduce from your WITT experience is -
There is a chance they will send you to a crappy school (two crappy schools) but they won't abandon you - and you might end up teaching at the first crappy school that suddenly turns out to be a decent school (everything becomes efficient because you blew your top)!!! By the way did shabby Qidong get a new coat of paint during your short absence � or do you still find it a distasteful location because it reminds you of the slums of London????
And I don�t think you should be too soft on your employer -

[Trevor Wadlow]

Fair enough, you have reassured me. This is my first TEFL job and I am paid 5,000 rmb a month by Witt. A 'lead' teacher, in charge of a team, is paid 7,000 a month. From what I've read in other sources this seems OK to me.

In truth, I hate Qidong and am wondering if China as a whole is my cup of tea. In my darkest moments I keep my head down, watch lots of DVDs and try to develop as a teacher. The kids I teach are lovely, it's the adults I don't care much for.

[vikuk]

Sorry to hear you're having such a rough time of it Trev - the 5,000/month can't be much compensation for having to spend so many free-time hours infront of the DVD.

[SocratesSon2]

Well Trevor I hate to tell you that this is just another instance of a Chinese employer screwing you and having a smile on their face while they are doing it.

Your working for what in my and most peoples opinion is the worst type of recruiter. That is the type that not only finds you the job, but also pays you your salary. These folks are basically leeches. The schools these types of agents work for and are contracted with often are not licensed to hire FT's, so they use an outside agency. They pay that agency a fair amount, meaning a lot, and then you get the drippings from the masters table, as the saying goes. You can rest assured that if you are getting 5,000 that Beijing WITT is getting 9 or 10. If being exploited in this way is not a big deal to you, then hey, more power to you.

I personally would never work for one of these outfits simply on principle. Never having been a fan of parasites who leech off of my hard work and do nothing has never been big on my list of favorites.

I am sure they have been quite nice and helpful. If I am having some sucker working for me, no offense intended, who is making me boatloads of cash for doing nothing, I will treat them like royalty to. Never mind the fact they kept placing you where ever would take you, regardless of the schools quality.

I also think the recruiter is responsible for where you get placed, at least in part. One bad placement can be coincidence, but two? Discovering that you are being paid directly through WITT only tells me they are worse then I first thought. Even a good parasite is still a parasite.

[Brian Caulfield]

Witt when it was under New Zealand management farmed me out to a rural city in Shanxi. I too got 5000 but my feeling was I was third in line to get paid. They farmed me out to another recruiter which I later found out.

[zanne]

Ok, I'll add to Trevore comment. Witt do their own recruiting. It is not done through an outside source.
Trevor was given a posting in Qidong. Now Qidong is a large country town, not a city. It has everything one needs for day-to-day living but not much in the way of history (1 pagoda), night-life or entertainment. It is easy to get around and has Western-style cafes and several good supermarkets and well as numerous Chinese ones. But it isn't for everyone.
I was actually working with Trevor in Qidong and had lived there for two years. We are employed to do a program, FEC, but Qidong Middle School decided it didn't fit well into their timetable. The FEC program calls for each class to have 5 lessons a week, a fact that a lot of schools find is impossible. So they wanted us to do "oral" classes.
As you all know, "oral" classes to 70-odd students is impossible. So, a new program was instigated to use the same text book as the Chinese-English teachers use and build a lesson from that. The system fitted and worked well. Working about one week behind the native teachers gave the students time to absorb the material and all we had to do was to get them to use it/ build on it/ add to it. And this is what Trevor is still doing at the school.
Trevor is being honest here. He hated Qidong from the first day. In fact, he wasn't too enamoured with Pudong either, which is where we had our seminar. China is not for him. And coming into a sleepy little "hick" town, well, he wasn't impressed.
But back to Witt. For many reasons, teachers had to be moved around after the start of the semester. I was transferred, Trevor was to be and several others were moved as well. And, having said that, Trevor was to be moved to where I am teaching but has since changed his mind and I agree with his decision as well as his reasons.
These schools that contract Witt teachers pay a lot of money for this program. But built into that cost is an overseas experience for the Chinese-English teachers who co-ordinate between teachers, the school and Witt as well. This happens twice a year and gives the opportunity for our Chinese co-workers a chance to see the places we come from.
As I said before, schools in China vary as do your associates. It is not always a pleasant experience. And not all people can cope with this.
And, as someone asked about money, Lead Teachers get 10,000rmb; 2nd year return teachers get 6,000. And on top of that is a monthly bonus paid at the end of the year.
And yes, at this moment, I still do work for the same company. Just wanted to see what happened when I previously posted.

[mfinn]

BJ WITT do indeed do their own recruiting (now). Rumor among the schools is that it's because Footprints refuse to send them staff anymore.

There is a syllabus that all BJ WITT staff get trained up in. I've not yet heard of any school that actually allows this syllabus be taught.

They are a recruiter with ideas above their station. Interestingly they have a much much higher percentage of "silver age" teachers than I've seen in any other recruiter or group or chain of schools. I've really got no idea why.

At the start of last summer they were boasting about only hiring people with real qualifications, real degrees and two years experience minimum. Even before the end of the "50 people there" seminar (Nearer 80 actually) they were making daily announcements of "Does anyone know anyone who might be interested in joining? We'll give cash!" and noting that "We'll work something out" when asked about lack of certification etc.

I left WITT shortly after joining because the issues I was presented with in the school were not only insurmountable, but the issues that had been fixed by the previous years victims were all reset by the school in the interim.

As with all recruiters good or not comes down to where you're placed, but given the low low entry pay rates... Why take the risk? (I was tempted by the offer of sort-of paid summer vacations).