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Adult Language School Chains: What's the difference?

 
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WorkingVaca



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 135
PostPosted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 4:21 am    Post subject: Adult Language School Chains: What's the difference? Reply with quote
Wall Street, Global Village, Williams, Gram, David's, TLI, Spontaneous.... I'm sure there are more I can't think of, somebody chime in.


Do they all work about like this?:

Pay about 500-600nt/hour to start with about 10-15 hours guaranteed.

Mostly night classes varying between groups, tutoring, and going to companies. Lots of running around for the teacher which may or may not be compensated.

A shelf full of "resources" but no curriculum or teaching plan to follow. Lots of unpaid prep work for the teacher.


Anybody with experience at an adult chain please share. How do they compare in terms of pay, hours, bonuses, hassles with scheduling, management support, getting ENOUGH hours, and getting compensated for traveling between classes?
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Pop Fly



Joined: 15 Feb 2003
Posts: 429
PostPosted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 10:24 am    Post subject: Re: Adult Language School Chains: What's the difference? Reply with quote
WorkingVaca wrote:
Wall Street, Global Village, Williams, Gram, David's, TLI, Spontaneous.... I'm sure there are more I can't think of, somebody chime in.


Do they all work about like this?:

Pay about 500-600nt/hour to start with about 10-15 hours guaranteed.

Mostly night classes varying between groups, tutoring, and going to companies. Lots of running around for the teacher which may or may not be compensated.

A shelf full of "resources" but no curriculum or teaching plan to follow. Lots of unpaid prep work for the teacher.


Anybody with experience at an adult chain please share. How do they compare in terms of pay, hours, bonuses, hassles with scheduling, management support, getting ENOUGH hours, and getting compensated for traveling between classes?


With the exception of avg. wage, I can say you are way off the mark as far as Wall Street goes. I and others have written extensively about it and I don't want to repeat myself. Scroll down or search and find all the answers about Wall Street you need.
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WorkingVaca



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 135
PostPosted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 12:06 pm    Post subject: Wall Street Institute Reply with quote
Thanks Pop Fly. I looked up your previous posts and condensed the relevant info on WALL STREET INSTITUTE:

Full time teachers can expect�

�55,500/month salary for guaranteed 27 hours teaching, 3 hours admin. EVERY week of the year regardless of student cancellations.

�maximum year-end bonus 30,000 (what�s the minimum?).

�at least one split shift a week, but everybody gets two days off per week.

�must give a month�s notice for time off, but a paid 5-day break is available when you sign for a second year contract.

�an organized curriculum requiring 16 hours training over a 1-week period, paid at half-wage.

�sponsor the ARC and health insurance.

�clean, professional environment and motivated students.

Please correct me if anything is wrong.
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Pop Fly



Joined: 15 Feb 2003
Posts: 429
PostPosted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 4:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Very Good WV...excellent nutshell work....well-culled.

Except the pay structure has been changed and it's closer to 60K/month now.

In addition, after a year, if you should so desire, WSI will assist you in transferring to another center in one of 26 countries.
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Fortigurn



Joined: 29 Oct 2003
Posts: 390
PostPosted: Mon Jan 26, 2004 11:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Pop Fly wrote:
Very Good WV...excellent nutshell work....well-culled.

Except the pay structure has been changed and it's closer to 60K/month now.

In addition, after a year, if you should so desire, WSI will assist you in transferring to another center in one of 26 countries.


Looks absolutely choice to me. Shocked
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WorkingVaca



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 135
PostPosted: Mon Jan 26, 2004 12:40 pm    Post subject: David's English Center Reply with quote
Here's what somebody on another Taiwan message board had to say about David's English Center:

Quote:
I've worked at David's English Center for one year and everything is as described in the first post.

At David's the pay starts at NT$550 an hour and you get incremental raises based on the number of hours worked. By law, to sponsor your ARC, they'll give you at least 15-hours-a-week doing a combo of group & company classes, and one-on-one students. Most classes are at night, but company classes and one-on-ones occasionally pop up during the daytime too, so it's not uncommon to have gaps in your day with nothing to do. Flexibility at David's can be vexing or liberating. You must learn to accept and refuse hours to make your life as easy as possible. Also, there is no organized curriculum, so planning can be a hassle if you're a new teacher. But the head foreigner will show you how to best use the teaching resources. Many David's teachers also have daytime jobs to compensate for the lack of convenient hours.

Some perks? If a one-on-one student makes a same day cancel more than once, the teacher gets full pay as long as they show up at the school, and half pay if they choose to stay home.
For teaching outside the school branches, they give a pretty decent transportation fee depending on distance.
Management is pretty easygoing. You can take vacations with 2-week notice since it's easy to find a substitute among 40 under-employed teachers.
You'll get an unpaid week off at Chinese New Year with a small bonus, about NT$3500NT.
Annual weekend bus trip to a fancy resort somewhere in Taiwan, optional.
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brian



Joined: 15 May 2003
Posts: 299
PostPosted: Mon Jan 26, 2004 2:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I think David's English or Wall Street might be the best picks from your list.
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Aristotle



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1388
Location: Taiwan
PostPosted: Tue Jan 27, 2004 5:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Do yourself a favor and stay away from chain schools.
Please read this.
http://www.geocities.com/taiwanteacher2002/Success.html
Good luck,
A.
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brian



Joined: 15 May 2003
Posts: 299
PostPosted: Tue Jan 27, 2004 1:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Here we go again.

Aristotle there is absolutely no justification for recommending that people avoid chain school as a whole. Were you to be recommending against certain branch schools of the various chains then that would be worth something, but to suggest that people avoid chains as a whole is just ridiculous. What do you base this recommendation on?

As I have asked before, since you are so willing to dish chain schools why not be equally as willing to suggest some alternatives - AND NO WE DON'T WANT TO JOIN YOUR SILLY CLUB JUST TO GET THIS INFO. If you really want to help teachers why not make this info public!!
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WorkingVaca



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 135