Job Discussion Forums

David Seoul · Joined: 25 Oct 2007 Posts: 21

Does anyone work for or know anything about EF INST? I've done a quick search on this forum, but there doesn't seem to be any mention of them. Could this be a good thing?

They have a job ad on tefl.com at the moment, and I also had a look at their recruitment site which looks good. Any information on working for these language centres would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

jamessmart50 · Joined: 14 Nov 2005 Posts: 91 Location: Istanbul, Turkey

EF INST used to be plain old English First until they lost the franchise rights a few months ago, not sure why. If you work there you'll probably be sent out to Beykent University, a private uni for spoilt rich kids, good luck there!

David Seoul · Joined: 25 Oct 2007 Posts: 21

Thanks for the feedback. I thought nobody was going to answer my thread!

Don't they have a bunch of schools in Istanbul, or is it just that newbies tend to get sent out to the private university you mentioned?

billy orr · Joined: 15 Jul 2009 Posts: 229

Marquess · Joined: 05 Feb 2009 Posts: 165

Not many- some.

svenhassel · Joined: 04 Aug 2006 Posts: 188 Location: Europe

I've spent time teaching in Beykent and it can be a challenging job.

It is dificult because most of the learners do not want to be there, They are there becuase they failed to get into a quality university. On the other hand there are students there who like being there and want to learn English and are a pleasure to teach

It is not full of rich kids, check out the student dorms, they are some of the worst I have ever seen.

Teachers who complain about Beykent are usually lacking experience in terms of teaching in this type of situation or are not very serious about teaching and so do not really apply themselves.

Othert teachers have just bee unlucky and got bad classes as happens everywhere.

In short Beykent is not the worst job in Istanbul and the peple I've worked with have been great.

jamessmart50 · Joined: 14 Nov 2005 Posts: 91 Location: Istanbul, Turkey

Fair enough

Nevertheless, I would have thought you'd get a better package working directly for a private school/college/university rather than working for a language school that sends you out to such places, effectively taking a large percentage of your salary with them. Hmm?

Ruffle the cat · Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Posts: 32 Location: different counties

When I worked for EF it was English First and they didn't stand by their contract. No visa and no medical. It is or was owned by one man who wasn't in the Education world at all he was a contractor or something like that. He owned all the schools in Istanbul that were EF, so we were told.
Make sure they will get your working visa they gave very lame excuses when I kept trying to get them to get mine. You have to have so many 1000 $ in the bank and they were supposed to transfer it in then transfer it out again when the visa came though. $ only had to be in bank for 24 or 48 hrs some thing like that. They kept saying they didn't have the money to do this. Well this was a lame excuss as the company is or was huge and had lots of $.

melsabee · Joined: 02 Jul 2009 Posts: 9

I am starting my job there next month...the interview was great and very professional and the contract is better than the other academies I saw in Istanbul. Cross my fingers!!! Anyone else out there working in Suadiye or know anything about it?

Beauty26 · Joined: 08 Apr 2010 Posts: 10

EF INST in Istanbul isn't so bad as far as I hear, but they also have franchises in Ankara and Bursa which they don't supervise nor check apart from just signing a contract with them. So if you ever have an offer from their franchises you should be aware that it is a scam. They are waste of time and total joke! People from street just decide to open a language school and sign a contract with EF INST! It is ridicuolous!

melsabee · Joined: 02 Jul 2009 Posts: 9

I would like to amend this post I wrote before starting at EFINST. Please read my new post on the alternative EFINST page. This job was horrible. I had high expectations but it lived up to none of them. Be wary of the promises given.

mestuart77 · Joined: 11 Feb 2009 Posts: 7 Location: San Francisco, CA

This is only MY personal experience about Beykent University, but from talking to the other teachers who had been there much longer, I got the feeling that I wasn't alone in my opinion that this is not 'teaching', it's merely 'wrangling'. I don't blame the students for being unmotivated and overwhelmed- the program doesn't allow for the actual learning of a language- it's just delivering information from the coursebook with no time to practice or produce. That's how I felt about working there.