Job Discussion Forums

[Terminator99]

I have been here for the last two months upon the assurance of my Taiwanese wife that things in Taiwan are all rosy and that schools are yearning for more English teachers.

Having found that every job application I've got replies from tells me that they can't hire me without a degree means I am slowly losing hope.

Is this absolutlely necessary? Will I have to get a fake degreee? Will I have to help Develop Taiwan's misplaced roading network

Any help would be much appreciated.

Anyway go the All Blacks at the World Cup

[killian]

for a legal job, a degree is necessary. there are lots of jobs out there that fly under the radar. looking in the want ads perhaps may not be your best bet. pound the pavement. knock on some doors. many bosses are keen to avoid the hassles that come with a legal teacher (paper work, health cards, taxes...) IIRC, you are doomed to being illegal one way or another as present taiwan law FORBIDS foreign spouses from working. do what you gotta do.
best wishes.

[Okami]

If your married to a Taiwanese you can now get the great and wonderful Article 51 Work permit. This is an open work permit and allows you to do any job a Taiwanese can do. Do you have one of these? Do you need to know how to get one? I did a search and found some info. You should thank Richard Hartzell and his hard work for this.

http://www.segue.com.tw/3/viewtopic.php?t=3710&highlight=open+work+permit

http://www.segue.com.tw/3/viewtopic.php?t=6337&highlight=open+work+permit

http://www.segue.com.tw/3/viewtopic.php?t=5550&highlight=open+work+permit

CYA
Okami

[Aristotle]

Call 0800-885-885 in Taiwan.
Tell him you want an Open Work Permit and they will send you or fax you an application form. They speak very good English but their website is in Chinese only.

[beenthere96-2005]

An interesting article regarding four year degrees from The Gazzette.

Think of what it suggests about a person;

probably from a decent home; probably has decent communication and math skills; can complete assignments and and successfully put up with bureaucracy for years.

[Rooster_2006]

[KayuJati]

[Rooster_2006]

[markholmes]

Have you considered that the law may have changed in that time? Although I knew one person who was teaching with a diploma in 2003, I believe it was quite rare and not spoken about much on ESL forums. The law may have changed in 2002(ish), as was the law concerning transfer of ARCs from one employer to another. New laws take a while to trickle down to schools and for a period (perhaps still) some employers were reluctant to look at teachers without a degree (fearing they would not be able to process the paperwork).

My info may not be the entire story, nor entirely correct, but you are not taking into account the passing of time, the change of law and the time it takes for employers to recognise and utilize new laws.

[dangerousapple]

Rooster is technically correct, but there can be a big difference between what the law says and what is common practice. A lot of schools don't want to hire someone with less than a BA because they are scared that the paperwork will be rejected (and angrily telling a school owner that your degree is valid isn't going to help, either). I haven't checked up on the regulations lately, but they change continuously and are usually vaguely written, meaning that they are open to interpretation. This scares the average school owner into only accepting what he knows is "safe".

Distance degrees are even more of a hot potato, with the MOE and labor bureau more than happy to reject them. It's the labor bureau that causes most of the headaches by the way, not the MOE.

[Rooster_2006]