Job Discussion Forums

[bigroh73]

The issue of getting an Education License to establish a school, such as an English training school - depends on where you apply.

In larger cities, such as Shanghai, its much more difficult and expensive than getting a license in a smaller city such as Nanjing, or Wuhan, etc. Forget doing this in SH or Beijing - go to other cities that are smaller where there is slightly less competition. Any city with a population over 5million would be fine.

I've been through this process with a colleague who set up their own school. IT is a very long and tiring process that requires ridiculous amounts of frivilous paperwork - but it can be done.

If you apply to start up a school, as a foreign person - then it will cost you ALOT of money......which can be done by foreign companies, but their investment is in the order of several million RMB as a minimum.

Most people do it through a chinese person, as a partner - if you know someone that you can trust, or is willing for you just to use their name on the paperwork, or likewise with a Chinese company, they can apply to be the founding shareholder of a School entity. A Chinese front-person is essential - even if you're a foreign school that wants to set up in China, All the foreign schools have a Chinese principal, or legal person - as a face.

However, finding a reliable, trustworthy chinese partner is soooo difficult, this alone could well be your biggest hurdle.....Chinese will cheat you every way they can, and lie to your face - don't be fooled.....its very hard to find one you can trust, when it comes to doing business and making money......but - it is possible.

Targeting Children is a much wiser choice- as some people have previously mentioned. Parents will be prepared to pay money for their children's education, much more than on themselves.
Advertising expenses are huge. You can expect to be paying anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000rmb/mth for a 1/4 weekly newspaper advertisment, so if you are going to advertise in 2 or 3 newspapers, expect to pay a good 30-50,000/mth.

An overall budget of over a million RMB is a good guide. I've been in schools that have tried to do it on a shoestring - and while they can get a handful of students, its unsustainable in the longterm. You need a good million RMB to have any chance really.

Perhaps consider being a franchise operator - don't do EF or WEB or WALLstreet....((too expensive and high operating costs)).....A franchise operation thats already in China would also help you with, more likely to get u an education license smoothly too.


If you want to discuss this further, you can contact me by email, as I've had some recent experience with this process last year and this year.
bigroh73 at gmail dot com.

[Yahnena]

Besides the money issue, here is another problem which already had been addressed in this forum. The answer I got from a friend who studied the issue for over one year, until March 2005, confirms it as follows:
""
With regards to your
questions, as of 2005 you can have a 100% foreign owned business but you
need to register it and get approval from the Chinese gov't. Since I have
moved away from opening a school, I am not sure if regulations have changed.
The key to getting the school up and running is the approval to invite
foreign teachers to your school. It can take almost 2 years to get approval (as in XXX's case).
""

XXX is an influencial Chinese school owner who runs a successful Taiwanese franchise in the north of China. My guess is, if he, who certainly has the right friends and knows the right strings to pull, had to wait for two years, what about a foreigner ..... hmmmmm.

My personal conclusion: it's possible, but stay away, too risky, too expensive, too obscure ...

Alternative, and Roger is going to love this one , why not FREELANCE ! on a visa you buy legally from an agency. hehehe

cheers

[Volodiya]

[bigroh73]

IN addition to what Volodiya advised.....

...is that you really only need permission to have foreign teachers if you are going to employ them on a full time basis, and issue them with proper working visas (Zvisa & working permit & residency card).

LIke most things in China, there is the official law, and then there is what everyone does in reality - and they are seldom the same.

Most private schools hire foreign teachers part time, to work evenings and weekends - you don't need special permission to do this. Almost every school in China does this.

When you first start up the school - it certainly takes X no. of months to have enough students that you require a group of full time foreign teachers, so its not something you need immediately during the start up, unless you are going to become one of the big foreign International Schools - which invest US$millions to build their own facility, and grease some pockets.

I have worked for many schools on a part time basis - where they have foreign teachers doing classes daytime, evening and weekends, but every teacher is only working part time - and their visa is with someone else, or they make their own arrangements. Instead of hiring 3 or 4 full time teachers, you are using 10 people on a part time basis.

As long as your teachers have a proper visa/permit, most officials don't care who it is with. I have been "inspected" by labor bureau people here in SH,, who are more interested in checking if i'm on a Z, F visa, or that I am paying "some kind" of income tax. They couldn't care which school or organisation my visa officially says is my employer.

Meanwhile, as you are starting up the school and doing this, you are applying for the permit to get be able to properly employ foreign teachers full time...but while this is pending - going down the path seems to be what most schools do.

You could also consider employing through an agency that handles this, that has permission to do that - who outsource teachers to you - FESCO, or others.....i know 1 or 2 schools that also do this.

If you have a university as a partner, which is common, then part of the co-operation is that they provide/cover you for employing foreign teachers, where their permits/visas, are officially handled by the university - although the teachers in reality teach for your school.
This is how i began here in Shanghai. Such an arrangement normally costs you 10-15% of your revenue as their cut.
But in order to be a partner school or one that is affiliated to a chinese university, you need to have something to offer them - not just another basic english school. If you have links to a foreign university or college, or permission to run an "internationally recognized" program, such as ACCA, CPA, CFA, MBA, AMA, etc,,,,, then a university would be very interested to work with you - as you are bringing something to the table that can help them also.

SOmething anyone will find, including a former colleague who is applying for a school license now in SH. His problem like with most things in China - if he speaks to 5 different people in the same Education Dept office, he gets 5 different answers. That is what its like, and thats the risk. No official is really prepared to stick their neck out on the line and give a definitive answer, that is above and beyond all "suggestions" from local officials.