Job Discussion Forums

[jason_seeburn]

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[Frankie Knuckles]

I was just wondering about the standard full-time working week for teachers in Taiwan. It seems as though most teachers are only working about 20 teaching hours per week and this is somehow considered full-time. I thought a 20 hour working week in most parts of the world was considered part-time. When I was living in Japan I worked for 20 hours for about 6 months and it was considered part-time work. I later accepted a full-time position which was 40 teaching hours per week which seemed to be the norm in most private english language schools in Japan. Could someone just clarify for me what is considered full-time work in Taiwan? When I was only working 20 hours a week I had too much spare time and as a result I was just spending too much money. I would, therefore, prefer to work around 35-40 hours a week to save more money. Can I do this on a single contract or would it be better for me to find a morning position with one school and an evening position with another. Thanks Frankie

[jason_seeburn]

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[brian]

I don't think that there is any real clarification of what pertains to full time as opposed to part time work. In order to be legally employed and entitled to an ARC to work in Taiwan you must have a contract for at least 14 hours per week. Many teachers choose to work on hourly rates and are not entitled to paid national holidays etc. The hourly rates would generally be in the order of NTD530 and up per hour. Recently, more schools have started offering salary based positions which include a fixed payment each month and some benefits such as paid days off. The going rates vary but are in the order of NTD65,000 and up per month. I guess that these salary positions may be what could be classified as full time work as there are benefits included - just the same as back home.

Personally, I am very wary of salary positions but they may prove suitable for some. My concerns are to ensure that you have a fixed number of teaching hours stipulated in your contract. Generally speaking a salary position may contract you for working between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday, with total working hours of around 40 hours a week. Whilst this would generally inlcude teaching and administrative work, you want to be sure that you can't be required to be teaching classes for all of that time. Also, find out what duties you will be required to do during your administratve hours. Are you going to be giving out flyers on street corners, coloring in pictures, lesson planning, doing class demos etc. Finally, do the math. Are you better off to keep some flexibility by having some of your own time to take on privates or study, or are you happy with a lower hourly rate for the security of a fixed monthly payment? Bear in mind that a fixed salary as per above would work out at around NTD406 per hour (NTD65,000 / 120 hours per month). May not be too bad if you are coloring in pictures and stuff, but this would really suck if you were doing a lot of teaching.

The choice of working at one or more schools is a personal one and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Take care that you dont end up working illegally if you are teaching at more than one school. You could get the hours that you want at either a single or couple of schools.

Despite suggestions to the contrary there is no shortage of either salary or hourly rate positions here in Taipei year round. You should be able to get as many or as few hours as you want if you shop around.

[chi-chi]

Hourly positions bite. At least with salaried positions, you may be wasting your time sometimes, but you won't have to worry about making rent or wasting time traveling to 2-3 jobs...don't enough people have to worry about that in their home countries?
I think more jobs in Taiwan should offer salary. It would make things a lot more stable. Actually I think this would be the main thing that would make Taiwan easier to live in-part of the reason I had to leave is because I wasn't able to get enough hours-a job promised me full time and then gave me 5 hours a week (of course this was during SARS, but you hear about it happening during regular times, also.)
Chi-Chi

[Aristotle]

New teachers can expect to get anywhere between 500Nt to 700Nt per hour depending on location and negotiating ability.