Job Discussion Forums

[Neilhrd]

I would be amazed if EF could find enough paying students to make another 1,000 branches profitable. It sounds like bluff designed to scare the competition to me.

From where I am sitting in Nanning I don't see that insatiable demand they are talking about. Here all the schools including EF are struggling to recruit students. I don't work for EF in Nanning and never would because they specialise in kids which is not my cup of tea. But from what I have seen and heard it is one of the better branches. It has a prime location, spends heavily on promotion and has a competent, experienced DOS. But they are still running half empty. So is my school and many others.

The reality is that the standards here are mediocre, all the schools blindly copy each other's mistakes, the general standard of English in this city is falling and both the parents and students are getting harder to fool. Increasingly unscrupulous marketing and intense pressure on the Chinese sales staff have made little difference.

On top of all that entry standards in many western countries are rising to a point which will be out of reach for the vast majority of Chinese university applicants and wannabe emigrants unless there is a radical rethink of the whole approach to education in China.

So all in all I foresee a contraction in the number of schools in China not a massive increase.