Job Discussion Forums

[Dexter]

I have accepted a position with Delter Telford Business Institute in Beijing. I understand that I might relocate to one of their other schools in other cities. I'd love to hear of any experience that anyone may have had with Delter-Telford.

[Linda L.]

BET YOU ARE NOT IN BEIJING MORE THAN A WEEK OR TWO.

Look at the job information journal for many letters regarding this school. None of them are positive.

[dan]

I worked there for almost two years, dividing my time between shanghai and chengdu, and on the whole, it was a very positive experience. send me a PM for details

[dan]

I worked there for almost two years, dividing my time between shanghai and chengdu, and on the whole, it was a very positive experience. send me a PM for details

[Jacob]

Dan is a fake. This school is no good and a front for an agent who will ship you wherever the money is. Don't trust these leeches.

[Linda L.]

Jacob I do not work for Delter and never have. I have read a lot of bad info about this school so I did some checking on my own.

Bing Liang heads the school. He is a native Chinese who emigrated to Canada and became a naturalized citizen of Canada. That qualified him to return to China to take advantage of certain foreign investment laws and start Telfort International Business Institute which has branched out into Delter and Mount Royal.

Apparently they now have schools all over China and are still growing.

It seems that they partner with a second tier public uni by contracting to run their English program for them. This pays all of the expenses. The public uni provides the building, equipment, teacher dorms etc. Bing is allowed to use these same facilities for private students brought in from outside the uni system hence the Business Institute.

The uni gets what they believe is a first class English program for their students at cost with a connection to a British uni for further education. Because of this relationship the uni students never fail a class and hence some teachers get pretty upset because they do not understand the whole picture. Fail the uni student and lose the contract that allows the profitable private school to operate.

There is a western management and a chinese management in each school. The Chinese side really controlls everything which also causes some teachers to be unhappy.

The western management is just figurehead so the managers are not trained or experienced. Many times the western manager is the root cause of most teacher problems I have been told.

This is not an agency or front operation. These are a string of schools tied together in Beijing by Bing Liang as owner.

They hire many teachers for Beijing or Shanghai and then send you out from there where you may really be needed. But it is always at one of Bing's schools.

The base pay is 3,500 but it is higher if you teach Business courses. They promise overtime but it rarely materializes because they have more teachers than they really need. That is to keep the pipeline full due to newbie dissatisfaction etc.

Call any one of their schools and ask to talk to a teacher who has been there more than a few months. Probably won't be any. It does appear to be a revolving door.

As I stated at the beginning, I have asked around and even visited Telfort in Shanghai. But this is what I have learned not from any personal experience.

Hope this helps a little.

[dan]

Jacob, old boy - youre completely right: im a fake. however not in the context of which you speak. to reiterate, i worked for the organization for two years and had a very good experience. although there exist pockets of truth to what linda wrote above, her post is riddled with untruths and to take her post at face value is misleading to any prospective employee and an unfair characterization of Bing and his organization. again, i would be happy to discuss specifics with anyone who sends me a PM. however, i would like to address a few a linda's claims below (sorry, i dont know how to quote directly and since i dont remember what she said verbatim, i will paraphrase):

1. "western management has little or no say in what goes at the schools"
this is quite false, at least with regards to the two schools where i worked. in fact, both lao wai managers had a lot of say of what went on while i was employed there.

2. "nobody stays"
lots do leave, true - but these teachers, by and large, were difficult people before they arrived. as we all know, this industry attracts lots of unprofessional people, and since a large amount of the hiring Bing and other English language schools do is conducted via the internet. so, there's a risk. i was always paid on time, i was never forced to work beyond the agreed upon 20 hrs/week, i was reimbursed for my airfare. i was also paid back when i went to the doctor or hospital. i can say with confidence that everyone with whom i worked can say the same regarding their experiences there. in the end, most people see their contracts out and many stay for an additional year or, like me, return to delter after testing the waters elsewhere.

4. "you only make 3500 rmb"
nope. you are paid 4000. and for those who sign on for an additional year, the salary increases to 4500, and 5000 for those on their third year. however, you are allowed (even encouraged at times!) to work for other schools and/or teach private tutorials. this is quite manageable since you work only 20 hours a week. there is ample opportunity for overtime for which you are paid a rather handsome sum (i believe it was 150/hour when i was there). you are never forced to work overtime, since many teachers are already to do so without prodding from management.

3. "teachers get re-routed to other schools"
this, sadly, was the true when i was first hired there in '00. however, the organization has taken measures to remedy this practice. thanks to internet sites like this one, word has spread about this BS and therefore Bing and Co. were forced to act rather quickly lest they wanted to be without new hires.

[struelle]

[aaronschwartz]

Scoty is the current western director of studies in Shanghai.

The Chinese marketers sell a class for a particular time slot. Scotty only has to assign the teacher.

Teachers are hired by Bing and forced upon Scotty. He has no say in the matter if Bing hires someone and send him to Shanghai. Scotty can only fire.

The Chinese side is responsible for meeting all of the teachers needs so Scotty merely passes the message to Cherry, a Chinese dragon lady.

Scotty does not have budget power so the Chinese side can even control the teaching materials utilized.

Scotty works very hard on teacher assigning and classroom availability.

All of the real decisions are made by the Chinese side.

Linda was not in error on this point and it does not appear Dan, that you discredited her other points either, you confirmed them.

[Peter]

This one is for Dan

They treat you decently? So they should fo r the grand sum of 4000 a month......is that US or Can?

[Krucigen]

I am currently working for a telfort school and I have to say it hasn't been a positive experience and I hope no one ever works for this company. Know how you are limited to class sizes of 15? yeah.. right.. throw that out the window. Oh.. I hope you like teaching children. I was contracted for one month solid to a public school and all the teachers here continue to teach offsite and on site kiddie classes. A real pain in the ass. I have been here for 5 months now and I would have left earlier if it wasn't for some other stuff... I should have left that first day they told me to teach at a primary school. Anyways.. stay away from this association. I am about to take off from this hole and do a nice venture to the south where its nice and warm. Oh yeah.. hahaha this is funny. For two months i was working illegaly... wiener Chinese admin staff was a little bit lazy about getting that Visa stuff done. Well I've had a continued amount of problems and head aches with this association and I regret coming here.
Another thing.. don't settle for 4000rmb a month. You can make 6000 elsewhere easily. Oh and getting 4500 a month after one year and than 5000 after two years. HAHAHA! What a joke.. and any veteran teacher will tell you the same.
All I can really say is, don't fall for promises made because they will just deny everything and than smile and nod. I can't wait to be out of here because the job sucks, the city has nothing to offer, and I am bored out of my skull.
You can pm if you have any direct questions...
Oh another big problem... My one ESL class is so split in levels that I can't do anything with them. Students failed the test and than they kept passing them and passing them and passing them and now I am totally screwed. Chinese administration. What a bunch of tools!

[Crouching Tiger]

The Delter International Business Institute is no longer associated with the Mount Royal International Business Institute of Chengdu, Sichuan.

It has been taken over by the Sichuan Electric Vocational College (The original Chinese partner).

Bing Liang remains on the board of the Sichuan college, but only in a private capacity.

The implications here, are:
1. The incompetent DoE of the Sichuan college, Mr Jia Ji (Georgie) now has absolute control of Mount Royal.
2. Bing Liang could still transfer unwary teachers to Mount Royal, but they'd not have a "Delter" contract.

The new foreign DoE of Mount Royal is, therefore, simply "window dressing", and we must wish him luck (He is the fifth DoE within one year).

Incidentally, Delter/Beijing is okay.

[mike w]