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fuzzarelly
Joined: 12 Dec 2004
Posts: 27
Location: Aus
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 Posted: Sat May 14, 2005 9:14 am Post subject: hows the Hess? |
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Hey people,
just curious to hear what people have to say about their experiences working with Hess Educational Organisation.
My intention is to work the 20-30hrs a week and apply myself to chinese language study....
Recommended, or not?
feedback appreciated
thanx
FuzzZZzzzz |
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tradinup
Joined: 13 Nov 2004
Posts: 132
Location: Shenzhen, China
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| Posted: Sat May 14, 2005 3:04 pm Post subject: |
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| I got an offer from Hess but I'm going to say no. Their office hours/prep hours is ridiculous, almost 1 to 1 to teaching hours. So you might as well divide your teaching hours salary (560) in half to get the real number. |
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timmyjames1976
Joined: 26 Jan 2005
Posts: 148
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| Posted: Sat May 14, 2005 5:57 pm Post subject: |
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| I am looking into them as well. If you use the search function you will find a few threads about them. From what I hear they are good for a soft landing. They don't pay the best, but they are still with in the average. Also, they do offer a lot of hours. The one thing that people seemed to complain about was the amount of time you work, but they also say, if it is money you are after, Hess is not bad. Hours=$. What was nice about what I have read so far is the fact that they have their own system they like you to use (i.e. lesson plans). As far as the claim made about a lot of unpaid office hours, well that I do not know. The post above mine is the first time I have ever heard that complaint about Hess before. To be honest, it was only the really bad thing I have heard yet. All of the other complaints seemed more like matters of preference. |
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clark.w.griswald
Joined: 06 Dec 2004
Posts: 2056
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| Posted: Sun May 15, 2005 3:18 am Post subject: |
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Hess is a good employer. It is true that they don't offer the highest starting wages here in Taiwan, but it is also true that they do pay you what they say they will pay you and when they say they will pay you. You can be sure that everything is pretty well legitimate. New teachers are provided with extensive support and training, so teachers with no experience could see this as a way to learn how to teach while getting paid to teach. In your second or third year here you can use this experience gained under the Hess name to secure higher paying work at another school.
Hess is not alone in this. The other chain schools are pretty much the same.
Joy English School
Kojen
Jump Start
Kid Castle
Sesame Street
Jordans (not my pick as some of the franchises are a bit dodgy!)
As to the question of prep hours, most schools will require you to undertake some preparation time. I haven't heard about one hour prep for one hour of teaching before, but the requirement to arrive 30 minutes before your first class in order to prepare for that days classes is not unusual. Considering that chain schools generally give you block hours of three to four hours to teach, this would mean that you work for four and half hours to earn four hours pay.
I agree with a previous poster. Do a search using the search function and you will find extensive information about Hess and the other chain schools. |
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puiwaihin
Joined: 16 Mar 2005
Posts: 91
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| Posted: Sun May 15, 2005 8:16 pm Post subject: |
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Hess is not bad in terms of prep time. It does depend on experience, but while you can expect to put in 30mins of prep time for a class at first, within a couple months that will drop down. 6 months out you'll probably be preparing for each class in 10 minutes (although I that doesn't mean you are doing a good job if you prep that little).
The problem is the homework. If you get a big class (24+) and have to grade homework and a quiz the after class load can get to be over an hour. But that's still not halving your pay. On average expect 30-40 minutes work outside of class for a 2 hour block of time. |
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fuzzarelly
Joined: 12 Dec 2004
Posts: 27
Location: Aus
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| Posted: Tue May 17, 2005 6:59 am Post subject: |
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thanx for the feedback...
it sounds like Hess is a goer for an organised and stabale(ish) work environment and ongoing training which is what im after... ive worked in China and spent a lot of my out of class time bangin heads with the management which is what i want to avoid this time round...
i also prefer to work in a private college with smaller numbers and a chinese co-teacher.... workin in a school or uni i felt it was harder to manage and control the class....
anyways... keep the posts comming....  |
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Aristotle
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1388
Location: Taiwan
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| Posted: Tue May 17, 2005 8:24 am Post subject: |
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The negative reports have been declining in frequency and ferocity for the past decade.
They went from the bottom of the list as an employer and educational institution to the top end.
For numerous reasons (not the least of which is this board and others like it), HESS has gone to great lengths to clean up their image.
They are still one of the lower paying jobs on Taiwan but about average for a chain school.
With the decline in wages some might even state that the wages at HESS aren't bad. Depends on your point of reference.
You won't save much money working at any of the HESS branches.
Please read this.
http://www.geocities.com/taiwanteacher2002/Success.html
Good luck!
A. |
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gregoryfromcali
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Posts: 1207
Location: People's Republic of Shanghai
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| Posted: Tue May 17, 2005 9:11 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| My intention is to work the 20-30hrs a week and apply myself to chinese language study.... |
I am also planning on working about the same amount of hours at a chain school.
I've been told that if I want to have my evening "freer" that is if I want to be finished by 8:00 or so then it is a good idea to teach children.
Is this the case?
I have a lot of experience teaching children and advanced adults. I would prefer to teach advanced adults but I would like to be finish by 8:00 to study Tai Chi.
Thanks in advance. |
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clark.w.griswald
Joined: 06 Dec 2004
Posts: 2056
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| Posted: Tue May 17, 2005 12:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Aristotle wrote: |
| With the decline in wages some might even state that the wages at HESS aren't bad. Depends on your point of reference. |
What's your point of reference for the claim that wages in Taiwan are on the decline? I have not seen anything that would suggest this to be true, and despite claiming this a number of times you have never actually provided anything to support this claim.
The fact is that wages have in fact gone up over the years, not down.
| Aristotle wrote: |
| You won't save much money working at any of the HESS branches. |
I disagree.
Hess doesn't pay the most but you can get some decent hours from them all in the one place, and this is a good way to make good money.
Let's assume that you are getting NTD560 per hour at Hess, and are working 25 hours a week. That's five hours a day most likely in the afternoons from 3:30-8:30pm. You can therefore earn NTD14,000 a week in the afternoons, and still have your mornings and weekends free for either more work at Hess, private students, or for studying.
The alternative is a smaller school that may offer NTD650 per hour. Their schedule may offer two hours a day five days a week, so you are earning NTD6,500 a week but are tied up five days a week for this position. You are most likely going to have to take on a second job or privates and the travel time and expenses will eat into what you earn.
Bear in mind also that chain schools like Hess generally offer regular raises, so after a year at Hess you could be earning NTD600 an hour anyway.
Consider also the fact that everything is prepared at chains like Hess so you only need to turn up and teach. At the higher paying schools you may need to spend your own time preparing things for class etc.
You can definitely make good money at chain schools, so don't fall for the false economy of higher paying jobs in smaller independants, |
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Wonder
Joined: 29 Jun 2003
Posts: 109
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| Posted: Tue May 17, 2005 1:09 pm Post subject: |
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| puiwaihin wrote: |
| The problem is the homework. If you get a big class (24+) and have to grade homework and a quiz the after class load can get to be over an hour. But that's still not halving your pay. On average expect 30-40 minutes work outside of class for a 2 hour block of time. |
Even if there is homework to mark, you can become adept at planning a class in such a way that you can keep the class occupied while you mark homework. And quizes can be marked together in class by exchanging with students so nobody cheats on his or her marks.
I will certainly put in the time to prepare for a class, but taking work home or staying after school to mark homework is not necessary and something I just can't do. It's like not being paid for overtime. Some schools do not assign homework for this very reason.
I've worked at two schools that did have homework in their curriculum and both schools made marking homework part of the class, so we could all do it together as review and segue into the next lesson. |
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timmyjames1976
Joined: 26 Jan 2005
Posts: 148
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| Posted: Tue May 17, 2005 4:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Isn't some outside work, like grading tests/quizs, part of the teacher life? I just expect that comes as part of the package. |
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clark.w.griswald
Joined: 06 Dec 2004
Posts: 2056
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| Posted: Wed May 18, 2005 1:11 am Post subject: |
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| timmyjames1976 wrote: |
| Isn't some outside work, like grading tests/quizs, part of the teacher life? I just expect that comes as part of the package. |
I think that it is when you think in the context of a true teacher back home on a salary plus benefits. It's his or her career and they get a lot more out of it than just a weekly paycheck.
The difference is that the majority of foreign teachers in Taiwan work within buxibans (such as Hess) which are private businesses. They make money running the schools that we work in, and we get paid for the work that we do there. Some teachers work on hourly rates others on monthly salaries, but either way we don't have the same benefits nor security that a teaching career back home would offer.
I personally do not see any reason that anyone should work an extra minute for an employer without being paid for their time. I am not begrudging those who choose to do this or feel that it is the right thing to do, but I am against any conception in the mind of the boss that we should be obliged to work for nothing.
I think the question needs to be asked - What work are we doing after hours and without pay, and why are we doing this? In the case of checking homework, this is a part of the package that the school sells to parents. You send your kid here and we will have foreign teachers check their homework. Because of this sales pitch the school may enrol students which brings money into the coffers. By the teacher correcting the homework he or she is securing the enrolment and therefore securing the money for the school, so why shouldn't the teacher be paid for that time?
If the school can't afford to pay the teacher for that time or feels that the work that the teacher is doing as overtime isn't important enough to be paid for, then don't ask the teacher to do it, or fit it into the teachers schedule so that the teacher can complete the work during his or her paid hours.
I am not an advocate of teachers going against bosses for any and all little reason, but I certainly don't see why we should work for nothing while our boss is still getting money from the time we spend. If the boss thinks that it is important enough for us to stay back and do, then at least show the respect of paying us for this time spent. Not neccessarily the teaching wage, but instead an administration wage. |
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