Job Discussion Forums

[boubou]

Hey! I'm checking out a job in Tianjin and I've been negotiating my contract over e-mail. I'm thinking of meeting this school in June... and I want to know, how do I know if they are legally hiring me? Do they have a certificate proving I'll be legally teaching there? Or an ID number they can send me over e-mail so I don't go to Tianjin uselessly?

[Shan-Shan]

Any trip to Tianjin is a useless trip. The place has everything that is dull, vapid and culturally numb about "modern China" without anything quaint, quiet or peaceful on the side.


P.S.

When negotiating with a language school over e-mail, be sure to watch your spelling. Your title to this thread has an especially "loud" mistake.

[tw]

PM me with your e-mail address and I will send you a JPEG of a school's license to hire FT's.

If it's a college or a university then I don't really think you'd have anything to worry about. If it's a language training centre, then ask how long they've been open (schools must be at least a year old before they can legally hire FT's).

BTW, it's "allowed" not "aloud".

[boubou]

OMG....... I euh euhm, don't know what to say, I definitively don't know how I could have written aloud instead of allowed... wow.. sorry about that...

[lostinasia]

It's called a "mistake" my friend, don't worry about. Then again, some of the freaks around this forum find themselves with nothing better to do than belittle others. Not necessarily in this case, but I'm sure you've seen what I'm talking about.

Ask the school for their proper governmental licensure.

[jamesmollo]

He did say allowed not 'aloud' am I the only one who noticed this?

[lostinasia]

[james s]

...

[boubou]

[lostinasia]

To be fair I was assuming ... not "assume" ... thus impossible to have the ass out of you and "me" part ...

[jamesmollo]

my apologies boubou.
yes the school should have a foreign experts license that they can send you proof of. Or you can check with the S.A.F.E.A if you are worried about this

[clark.w.griswald]

If it is a SAFEA registered school then you can be pretty sure that you wil be employed legally. Such schools do indeed have a certificate to prove that they can employ foreign teachers but there is an expiry date on the certification so check that.

Each registered school is given a seven digit ID number and the first numerical digit denotes the province that the certification was issued from e.g. 2****** is a Liaoning Province registration.

There is an English language list of SAFEA registered schools here, but that is not the full list as it does change constantly. If your school is on the list then you should be okay if it is not then you can contact SAFEA in that city for further information. You can see a full list of Foreign Expert Bureaus in English here.

Tianjin Foreign Experts Bureau
Heping Area, Jiefang Nth. Rd, No.167
Phone: 022-23312021

[boubou]

Yeah I'll be checking the foreign affairs office... This is what the school answered:

[jamesmollo]

looks dodgy all right, what the hell does THAT mean?

[clark.w.griswald]

What the school tells you is certainly not reassuring and I would consider carefully if you want to pursue this job offer.

You could ask them for their registration number which as I say would be seven digit number - I am sure that the number is not with the government being reviewed

If you really want to pursue the job offer then ask them to also send you the registered name in Chinese as that will be the name that the authorities will have on record not the English name.

If you meet any more resistance then it is probably best that you find yourself another job as it may indicate that someone is trying (somewhat poorly) to hide something.

You might want to post the name of the school here too to see if anyone has any experience with them.