Job Discussion Forums

[Maaku]

At this point, within the next month or so, Nova will cease to exist as it once was. Possibly, only as a shell of its former self. From conversations with my friends who still work there, many ATs and BTs, etc have still not been paid, which has led to many resignations among them and regular instructors. Thus, the market is starting to be flooded with job seekers. Obviously, there isn't enough jobs available in Gaba, ECC, AEON, et to hire all of them.

And if Nova does go belly up. Ex-Nova students wont go flocking to other eikawas. Some simply wont have the money to go, because they spent so much money on a multi year contract with Nova and will have to wait for a refund. Or some, will feel let down by the English teaching industry, which will lead to resentment against studying English.

My question is the long term effect of it. I think this will lead to the decrease in salaries for ALT, and other Eikawas. In the next couple of the months, the market will be saturated with ex-nova teachers or other people looking to come to Japan. And as the law of supply and demand dictates. Dispatch companies, eikawas can lower wages and still find numerous applicants. Or will this lead to a kind of "English Industry Renaissance". Many ex-nova teachers will simply go home. And without Nova recruiting overseas, it will be more difficult for people to come here. Resulting in the de-saturation of the market.

Any thoughts?

MOD EDIT of title

[Mahik]

It's unlikely to affect some of the larger Eikaiwas since many of them only recruit from abroad. I really don't think it's as bad as it's being made out to be. I mean surely people saw this coming. Nova was growing faster than was necessary or even practical and is now paying the price.

And isn't the "minimum wage" for foreign teachers 250,000 yen? I mean if you're making more than that now then perhaps you have something to be fearful of, but that's what most make. Nova students may be disenchanted by the whole Nova debacle, but I don't see why students of other schools would feel that way. If anything it seems like they would be relieved that they went with another Eikaiwa instead of Nova and are happy with their decision. Some Nova students might up and give up, but others will still want to learn english and do it with a company besides Nova which means more business for its rivals. I don't see very negative fallout for anyone besides Nova and its employees because of this.

[Maaku]

Well, it seems like everyone saw this coming except Nova teachers (denial?).
So, my concern is that the market will be flooded with new job applicants. And even if the 4,000 out of the 5,000 or so ex-nova teachers go home or find new jobs, thats still an additional 1,000 hitting the market.

The 250,000 isn't a minimum standard from what I have been told. I believe it previously was a legal standard. Some ALTs in Chiba, Ibaraki, etc make less. That standard is probably set because the market dictates it.

Even speaking to the owners of some small eikawas, overall they agree the market is dying. While some people still want to learn english, they want to pay month by month and pay an extremely low sum of money.

So, if an additional 1,000 flood the market. When its time to renew our contracts, our companies can say our salaries are now 240,000 or lower. Because if we say no, there is some other person who would easily jump into our place.

Am I seeing the glass is half empty side of it?

[fat_chris]

Or just dust off that JET application and get paid more than the 25 man.

Regards,
fat_c

[Currawong]

I have to wonder about the overseas recruitment thing - So many people know about Nova from friends etc. who'd been to Japan I'm sure it must be much harder to recruit people than it was.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

When Nova is finally done, they may just wait until April and start up again under a different name.

There will be tonnes of Nova instructors running around looking for jobs. Tonnes more will leave the country immediately. It's possible that some may even be trapped in country without the money to get home and no job.

The short term result will almost definately be a decrease in the amount of pay at eikaiwas and a huge decrease in the number of jobs being filled from overseas.

But the majority of Nova instructors have very little or no non-Nova experience, and no qualifications in teaching English, so other than eikaiwa, that doesn't leave much for them to do (there is little chance of them ending up in a high school or something).

[KCorv100]

[LOSnewbie]

[The_Hanged_Man]

[Mothy]

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

At one time they did make a stronger effort to get people with more training involved. It didn't work out because people with actual training in teaching English often find a rote memorization/ audio lingual / grammar translation method pretty dull, and when Japanese teachers asked them what they thought of the Japanese way of teaching, they had a nasty habit of actually telling them. And of course, people who are trained to teach English aren't trained to teach English in the Japanese way (they stopped doing that about twenty years ago) in English speaking countries. Japanese people don't actually want to change anything (or they can't, because of a reliance on grammar based tests) but the goverment wants to say that they are keeping abreast of the rest of the world (read "we are just as good as Korea..really, we are!!!!"), without losing what is essentially Japanese about their education (read "changing anything that deviates from the teacher as lecturer, the students as empty vessels being filled and abiltity to change the underlined word with another word from the list equals doing well on tests. Doing well on tests means they must be good. And as proof force kids to memorize speeches for competitions without even understanding what they are saying, but it SOUNDS good").

Now they market it primarily as a cultural exchange, and the role of the participant is in the English class out of a lack of anywhere else to put them (and the hidden goal is to bump up the conversational ability of JTEs). And often this goal of cultural exchange (read "go drinking with Japanese people when other ALTs can't be found") is increasingly the main thrust of what a lot of ALTs do in the JET program.

In fact every year they turn down people with actual training because so many BoEs want someone with blond hair blue eyes and is a recent graduate. In fact, some BoEs actually write it on the margins because they are no longer allowed to specify that kind of thing on the papers.

[Lyrajean]

[Gamushara84]

NOVA has been sending e-mails to prospectives about whether or not they can continue with The Group.

Hmm....

[seastarr]

Has anyone with Nova looked into starting a small school in their area? Or picking up disgarded Nova students at a discounted rate? When I was in Japan, I taught private students for 3000 yen an hour, which was more than Nova was paying their teachers and less than they were charging their students. In fact, my students seemed to feel that 3000 yen was a good price for an hour lesson. If someone was even slighly ambitous, wouldn't it be smart to team up with a disgruntled Nova staff member and start a small scale operation? It's unlikely that Nova's thousands of students are just going to all stop studying English if Nova folds. I'm sure some will, but I'm sure there will be enough for quite a few teachers to make a healthy living teaching, either on a casual private basis or as part of a small scale school. Nova's biggest fault was growing too quickly without the teachers or students to support the large scale growth. A small school would probably be quite safe...and if one offered a lower price, they may even be able to pick up non-Nova students, like my old private students, who hated the big namelessness that was Nova.

[Temujin]