Job Discussion Forums

japolak · Joined: 14 May 2007 Posts: 40

So are they legit or what? They apparently have like 65 schools open. And are they hiring over seas?

Apsara · Joined: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 2142 Location: Tokyo, Japan

Early days yet- hard to say whether they will be okay or crash and burn. Give it a few more months.

I think they have their hands full with ex-Nova teachers and doubt they have got around to recruiting overseas yet.

Miyazaki · Joined: 12 Jul 2005 Posts: 635 Location: My Father's Yacht

So, is G-Com now what was was formly known as NOVA?

And are they planning on keeping a lot of the 4,000 teachers (and students?) that worked for NOVA?

gaijinalways · Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 2279

Not sure if 'keeping' is the right word, as those NOVA teachers must quit NOVA and apply for jobs at Gcom. Gcom claims to be planning to hire as many as they can as they reopen what schools they can.

You'll have to wait and see, but it will be a while before they need to recruit outside Japan.

Miyazaki · Joined: 12 Jul 2005 Posts: 635 Location: My Father's Yacht

markle · Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 1316 Location: Out of Japan

gaijinalways · Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 2279

alexcase · Joined: 26 Jul 2007 Posts: 215 Location: Seoul

While it is nice that they are thinking of taking on old Nova teachers, if they aren't putting any effort into actually selecting the best ones it doesn't say much for their business plan- which seems to be basically to do exactly what Nova was doing, but less so.

Are they keeping the Nova brand name, or re-branding the schools?

partialtone · Joined: 09 May 2007 Posts: 137 Location: CA

Miyazaki · Joined: 12 Jul 2005 Posts: 635 Location: My Father's Yacht

So, it's still going to be under the name "NOVA."

I'm interested in seeing if Japanese consumers will be interested. I'm guessing they wouldn't be.

southofreality · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Posts: 579 Location: Tokyo

carl0s · Joined: 21 Mar 2006 Posts: 17

The students are coming back and I've noticed a large amount of them are high level students. I'm guessing that because these students have progressed quite far, they are still motivated to learn at NOVA. The bankruptcy has, in effect, dissuaded the students who never studied at home and never progressed from returning to NOVA.

Economically, it makes sense to continue studying at NOVA. G-Com requires students to pay 25% of the total value of the points students previously had at NOVA. It's a sunken loss - you either pay 25% and get all your points back, or don't pay and lose everything.

As for the teachers, it seems that most of those who have returned are the 'old-timers' who have lived and intend to live Japan for the long-term. Around half of the staff at my school have Japanese spouses, and some of them have kids. They have relatively good salaries so they have a lot to lose by seeking employment at other Eikawa schools.