Job Discussion Forums

[Aussie_Girl]

I have trawled through these, and other Vietnam forums (some of which simply won�t let me register�what gives?!). I haven�t been able to find the answers I was looking for, so I thought it best to throw it out there and see if any experienced posters can assist.

My other half and I are contemplating the move to Vietnam. We�re originally from a city with a rather entrenched Vietnamese population, and love the people, the food, etc. We�re not, by any means, �new� to SE Asia. We currently teach in the Korean public school system.

I hold a Masters and a TEFL cert. He holds a Bachelors degree and a TEFL cert. Neither of our degrees is teaching or English related. I should also note that our TEFL certs are of the 100 hour, online variety. We have extensive work experience in our fields which is, again, not directly relevant.

From what I�ve read, landing jobs shouldn�t be difficult, if we do so in country. What we�re concerned about are conditions. It appears that many people work on a part-time basis for several institutions. I�ve also heard a bit about university work, but know nothing of the industry apart from what I see in the occasional RMIT ad.

Can anyone shed some light on the following?:
1. Holidays
A. How much time do you get?
B. How do you arrange it (it is contracted, or something else)?
C. Are they paid or unpaid?
D. Anything you�d like to ad?
2. Other benefits
A. What are some other common benefits?

The money in Korea isn�t great these days, but what may keep us here is the holiday issue. We are not thrilled at the thought of dropping back to a mere 2 weeks or whatever as we intend to continue to study. Holiday time is at a premium.

Feel free to PM if you�re not comfortable posting. Additionally, we�re after any and all information we can get at this point, so everything helps! Thanks in advance!

[jestert79]

Well, I only worked at one school (Apollo in Hanoi) so I can only speak for them...

For a one-year, full time contract:

1 A + B) Holidays - I got 20 paid days off for the year. To get the time off I had to fill out a little form at least a few weeks in advance. From what I know, if you don't have a year contract you could request unpaid leave as well and they were pretty flexible.

For Christmas we got only Christmas Day off. New Year's Day was off too. Then there's Tet and a smattering of days dedicated to kings or independence and whatnot. There was a sneaky little thing in the contract where the school was closed but our paid leave was used.

2) Benefits: They reimbursed $500 for health insurance, and $500 for a flight. Bonus of $900 upon completion of contract.