Job Discussion Forums

[summerheaven]

My university is part of a program that allowed students to work in Japan.
It mainly has Engineering/Science and some Business co-op jobs, but there WAS one ESL company in the program called Peppy Kids.

Peppy Kids used to not require applicants to have a Bachelor's Degree (a friend of a friend got in after she graduated from high school) but they changed their requirements and now they do ='( So they have dropped out of the program.

I've been planning to teach English overseas since the 7th grade and when I found out there was a coop opportunity at my university, I was so excited and I signed up for coop right away! I originally did not plan to do coop at all.
Then the coop coordinator said that Preppy Kids dropped out and they're looking around for a replacement.

So to cut to the chase, does anyone know any companies that won't require a degree and would probably be willing to enter this program?
I paid my coop fees before I knew Peppy Kids dropped out, so I'm totally stuck. I don't want to end up doing a regular coop job, especially since I never planned to do coop in the first place.
***I've heard a million times that most companies require you to have a 4 year degree or else you can't get a work visa. But since Peppy Kids allowed students to teach without a 4 year degree before, I'm really hoping there's another company out there that will do the same.

I'd really prefer teaching in Japan right now (I have some friends doing co-op in Japan right now, so I'd love so much to join them) but if there are other companies in other Asian countries please let me know as well!
My major is in Asian studies so that's why I'd prefer to teach in Asia first. I'm hoping to move on to other countries after graduation though.

Thanks so much if you guys can help me out.

[seklarwia]

To get a work visa to teach English you need a degree. That's not a company policy, but an immigration policy. The only way you can get around this is to be able to prove 3 years formal teaching experience, which you likely can't.

My uni also has a special agreement with a couple of companies and unis which allows students to go for work experience and study. The participants go over on student visas with permission to work. Sounds as though your uni had something similar. And the uni I worked at in China had a simliar scheme with an Australian college who sent their TESOL students over to get hands on experience.

The only work visa open to young people without a degree is the working holiday visa, but you can't get it if you are from the US.

There are some dodgy companies that will take you to work in places like China and Korea without a degree, but since you don't have a degree they normally get you some form of study/cultural exchange visa. They'll also syphon off a larger part of your wages and ask for an upfront fee in exchange for the priviledge of barely working legally. Some of these companies may keep to the deal, but some are more than a little dishonest and because you don't have a full work visa, you have no legal ground to stand on (I met a few teachers in this position in China).

Finish your degree then come over properly.

[summerheaven]

[Apsara]

Can you explain for those of us who don't really know what you mean, what a "coop" is in this context? Is it like an internship? I have never heard of this use of the word before and I'm betting I'm not the only one.

Your friend's friend who came over almost certainly worked for Peppy on a working holiday visa, assuming she/he's Canadian. You can also do this, you just need to approach employers and find out whether they take people on WH visas.

For English teaching jobs in most cases the degree is a requirement of Japan Immigration in order to get a working visa- it's not actually a requirement for the job. Plenty of people here on spouse visas for example who don't have degrees but are teaching English.

Without a degree, other work for people on WHVs is pretty much restricted to hospitality work like waitressing or working in resorts, and since I have no idea what a coop is, I don't know if that will fit the bill or not.

[seklarwia]

The degree thing is not new, but perhaps immigrations tightened the rules. I was looking into gap years 3 years ago, and there used to be teaching placements with places like Realgap and STA. I just checked now and teaching in Japan seems to have been wiped off their sites.

So unless your uni can organise a programme where the main purpose is to study with work on the side, its not likely you are going to be coming over until you graduate.

I doubt companies advertise "looking for organisations to do exchange programmes". Our uni got offers from the companies because they were affiliated with the unis ours had been taking students on from for years.

And unless you are attending the unis that have these programmes they are not open to you.

Our uni runs sandwich courses, where a year experience is a requirement of the actual degree. So our language students must work or study in at least one of their major language countries. Hence why the student visa thing works in our case. I'm guessing your uni was offering work placements which have nothing to do with your study which is likely the problem.

But good hunting to you though.

If you are desperate you'll likely have to take a gap year and get a WHV.

[summerheaven]

[summerheaven]

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

Co-op's might be done under a student visa, because they are considered part of your degree and so you wouldn't need an undergraduate degree to get it. You also wouldn't need to get paid the going rate when you're on one. Most are free or virtually free. If an eikaiwa is involved in it, then either it's on the business side of things (which would require Japanese proficiency) or else it's probably just looking for free labour. Wouldn't it seem weird to be teaching English through an eikaiwa as part of your degree, when the minimal requirement for a job is a degree in any subject at all? What exactly, would you be learning that you wouldn't learn by working at any store anywhere? They probably 'dropped out' in the sense that they were questioned by the government as to what they were doing, and then were forced out.

The purpose of a co-op is to get relevant experience in your field. If your field is applied linguistics or education, then that's relevant (if there were more senior instructors mentoring you by telling you what you are doing right and wrong, and the lesson plan wasn't already laid out in front of you) but with Asian studies, maybe you could look at it as a chance to get international relations / business experience. That type of thing would be far more useful than eikaiwa experience, which you could get as soon as you graduate. If you do a search you'll see that eikaiwa experience isn't exactly useful if you want to work in any other industry.

[summerheaven]

[seklarwia]

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[Apsara]

[Rooster_2006]

[TT-Kira]

Back in 95 I was in a similar situation. My university 'dumped' me in Japan & I did a 6month course at a university there. The only way to get my actual degree was to get work in Japan. Without a degree I couldn't get a visa & therefore couldn't work ... get the picture? My university didn't care ...

So I knocked on every door going & got myself a job with Interac as an ALT in a JHS. We bypassed the visa problem with the agreement (weeks of wrangling & working fulltime whilst I was still 'officially' on a student visa) that immigration would give me a 'cultural visa'. This was before the days of WHV ... it worked, everyone was happy & I got just over another 12months in Japan & work experience to finish my degree (of 15 in the first year I was the ONLY one to graduate 4 years later!)

Not sure if the cultural visa option still exists, I wasn't quite within the 'regulations' for it as I was full-time but immigration allowed it with the help of my Mayor & Interac bosses!

Kira

[summerheaven]