Job Discussion Forums

[six bolt]

I spent nine months teaching in Czech Republic and I have yet to have anyone ask for documentation. I have always wondered if you could bluff your way into a job.

Anyone ever tried?

[jpvanderwerf2001]

I have had my credentials checked for four out of the six EFL jobs I've had (I mean, I know they were checked).
As an Academic Director, I have only checked one seemingly sketchy qualification, only to find out I was wrong and it was in fact legit!
It's really quite easy to verify quals these days with the Internet and whatnot. There are online "warehouses" where you can verify degree/transcripts with little effort.
In the end, it all comes down to how things on the CV add up (or don't) and/or how necessary the quals are for that position/country requirements.

[spiral78]

I agree - it's all about the market. I am part of a hiring committee here, and we ALWAYS check creds - but we have a lot of candidates for every position we advertise, and we can afford to check out those we want to consider.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

I don't know if people actually check with the universities themselves, but it is standard to have to have your actual degree(s) and post-grad cert/ diploma(s) with you (often AS WELL AS copies of them for the interviewer to keep- or they may run out and photocopy them during the interview) when you interview for a job in Japan (and I expect many other countries in Asia). Maybe not checking is part of why you can buy fakes on the street in Thailand, though... ?

[naturegirl321]

I worked at two universities, two schools and one institute in Peru and only one of the unis even asked to SEE my degree. In China, none of the two places I worked at asked for it. In Korea, both of them did.

Chances are that many employers don't check. I've known people work for unis for a year or two with fake quals basicallly because the uni didn't check. granted, when they found out, they were fired.

I also know of people who create emails and job titles for their references and rarely are they contacted. Just ask your references if they were contacted.

[naturegirl321]

[TeresaLopez]

[Glenski]

[markcmc]

Some employers check, some don't. I used to hire English teachers, and I checked.

However, first I used to ask questions about the subjects they had studied, and when - as sometimes happened - they became angry, evasive, or just couldn't answer the questions I knew that I wasn't going to hire them, even if their qualifications were genuine.

A medium sized minority of applicants do try to pass off false certificates and diplomas. It is a problem, and it devalues the real qualifications to some extent.

[SandyG20]

Online warehouses that tell if teachers are qualified or not?

Where are these?

I have worked in schools with teachers in the USA who rather faked their credentials too - not sure how they got away with it.

Really credentialing is complex - because each country does it differently - and in the USA each state has different rules about teacher credentials.

I have no idea how it works really in other countries exactly - but it would take alot of research to learn all the different ways to get credentialed and what documents look like.

I know people who can "act" like they know about teaching when they are being interviewed but in the classroom they are lousy teachers. The real test is in the classroom.

There was a case of a teacher in New York city who pretended to be a credentialed teacher for several years (he borrowed someone elses documents) and got away with it for a long time.

[markcmc]

[jpvanderwerf2001]

[jpvanderwerf2001]

[quote="SandyG20"]Online warehouses that tell if teachers are qualified or not?

Where are these?quote]

Well, not exactly. They let you know if people actually graduated from where they say they did.

http://www.studentclearinghouse.org/
http://www.abika.com/Reports/Samples/Verifycollegedegree.htm

[Mrs McClusky]

When I first started out I used to go out of my way and bend over backwards to ensure all my docs were in order. After several years becoming aware that most docs were never checked and refs never contacted, I went through a period of NEVER sorting it out as I knew noone ever asked. I nearly jumped out of my skin when asked to produce an origional in THAILAND of all places after NOT needing to show an origional (photocopy was fine) for 2 years in Saudi. I realised I had lost it 'somewhere', got another sent over and it was all sorted. To this day I remember the DOS smirking at me as I said I have lost my degree somewhere on this planet but I don't know where. I am sure he expected me to either do a runner or hand in a quickly sorted fake.
All lived happily ever after though.

Peace

[SandyG20]

Checked both those links - interesting - sort of like background checks - but the schools do have to pay money to verify - which I suspect most schools would not do - unless they have lots of extra cash.