Job Discussion Forums

[coledavis]

I just thought I'd tell people about my experience of the recruitment experience with English in Action, an organisation which provides conversational English sessions across Austria. I had appeared for my workshop/recruitment session in London; this was unpaid and started at 9.30 so applicants had to pay top dollar merely to get there. I explained at my interview there that I was only interested in fairly lengthy block bookings (I'm a qualified and experienced teacher). After a month or so, they offered me a place on their pool of teachers and took up references. Then they said they'd write to me in another month to make me an offer. In the end, I was offered two weeks, not even consecutively, in late February and early March. I turned this down and told them to remove me from their database. From my point of view, I regard them as time-wasters.

[artemisia]

I think EIA just have so many teachers on their books now for quite a few countries - more than just Austria - unless things have changed. They often offer very short term work.

If you're relatively close to London getting to the interview shouldn't be a problem.

[coledavis]

Well I guess that means that it's good for somebody just wanting a paid week or two abroad (and thinks central London is a great place to be), but somebody who wants serious work for a while - and takes care to explain this at interview - shouldn't expect anything useful.

[artemisia]

As I understood it, getting a few weeks here and there would be the norm for this company. That was always my impression and I think by now they'd have so many teachers that it'd be lucky to get anything consecutively.
I don't think it's great that they keep having recruitment drives though if they don't have much to offer and especially if they know interviewees are coming from afar.

I met a teacher who had fairly constant work through them, moving from assignment to assignment for block periods. I thought it sounded a bit stressful. I really think they are good for a week, possibly a bit more, if you want a bit of summer work and also to combine it with travelling in that country in the intervening periods.