Job Discussion Forums

[clifton10]

Hi, I've mentioned plans earlier to begin job-hunting in Istanbul around mid-late August. Anyway, I have read a post from last year about summer jobs at Leeds Academy. I know that they've had winter camp this year; but am interested in a summer position there if they offer it in the hope that it'll get my foot in the door for an interview for positions (with other schools) starting in the fall. Now my question is, would I have to work the full summer term(the camps are three weeks long according to a post from one of the EFL employment website last year)? Also, does anyone have or had experience with the Leeds summer programme? Any comments(as always) would be helpful. Thanks.

[cartago]

The summer camps at Leeds are OK I guess but if I were you I would try to find something else. First, I found the behavior at the schools to be awful and there was no effective way of disciplining the students. This was true for more than one camp I did.

Second, you're expected to do a few hours of extra-curricular activities with the school for which you're not paid after the classes. This is every day except weekends.

The accommodation is shared with other teachers and will probably be a room on the school site so you won't have your own room or much privacy. The schools are sort of religious so if you want to go out and drink or something and come back late they might object, especially if you're female.

Last, I personally had a bad experience where I was on a tourist visa at the time that I had to renew and they convinced me to stay past the date and then refused to reimburse me any cost for the fines.

They have a tough time getting teachers, they hire numerous non-native speakers including Turkish teachers which would be perfectly fine except they tell them to lie and pretend like they're from a native speaking country and choose a fake name so it's a bit strange.

The plus is that they do pay what they promised and it's a short term job and there is the chance to work for the same school in the autumn term if they like you with that school but through Leeds. Perhaps you could secretly talk about working with them directly, that is if you can stand the behavior at these schools. They're expensive and most Turkish people say the more expensive a school is the worse the behavior of the students and I've certainly found that to be true.

[clifton10]

Hi, I'm surprised that Leeds is not considered a professional organisation in terms of the summer school programme. And I'm not too keen on working on only a tourist visa(when I was hired to teach summer school here in Vietnam, the school provided us with a three-month business visa). Thanks for the info. Think I'll try Russia.

[lexharvey]

the summer camps are only a few weeks long, no one is going to get you a work visa for that length of time, it takes at least that time do get it back.