Job Discussion Forums

freebeacher · Joined: 10 Sep 2003 Posts: 76

Hello. I was sent a contract by Buckland who advertises a lot on this site. They sent me a contract for 20 hours teaching high school students. They say the contract is with Buckland not the school. After I arrive in China the rep. of the school will meet me and Buckland said it is possible the school will not choose me after I arrive. In that event they could try another school. The contract is for 5000 per month with a furnished apartment. They do NOT pay for the New Year holiday of one month. I have seen a lot of blogs that say you should make sure you get paid for that New Year month off. Should that be a deciding factor in accepting this contract? In other words, is a paid New Year standard practice? Am I getting a bad offer?

it'snotmyfault · Joined: 14 May 2012 Posts: 527

This is a really bad deal. In so many ways !

If you come into China, I'm guessing on a tourist visa, and the school don't want you, and Buckland say sorry we don't have any other jobs. What are you going to do?

They could also put pressure on you to accept any old job once you're here. All the time your tourist visa is running out, so you feel more desperate and decide to accept an awful job offer.

I met a few of the buckland intake last year in Yangshuo and they told me they were working on F-visas which is illegal here.

I also met the guy in charge a couple of times, Owen, I'm sure everyone knows someone like him, very charming but I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him

If you want to work in a public school this September, there's still time to find a better deal than this.

rogerwilco · Joined: 10 Jun 2010 Posts: 1549

Typically, the younger the students the higher the salary.
Teaching in a high school should pay more than working in a college or university.

The last time I worked in a high school, it was in Nantong, and I was paid 8,000 a month for 16 forty minute classes a week. That was a 10 month contract with a paid New year holiday.

Since there seem to be no guarantees that you will have a job, and the salary offered is so low, then I would recommend that you turn down this offer.

The rules seem to be getting much stricter, and I would now recommend that anyone coming to China only agree to arrive here with a Z visa.

China Tesol · Joined: 02 Jun 2006 Posts: 10 Location: China

The rules seem to be getting much stricter, and I would now recommend that anyone coming to China only agree to arrive here with a Z visa.[/quote]

The problem is: How do people get Z visa without BA degree?
I know Chinese government has a rule: Any one who want to get a Z visa need to have a BA degree with two years work experience.

xiguagua · Joined: 09 Oct 2011 Posts: 768

You're signing a contract with a recruiting agency first and foremost. The job that they said you could get is I guess just a sample. They have PLENTY of schools to choose from though. The problem with that is that for newbie's most of the locations are in places you've never heard of before which makes deciding hard. And if there is a place you wanna go, if someone else jumps in front of you, you're out of luck.

That's what happened to me in the end when I was with them. All the locations I wanted were taken.......so I got stuck in BFE Guizhou which was miserable for me and I got a job offer to a university that I really wanted to be at, so I left Buckland group and took it. There were no hard feelings and the boss of Buckland was understanding and I wasn't penalized.

I would negotiate to get holiday pay tho........seems wrong if you don't get paid holidays........