Korean Job Discussion Forums

[King James]

Alright. I just had an interview with an off-shore Canadian school in Korea for a teaching position using the British columbia curriculum. Here's the thing. I am graduating with a BEd from Ontario and the school knows this, even though I need a BC certification.

In order to get a BC certification, I first need my Ontario certification which I thought I could get by mid-May. But I am starting to think I can't get it until June because of a "faculty letter" from the dean stating I've completed my BED that needs to be sent to the Ontario College of Teachers and won't be sent until after my actual graduation day, which is mid-June. So basically I wouldn't even be certified in Ontario until the end of JUNE.....
After I am finally certified in Ontario, I need to ask for a letter of standing from Ontario to send to BC which would take another 15 days at least. Then BC will take 5-7 weeks to go over my application once everything is received, which leaves me somewhere in August before I am certified to teach in BC.

So at this point I'll be certified to teach in BC and at the offshore school, but what about visas? I'm not sure if that leaves enough time to get a visa (which I've heard is an E-7 visa for this type of school?), however I could be wrong because I have no teaching experience, and I've heard an E7 needs proof of 2 years of experience.

I will be calling the BC and the ontario teacher's college tomorrow to see how quickly I can get everything going.

It seems like an impossible feat! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated but I feel like I may be alone on this one lol.

[SeoulNate]

would be wary of the school as it is most likely an academy. That does not automatically mean it will be bad, but if you are going in expecting it to be an international school you might be severely disappointed with your teaching situation.

Name of the school? Website?

[wanderkind]

[King James]

lol off shore Canadian school just means any school in Korea that uses a Canadian curriculum. So no not Dokdo

It would be a September start. I will check with them about the visa requirements then.

[Reset]

Do you know the name of the school? There's a few shady hagwons that only hire certified teachers and claim to have a "Canadian curriculum from BC"
I've worked at one and your story seems strangely similar.

[schwa]

Theres a school here in Sokcho with only certified teachers teaching BC curriculum & it provides its graduates with legitimate high school diplomas recognized in Canada.

[littlelisa]

You can tell if it's legit because you'll have E7, not E2, for international schools.

Hagwons would not likely go through the bother of requiring a teaching certification from a specific province, though.

OP, the school should be able to help you sort out the visa issues and the timing questions. They have an interest in helping you out with this if they want you to teach!

E7 doesn't need two years of teaching experience, and it's not limited only to teachers. It's a "special employment" or "special activities" visa or something like that. A lot of international schools require two years of experience for application, but that would be the school's requirements for applying, not immigration's for the visa.

[King James]

Ok that's great that I would not need 2 years of experience. That solves one problem.

I'm 100% positive that it is a legit school. As Schwa said, it is a school that gives a Canadian diploma, and there are only 6 of them in all of Korea. I am familiar with the one in Sokcho as well but this one is different.

I guess all I need to do now is see if I can get the Ontario College of Teacher's and BC college of teachers to speed up my application.

[ttompatz]

If it is in the list:
http://www.cicic.ca/716/canadian-schools-outside-canada.canada?search=1&p=%20South%20Korea

Then it is legitimately accredited by the govt of BC as an international school.
That means that you need to meet all the requirements of being a teacher in BC in order to work there.

That does NOT mean they meet the same labor standards as you will find in BC (or any other province of Canada). Their Human resource management can be as bad as any other Korean school and they ARE schools run for a profit.

.

[King James]

Alright so I have finally heard back from this school and they have decided to hire me.

ttompatz – Yes it is one of the schools listed in on the CICIC website you just posted.

Here are the terms they sent over the email:
- Annual pay: 34,000,000 Korean Won (currently equivalent to CAD35,400)
- Return airfare
- Housing: Furnished single studio
- Severance pay(=completion bonus) after the completion of a school year contract equal to one-twelveth of annual pay.
- E2 visa sponsorship
- 50% health insurance and pension (under monthly package)
- Paid vacation + National holidays

I will be posting this under the contract review thread as well, and I have some questions for you guys that may be difficult to answer:

1) The current BC starting teacher salary for the district this school is associated under is $38,000. Are they required to pay me that or is salary determined by the Korean school itself.
2) I have heard a lot that I should talk with a teacher who is currently working there. Should I ask for this contact directly from the school? Because I have actually found a couple of the teachers on Facebook (believe it or not). Can I just message them on Facebook or would that be too unprofessional?
3) What do you think my next steps should be? They want to discuss this offer over skype tomorrow and I obviously have a million questions for them. If you have any to add or any suggestions please let me know. Some that I can think of are:

- How much contact time would I have with students? What would my schedule look like?
- What specific classes would I be teaching, what grades and subjects (I know it's sciences)
- Is the health insurance NHIC from the ministry of Health of Korea?
- Is the pension a Korean pension or Canadian pension? How does that work?
- Can you offer me a flight there as well?
- What are the extra teaching duties expected of me?
- How far is the housing from the school?
- Am I expected to pay utilities for the apartment or is that paid for as well?
- What are your science facilities like? Can I do labs safely? Do you have somebody in charge of ordering chemicals for these labs?
- What is the new teacher orientation process?
- Taxes? (Really I understand nothing about this at the moment but will be looking into it)
- Can I speak to somebody who is a current employee?
- What technology will I have access to and the students?


So that's everything for now, again, they have not shown me a formal contract and I will email them right away to see if they can provide that to me before the skype meeting tomorrow.

If there's anything else you can think of then please let me know!

[wanderkind]

[ttompatz]

E2 means "teacher of other languages".
E7 is "teacher"
Sounds like they are skirting the fine lines already if you are being hired as a "science teacher".

The remuneration package (pay and benefits) is on par with rates for Korean public school "Foreign English teachers" who have a B.Ed and licensure at home (and less than other "internationally accredited" schools.)

They do not need to meet the salary requirements for the BC school district but what they are offering is nothing special (underwhelming would be accurately descriptive).

Talking to current teachers when the school is NOT looking over their shoulder is a good thing. Read between the lines when you get the responses.

Medical SHOULD be NHIC (not as comprehensive as Canadian medical) and pension won't be CPP but should be NPS.

Make sure (by talking to other teachers) that they actually have NHIC (with the booklet (like your OHIP card)) and NPS. These are often included in a contract with a private school and often NOT enrolled or paid into.

Contact time and other duties should be clearly outlined in the contract (Teachers in Korean public schools have 22 classes in a 40 hour work week with few outside duties) for the same money.

-"Severance pay" is actually mandated by law and not an "extra" benefit.
-"paid vacation should be on the order of 6+ weeks per anum + national holidays (red days).
-Taxes are on a progressive scale (based on income and deductible allowances (like at home)) and NOT on a fixed scale. If your contract reads 3.3% (or some other fixed percentage) you are going to get screwed.

Get a copy of the REAL contract and not some job posting description before you do anything.

.

[Ceelow75]

May I ask which school in Korea this is?

[Weigookin74]