Korean Job Discussion Forums

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I've been with my school over 5 years now and was thinking about not renewing next year. But today they told me they want to keep me and for the next 2 years (2016-2017, then 2017-2018). But not sure exactly, I think I heard them say something like we only have 2 years left anyways (meaning until Feb.2018). March 2018, all GEPIK will be replaced by EPIK i think.

My question is: does this mean that even if the school still wants to keep you in 2018 and beyond, they can't? Does this mean that no matter what, if you are a GEPIK teacher right now employed by your public school, when March 2018 comes, we all all be FORCED to leave our schools because EPIK is going to bring in their own hired teachers?

I don't get this. Why couldn't they just transfer the current GEPIK teachers over to EPIK without firing us first and then re-hiring us if we re-apply? It sounds like that's what it is.

Does anyone know or can confirm this is true or not? So basically, 2018 march is like a COMPLETE RESET? Everyone will be fired and EPIK hired teachers will replace all GEPIK teachers? I thought the only difference was that GEPIK (the education program) was being taken over by EPIK, but all the employees just dolly over to the EPIK conditions.

So as a GEPIK teacher, I'm getting fired in Feb. 2018 and EPIK hired teachers will replace me at my school in March 2018?

[FastForward]

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[isitts]

First of all, it’s two years from now. There’s no way your school can plan that far ahead on whether they can keep you or not anyway. Two years, dude! No need to drop bricks over this.

Second, I think you’re making mountains out of molehills here. What do you mean “EPIK’s hired teachers”? It’s not like they have some army of teachers ready to move in on Gyeonggi-do for when that time comes. If you’re an established teacher with any recruiter (like Korvia), then you know filling out these applications is more or less a formality. You don’t get sent to the back of the line. Even if you have to interview with EPIK, you’d be in a comfortable position to do so as you’d already be working for an EPIK school.

Third, if you’ve been here five years straight, maybe you can apply for an F-299 visa and not be bothered with all this.

Five years at one GEPIK school is pretty lucky. I’ve been here six years and am at my third school. Benefits are still the same, though. So it's not that big a deal. GEPIK has been hurting for a while now so this isn't much of a surprise. Changing over to EPIK sounds like a good thing to me.

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UPDATE:

So I called GPOE today and they told me that by spring 2018, EPIK will take over the hiring process 100%.

So I was right. This means that ALL GEPIK teachers will not be renewed or another way of putting it, they will all be laid off, forced to vacate their schools and RE-APPLY to EPIK if you want to keep working.

If, and that's a big "IF" they accept your application and hire you again, you will be randomly placed in a rural school. That school might just happen to be the same school you had to vacate or a school nearby (coincidence). That's why I think it's kind of weird that they ask you to go through this hiring process again just so that you could end up in the same situation as you were in before.

So yes, all GEPIK teachers will be removed and then replaced by new EPIK hirees. Of course, those new EPIK hirees might end up being those GEPIK teachers that were removed and just re-applied LOL.

Don't you see the ridiculousness in this cycle?

The only time this is good is for the bad apples they "weed out" via removing all GEPIK teachers and having them re-apply to the new and higher standards set by EPIK. But for those who end up getting re-hired, this whole process will just be a waste and pointless exercise to just end up in the same spot as you were. They couldn't just let us renew with our school only with a new EPIK contract? I don't get this.

[isitts]