Korean Job Discussion Forums

[noraebang]

So I might do 1-2 years of TaLK.

When I graduate, would this give me a salary bump at EPIK or the same provincial office of education?

[winterfall]

Teaching experience is teaching experience. As long as you do it on full year terms, I doubt they'd round up.

[OculisOrbis]

Why do TALK at all? They pay substantially less for almost the same job. There is very little benefit to the TALK program over EPIK for its participants but the government saves a buttload of money by hiring TALK teachers instead. Just go straight to EPIK and accumulate an extra 6 million to 24 million won in salary over a year or two that you may stay.

[noraebang]

[OculisOrbis]

To answer your question, yes, if you did two years of TALK (although i dont know why you would opt for that), you should move up one level from base level in Epik salary scale. The only reason I could see for anyone choosing TALK over EPIK is because TALK accepts people who are in the process of completing a degree, but do not actually have a degree yet.

Go here: http://www.epik.go.kr/ and click job description --> salary and benefits to see the epik pay scale model.

UPDATE ***It actually says under the EPIK salary scale that TALK experience is equivalent only to an ESL certificate and is not considered full-time teaching experience -- so no matter how long you spend in the TALK program all you will ever achive when switching to EPIK is getting the 100 000w per month boost that a 120 online TEFL certificate would get you.****

On the right on the original link, you can see a link to 'EPIK and TALK'. Keep in mind they are promoting TALK because it's cheaper for them than EPIK - not n necessarily better for you.

You can find more details about the 'benefits' of the TALK program at http://www.talk.go.kr/

[shostahoosier]

It would probably count towards teaching (as in you would have at least 1 year under your belt).

A lot of public school contracts I've seen give pay raises to people who stay at the same school....some I'm not sure how more than a year would help your pay grade.

[noraebang]

Orbis,

Thanks for finding that on the EPIK website.

I didnt know if I'd ever actually apply to EPIK and that makes it less likely.