Korean Job Discussion Forums

[nadi86]

Does anyone know more about this new policy that is said be enacted for the spring 2012? I am concerned because I graduate with my masters this December but will not have my diploma until the end of February/beginning of March because it takes 9 weeks for it to be mailed out. I really don't want to have to pay for a TEFL course on top of everything else...

NEW EPIK POLICY (Very Important)!

From the Spring 2012 semester, EPIK will try to accept the applicants with the level 2 or higher qualifications only and all the applicants need to comply with the new policy.

To be Level 2, you must satisfy one of the following:

1. Bachelor�s Degree in Education, English Language/Literature or Linguistics.
2. Master�s Degree in any discipline.
3. Valid Teachers License/Certificate
4. One year full time teaching experience.
- If you teaching experience is not English, then EPIK will only consider half of your experience (e.g., 2 years of teaching different subject in accredited institution will count as 1 year full time teaching experience).
5. Minimum 100 hours ESL Certificate (TEFL/TESOL/CELTA).

If you don�t have any of above qualifications, you need to take the ESL certificate course and be able to complete by Jan 20th in order to be accepted.

It was always highly recommended to take the ESL certificate (if the applicants were level 3) and EPIK has recommended the applicants to take the certificate course during the interviews because it was hard for them to recommend the Level 3 teachers to each Office of Education. As it is becoming almost impossible for EPIK to do so, they had to come up with this policy.

[Richardjw84]

I appreciate your problem in terms of the timing, but as a general policy change I reckon anything that raises standards can't be a bad thing.

I understand laying out money for the course is an issue, but I have a MA and a CELTA and it bumped me up one grade on the EPIK payscale so in the long-run it pays for itself. On top of that, some TEFL courses (particularly a CELTA) can be really beneficial and shouldn't just been seen as a 'hoop to jump through'.

Good luck with sorting it out anyway, maybe if you explained your problem to your University they might be able to provide you with some temporary proof of your Masters before the actual certificates are mailed out?

[plato's republic]

Now if only hagwons would adopt a similar policy, it might actually improve the overall quality of the foreign teachers here. I'd say 1, 2 and 3 are fine, but 4 should be two years of teaching experience and 5 should be changed to a CELTA/Trinity TESOL certificate rather than just any old Tom, Dick and Harry online certificate.

[some waygug-in]

Hagwons are not set up to teach so much as they are just set up to be

employment/money making businesses.

I doubt you'll ever get Koreans to change their hiring practices for haggies.

[koreatimes]

I can't see this being a long lasting policy. If you have to get a master's, wouldn't it make more sense to apply for a university job? The locations Epik covers are not high in demand. I understand there are some nice places, but Epik covers quite a lot of area. This is bound to backfire and teachers will do more runners after they realize where they have to live.

[roguefishfood]

[Tower of Babel]

[koreatimes]

Another interesting aspect to all this is the Talk program http://www.talk.go.kr/

What would they do with the Talk program then? That only requires 2 years of college. If they simply hired more Talk teachers, then schools would see the difference between teachers with master's and teachers without even a bachelor's. They would want someone in between who has at least a bachelor's, allowing them to pay less.

The more I think about this, the less I am convinced it is a real policy. I think someone just misspoke about requirements. Maybe they were referring to university positions.

[nadi86]

My recruiter sent that in the information email that was sent out when the new application form was released yesterday. Apparently if you are offered a position you have sign a document stating that you will either have a TEFL certificate, an apostilled copy of your diploma, or a year of full-time teaching experience by January 20 when you send in the rest of your documents. I imagine once the interview occurs more of this will be made clear as far as what their expectations are..

[nstick13]

Been a requirement to be "Level 2" in Seoul. An online course is better than nothing; at least you've been exposed to it. CELTA/Trinity is worthless here. Same level as those online ones. Someone coming here for a year isn't going to fork out $2000 for a CELTA. They just won't come. Requiring any TESOL course allows EPIK to see you're somewhat serious about it (it does cost some money) and you have some exposure to how to teach.

To answer the OP's question, I'd get a letter of intended graduation from your school, and have it notarized. You should be able to show your diploma at orientation. This happens often with fresh Bachelor grads.

[Busan bound]

i did an online one before coming over. It was with i-to-i, not a great course by any means but it served a purpose, make the money back plus more over the course of a year contract

[ZIFA]

[pest2]

I mean, yeah, it can't hurt to get better-qualified teachers... but as far as the labor market goes (and I think someone else above brought it up, too), the supply of labor is going to shrink considerably when prospective teachers are forced to get these certs... It's not like EPIK pays a 6-digit salary and a lot of those school are out in the middle of BFE somewhere or nowhere you'd wanna be living for a year or more. Most of the EPIK teachers I have met recently who work out in BFE, in fact, are doing their first-ever teaching stint and don't have any certs or quals, etc.

In a fantasy world, it would be great to have totally experienced and qualified ESL teachers, but the reality is that ESL teachers in Korea (and pretty much every where) work on year to year contracts and are more or less expendable/replaceable for the employers for whom they work. So for all but a rare breed, ESL teaching is like a job, not a career... do it for a while, quit, go do something else. As a job, its appeal is precisely that you don't need to have too much experience or be really qualified. If EPIK REALLY wants to attract better teachers, they should make the pay higher, make the positions more comparable to regular Korean English teacher positions (ie, do away with annually expiring contracts, give better and more frequent pay raises, and have some kind of retirement plan, etc), and spend some of the money to train the teachers themselves...

Otherwise, ... you get what you pay for... inexperienced teachers..

[some waygug-in]

What you aren't taking into account is that even when they get some more qualified candidates, they generally avoid hiring them.

They go for the newbie 9 times out of 10 because they don't want to pay the higher salary.


A lot of more experienced teachers were let go and replaced with newbies,

I was told I had to work for the same pay as a newbie or no job.

I did it for a year and had enough.

[Rhakorii]

Right. So, as a graduate with no money (fortunately I can 'borrow' just enough cash to pay for flights + first month), what on earth am I supposed to do?

I cannot afford a CELTA. I could just about afford an online certificate, however I'm highly dubious about any qualification that doesn't involve rigorous class-room experience. If EPIK turn around and reject me, I've just wasted my only pennies on a certificate worth almost nothing.

Yes I'm going through a recruiter, and yes I expect competition, but sticking up a firewall to a generation who just want to work is a shot in the foot - and sadly it's happening all across the world. I can't even get an internship, unless I can afford to pay for rent, food, and living expenses in the city of London... Good times.

All I want to do is teach, recruiters rarely respond, half the schools are mightily suspicious, and practically every single country requires a minimum of 1-2 years experience. I'd happily get a CELTA, but to do that I need cash, and to get cash I need a job, and to get a job I need a financial crash not to have happened.

Will 'insert derogatory act here' for average-wage English teaching job!