Korean Job Discussion Forums

[superacidjax]

It seems like a large majority of foriegn teachers here in Korea are grossly underqualified. A degree in something like Engineering hardly qualifies someone as a teacher, yet in Korea, the degree seems to be the only real requirement.

I think the quality of the teachers would actually increase if they did not have the four-year degree requirement, since schools would then be able to recruit from a larger portion of the English-speaking population and therefore have a larger number of applicants with people skills and adaptability.

The fresh-out-of college types that seem to come to Korean en mass have jobs here only by virtue of a degree, social and practical skills aren't often not even considered. If I were hiring for a school, I'd much prefer hiring an older person with a TEFL certificate and years of work experience over a recent Computer Science college graduate with the people skills to match.

It also seems likely that those without college degrees (provided they have other strong qualifications) would stay around longer instead of just using Korea as a resume builder en route to a so-called "real job" back home.

I am suggesting that schools (and the government) resort to accepting applications from those without college degrees. That would expand the applicant pool and allow schools to actually hire people that could be great teachers, rather than someone who has simply "checked the box."

I am NOT suggesting that schools just hire anyone. There should be a strong resume of experience that would demonstrate success in people oriented and often ambiguous environments.

[RACETRAITOR]

Another thing, Korea has very strong anti-drug policies, so university kids are just about the last people they should want coming here.

[Ozabout7or8]

The requirement for a four year degree comes from immigration not the colleges.

The Immigration makes rules like that because they want qualified people coming into the country and in my opinion it is not a bad rule because it would be much harder to verify someones TEFL training or such from the myriad of unregistered courses out there.

Immigration needs to check about 6 things in order to give you your E2 including your Passport, your contract, your degree and your criminal record (I think)...

By taking away the degree requirement you would probably seriously decrease the quality of E2 Visa holders and whatever you decided to replace this with would most likely be very difficult if not impossible to rely on as a measure of competence.

[superacidjax]

[superacidjax]

[VirginIslander]

Stop thinking outside the box. Only think inside the box.

[Ozabout7or8]

In very very broad terms it holds true that people with University degrees are more desirable as Working Visa Holders than non-degree holders.

This does not mean they are more intelligent or of innately better value as a human, but from the perspective of the korean Government they are looking at you in terms of your possible contribution to/potential to cause trouble in Korea.

On a statistical basis you will find less clinically insane, murderously violent (excluding the Korean guy in Virginia), or otherwise socialially undesirable people (from the Korean Government's perspective) holding degrees than not.

That I think is one of the main reasons for the degree requirement, not too much to do with the actual job of teaching, although it does have a bearing on it (hard to get teaching hours in when you are out committing rape or buglary, or selling hash on the corner).

This immigration policy sucks for non degree holders I am sure. But just have a look at your own governments Working Visa or Migrant policies, it is not easy to get into many countries in the world and they invariably look at you in similar 'inhuman' terms as the korean Government is forced to...because they are doing it out of concern first and foremost for the welfare of the Korean population.

[superacidjax]

[cdninkorea]

[Homer]

Well...you need somesort of common minimal qualification.

A B.A. seems reasonable to me.

Opening the door to people without a B.A. sounds like a stap backwards to me.

As for other workers...IT people for example...they do not need a B.A. but they sure need a degree in IT and experience to get an IT job here.

[Ozabout7or8]

[sojourner1]

The immigration department requires the bachelors degree, not schools. I would guess that they want you to have enough critical thinking skills to solve the problems associated with international travel and living as well as having an open mind to take on new challenges that may seem unconventional to the majority in our home countries. Education helps to open peoples minds to new ideas, because an educated person is accustomed to taking on new ideas, concepts, and challenges due to a wide variety of interdisciplinary studies.

I support having the degree requirement as critical thinking skills and knowledge helps a great deal in negotiating such an endeavor as teaching in Korea. Although it is obvious that if you have a degree in business (I do) or engineering that you didn't ever plan on teaching, but simply are a flexible individual seeking an interesting career opportunity within your grasp in todays highly competitive job markets and are willing to take uncommon risks in going that extra mile to achieve something more than mere survival. While teaching young children English is not my first preference as a career, I see it as a decent entry level job stepping stone, because you don't get the job you really want (position of high pay and respect) when you are still young and reletively fresh out of college.

Who wants to sit in a cubicle or stand on a sales floor all day in thier home country where it is excruciatingly boring and a modest cost of living can easily exceed your income (nightmare) with no means to pay student loans, save money, and travel? Not me. A bachelors degree proves valuable in todays global economy where it does not help you much in your home country, but allows you to enter other job markets where rewarding opportunities do exist such as in Korea.

[mithridates]

Since language acquisition isn't something like medicine or firefighting where lives are on the line, the market should decide. It would mean lower salaries for the people already teaching here, but then again they're marketing English as a cool international language, and that means that it's not just the property of seven countries alone.

[superacidjax]

[Woland]

The real solution is to keep the degree requirement and strengthen it, as the OP suggested above, to only degrees in certain fields (e.g., education, TESOL, applied linguistics) and at the same time, eliminate the seven country restriction. Then you would get real market competition among qualified candidates. It would be an interesting thing to see.