teaching in china

What can I expect?

Once we have agreed your qualifications and CV / certificates with the approved Chinese institution they will make a formal offer of employment. The terms of this offer would usually include the folllowing:

Term of Contract:

This is usually a year - although 6 month and even as short as three month options can be negotiated.

Salary:

Usually beteen 3500 and 8000 RMB (per month) depending on your experience and the institutions budget. You'd usually get higher end in a commercial setting or if you have extra qualifications they are looking for - a TEFL for example or TESOL.

Flight:

Chinese institutions normally offer to cover the cost of your roundtrip ticket.

Other Allowances:

Include covering the cost of your visa, a travel allowance of around 1200 RMB per year term, the cost of your medical which is a simple health check carried out by the local health bureau to get you your working certificate and the provision of small bonuses at points throughout the academic year - for example a spring festival few hundred RMB gift or cash. Not all institutions are the same but most have extras to encourage you to accept.

Non financial benefits:

These include the provision of a bicycle - an essential piece of kit in China, a China Daily Newspaper, home starter kits for your apartments - which vary greatly. Also institutions might offer Chinese classes for you on a weekly or twice weekly basis - it's important to add here that you will have enumerate offers from people willing to help you with Chinese if you're keen to do that. Other faculty staff are your best resource for language learning exchange in our experience.

The colleges know your on your way to China for an adventure and a chance to experience something different to your normal life - they will expect you to behave yourself and remember you're no longer the student and are now the teacher. This really means if your going out and enjoying the local nightlife that you make sure your on time to class and well prepared to teach. More so now in China institutions will be looking for you to prepare lesson plans and keep records for your class to demonstrate what they have been doing with you. This is not a hard thing to do - so as long as you keep a healthy balance between work and play you will be fine.

Accomodation:

Your accomodation would usually comprise - an apartment with bedroom, sitting room, kitchen/diner and showeroom with WC. These apartments are of a good standard and normally include Internet access for use with your own laptop and on occasion a Pc and office are provided. The apartment will have a refrigerator, AC and adequate security - although this is less of a concern since normally your place will be on campus.

Hours of work:

This would all depend on what kind of institution but as a guide:

  • Primary school 10-20 hrs a week
  • Middle school 10-20 hrs a week
  • College 15-20 hrs a week
  • University 15-25 hrs a week
  • Training Centre 25-30 hrs

The work load is not usually heavy - you will have lots of time to explore and pursue other interests whilst you are in China.

You would need to arrange flight to China and a visa - either a work visa issued before you leave uk or a travel visa (easier to arrange in the UK) that will then be converted to a working visa in China. - we of course will provide you with the forms and suggest a company in London who will turn the visa around asap. On flights we would usually suggest Virgin Atlantic or Emirates. Remember you will get the value of your roundtrip ticket back as part of your contract with the Chinese institution.

Once you arrive in China the institution will collect you from the airport and take you to your accomodation - after letting you rest you will be introduced to other faculty and introduced to your new job commitments / given a timetable and shown around to get your bearings. We have a support team in China do at any point you can give us a call and ask us for advice. A lot of the time it is a shock to the system when you first arrive but give it a few days and you'll feel fine!

We will suggest to the institution that they arrange a mobile phone for you - that you just put credit on as and when required - this will take away a lot of that worry when you first arrive - you can message and call our local or UK team and they will help you settle in.

In the first couple of days you will hand over your passport to the foreign affairs dept rep and they will complete all the paper work for you / institution ID, health card, visa changes etc. It's worth taking 4-6 passport photos with you with white background which will save you some admin when you arrive. After they have registered you, your papers with the local government, the provincial education bureau and the local public security bureau you will be given your passport back.

In the first week there will usually be a welcome dinner - a chance to meet people you will be working with and you will start to get yourself around. We will support this by giving you some useful contacts for the city you're in - so that you don't feel isolated in a school without knowing where your local pub is or where you can buy some cheese!

The bottom line is we don't just get you there and take our fee from the institution - we are there to make sure you feel good and get to know your local area.

If you have any more questions just let us know!