Life

Schools seek more qualified English language teachers

By Todd Balazovic (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-02 07:50

A foreign teacher with his students at an English training center in Beijing on Feb 17. [Photo/China Daily]

With economic recovery still proving elusive for Western countries hit hard by the global recession, Beijing has become a hot spot for foreign jobseekers.

"People are seeing more opportunities here, and that's why they're here," said Peter Davis, senior program coordinator for IES Global, which helps find short-term teaching internships in China for students from several different countries.

There has been a huge rise in interest from foreign students looking to work in China as teachers long-term, he added.

"The demographic of our group is starting to change, people are coming here for employment, not just for the experience."

Over the past two years, the number of teachers enrolled in IES Global programs who expressed interest in long-term employment in China grew from 3 percent to almost 30 percent.

"As the number of people who want to stay grows, it will make teaching positions harder to get," said Davis, who attributes the trend to a combination of China's rise on the global stage and the dire economy in Western countries.

Davis, who is from the United Kingdom, said that in London, people with college degrees are having difficulty even finding jobs that require little or no qualifications.

"I have a friend back home who has a university degree in psychology and he can't find work even at a camera store," he said. "I understand why people want to come and work here. In China you can start fresh and if you have a decent level of intelligence you can really make something of yourself."

Yet, even with more English-speaking people available to teach English, a traditional expat job, many teaching jobs are still vacant and many schools looking to hire qualified foreign teachers are having difficulties finding suitable candidates.

For Bill Marden, from the United States, president of Enlightenment English Institute, finding qualified staff is one of the greatest challenges facing schools. While there are many people willing to teach English in Beijing, he said that most have no specialized education.

Marden had to resort to a headhunting service based in the United States after failing to fill two teaching positions using local classified ads. More than six applicants applied in the first day, but none were qualified.

"Just having English as your native language doesn't necessarily qualify you to teach anything," he said. "At some places they simply have a foreigner come in, give them a book and tell them to teach Chinese, but there's not a lot of focus on actual improvement in the students."

Qualified teachers make at least 8,000 to 10,000 yuan a month, whereas the average teaching salary is around 5,000 yuan a month, he said.

If qualified English language teachers are hard to come by, suitable candidates for international schools are even harder to find.

The Western Academy of Beijing (WAB), one of the capital's top international schools, recently joined more than 120 schools at a job recruitment fair where more than 900 jobs were on offer to less than 500 candidates.

"There is a proliferation of new international schools around the world, including China. But the number of experienced and qualified teachers is not keeping pace," said WAB director Robert Landlau.