how to hire in Japan

[Obear]

I am a teacher in a small english school in Japan who also has the responsibility of making certain decisions as well as various other operational related tasks.


I want to talk to anyone who has experience with Hiring to talk about some issues i have been facing. Lately i my company has been having difficulty with hiring teachers with University degrees that simply aren't any good.
While my situation happens to be in Japan, i am sure that advice from anyone who has ever had to hire or manage teaching staff would be helpful.

My opinion right now is that many "teachers" coming to Japan are simply not teachers, but rather undiversity grads who can't find work in their respective countries, or otherwise vacationers looking for ways to make easy cash during their short term stay. i wonder if this is the case outside of Japan?

anyhow, any advice or comments would be greatly appreciated.




o..

[ICAL_Pete]

What are your basic requirements for hiring? I mean is a Degree the only qualification they need to have or do you ask them to be TESL/TEFL Certified as well. People who have taken the time and effort to get qualified in the field are likely to be more serious about teaching. Also have you considered asking your short listed candidates to give you a sample lesson with one of your classes before making them a firm offer? If you recruit your teachers from abroad that could be not feasible but you could always include in your telephone interview a few questions aimed at checking their understanding of teaching techniques and their resourcefulness when it comes to classroom management. You could set a couple of scenarios and see how they respond to it.

Hope this helps

[Tdol]

Like ICAL_Pete, I would expect a TESL qualification as well; if they haven't got that, then they are probably just travellers.

[syntactix]

Yes, you need to look for a TESL qualification. The other thing is that, like many other countries Japan, for the most part, is finicky about 'native speakers'. It's possible to find SOME exceptional teachers of English elsewhere, if you aren't very fastidious about the 'native' aspect. However, I would urge you to notice the emphasis on 'some'.
Have fun.

[I'm With Stupid]

The majority of English language instructors in Japan aren't English teachers. The big schools like Nova hire people straight out of university with any degree (and even then the degree is only to satisfy immigration). The sorts of wages offered should give you a clue. Most adverts for language instuctors in Japan offer a monthly salary of between 250k and 300k. A newly qualified English teacher in the UK will recieve 400k. It's only a year extra training on top of your degree, paid for by the government, then a year of working in a school before you're qualified. Suffice to say, most people who are serious about teaching will do this instead.

I would also be wary about "CELTA = serious about teaching". Again, I can only talk about my own country, but a lot of people will do this course as part of their degree course (for free) precisely because they want to spend a year travelling after university.

Personally, I'd say the best way to filter out the travellers and people who aren't serious would be to specify a minimum of 2 years of experience teaching in Japan (not only that, but you'll end up with applicants who are a bit more stable and established in the country). I would specify a CELTA or equivalent in the advert, but don't reject applicants who don't have those qualifications (firstly, you might get some of the more confident non-qualified applicants, and if you do find someone who's suitable that doesn't have the qualifications, you can offer them the job on a slightly lower wage than advertised ). And be careful at the moment, because Nova employees are deserting like rats from a sinking ship, so be careful not to employ someone who's just taking a job so they won't have to go home early.