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Q: Can I teach English with a Graduate Certificate?
I'm hoping that everyone here hasn't lost a small fortune on the Chinese stock exchange recently or been swindled by your local escort. If not, hopefully you'll have some time to read and answer my questions. I've previously mentioned that I'd be moving to China to live with my girlfriend. After a busy period the last few weeks back in Australia I'm now back in China and getting everything in order and setting up our apartment. Before I had met my girlfriend I'd been accepted into a MBA program in Australia and have been deferring it while I've been travelling. Now that I'm settling in I'm planning to do the course externally from China. I haven't got a bachelors degree and was instead accepted into the course through the 7 years management experience pathway offered by the university. I'm looking to the future and wondering if after I finish the Graduate Certificate, would I be able to get work teaching English? I have read many of the job ads suggesting that they want to see the highest qualification achieved, and I wanted to know would this be accepted by the government authorities towards a work visa and how would it be judged by the schools? If not a Graduate Certificate, what about the Graduate Diploma? I'm imagining there shouldn't be any issues regarding a Masters degree. Teaching after receiving the Graduate Certificate would be my most favoured scenario. If you don't have any experience or knowledge that would answer my questions perhaps you know which agency I could talk to that would enable me to get a clear understanding of the landscape? Many thanks.
8 years 43 weeks ago in Business & Jobs - China
We dont have "escorts" in China. And as a genral rule, Chinese working girls are very honest.
Anyway, you are in China, probably on a tourist visa, and now want to find work.
What you should have done is apply for jobs from home. If you done it that way, your Z visa might be being processed now.
My advice... dont get on that plane without a Z. But you did.
You dont say what your experience is... but if it is experience that might suit a foreign company in your neighbourhood, my honest advice would be to get a bike, scan your area for foreign factories that you might fit into, then go talk to them.
Good luck 
ScotsAlan:
Just to add. If you have skills to sell, you and your gf need to be a team. She needs to contact the local "married to foreigners" qq group. They are everywhere. Many of the women in that group will be married to men who might be in a position to help.... if you have skills to sell. If you are a plumber by trade you might get a job in a plumbing factory. If you are an engineer.... take your pick. If you are studying management... go to the end of the line.
We dont have "escorts" in China. And as a genral rule, Chinese working girls are very honest.
Anyway, you are in China, probably on a tourist visa, and now want to find work.
What you should have done is apply for jobs from home. If you done it that way, your Z visa might be being processed now.
My advice... dont get on that plane without a Z. But you did.
You dont say what your experience is... but if it is experience that might suit a foreign company in your neighbourhood, my honest advice would be to get a bike, scan your area for foreign factories that you might fit into, then go talk to them.
Good luck
ScotsAlan:
Just to add. If you have skills to sell, you and your gf need to be a team. She needs to contact the local "married to foreigners" qq group. They are everywhere. Many of the women in that group will be married to men who might be in a position to help.... if you have skills to sell. If you are a plumber by trade you might get a job in a plumbing factory. If you are an engineer.... take your pick. If you are studying management... go to the end of the line.
Yes. Don't expect to be paid a lot. You will be working illegally but that doesn't mean much in China.
Thanks for the reply ScotsAlan. The information about the local qq groups was a great insight! I'll definitely talk to my gf about that.
So I've now realised the error in my ways re my introduction. I'll try leaving being funny to ... well somebody else and just ask my question
I had more ScotsAlan but it didn't post. I wrote quite a bit in response to give more background, but that all got wiped somehow.
I'm heading to bed but will reply again soon. Might be worth anyone else considering posting an answer to wait for my next installment so that you're able to answer the question with all the facts.
Cheers
Interesting question... and a legal technicality.
The law says "have a Bachelor's degree", not "at least have", so I think really, it would be no.
But... I think when they apply for the Z visa, they only want to see a copy of the highest degree...
MBA - you should be teaching business, not English! Trust me, teaching English (especially oral English) gets boring (and frustrating) VERY fast!!!
I have arrived on a tourist visa, it's a 6 month multiple entry visa with 90 day entries, which basically makes it a 9 month visa. For those looking for a 1 year multiple entry visa (like I was) you'll need to meet the requirements of having visited China 3 times in the last year or previously had a multiple entry visa (I had a double entry visa that had been extended by a month). This information can only be confirmed for current applications for visas processed in Canberra, Australia.
I have saved enough money to be able to take my time and focus on other things than work for at least the next 12 months so I never planned to work under my current visa. Only being able to get a 9 month instead of 12 month visa has thrown a bit of a spanner into the works though as I had eyed September 2016 as my start date for teaching (maybe a summer program first?).
As far as visa requirements etc. I also have a British passport if that makes any difference and am based in Guangzhou. So visa runs to Hong Kong are planned after my 90 days expire. I also noticed after my last visit there a couple months back that I received a 90 day entry so I'm not sure how exactly at the moment, but living there short term next year after my visa runs out could possibly be an option. Although I'm not sure if I could apply for my work visa in HK as I've been reading that it's becoming more and more difficult to secure visas in HK. So that may mean another trip back to Australia or even a holiday to the UK to organise the work visa.
Another factor to consider is that for the last 12 years I've been managing a health condition known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME. I had been full time in the work force for 7 of the last 10 years only breaking that up with a 2 year stint of travel and just recently another 6 month stint of travel. But I want to slow things down, I'm really focussed on creating the best environment for me to live a healthy life and a key ingredient for that is pacing myself. This would mean shorter hours at work and I'm comfortable with the potential trade off of less pay as a result. Finding opportunities that allow me to work with breaks is also important, e.g. teaching a class or two and then having a rest on the couch in the staff room/my office.
Using this methodology of pacing ideally I'd only study part time, so a 6 month Graduate Certificate would take me 9-12 months to complete.
When I was last in China I visited a friend in Jinan that was teaching in the middle school at the international language school there. I went with him to classes one day so that I could have a look and see what that would be like. I came out of that experience feeling like if I had a similar workload (21, 40 minute classes a week with 25 students each class), and a microphone like those I saw used by the local teachers, that I'd be able and willing to do this work.
Teaching business English to adults or tutoring middle school and high school students in small groups would probably be my ideal as it would be smaller groups and more closely related to what I'll be studying. Alternatively I wouldn't be interested in teaching kindergarten and would prefer not to teach primary. It's a fine line between choosing the best option for my circumstances and dismissing the only potential options available to me.
Originally I hadn't expected my work experience to carry much weight over here, it's in sports administration. My last job was for the federal government developing and managing grass roots programs in both regional and metropolitan areas. In a number of positions I've held workshops with adults and coached children while creating and utilising prescribed session plans and feel that this experience would be accepted as my 2 years of teaching experience for my visa application (I'm happy to hear others experience on this particular topic). Before that I'd spent a number of years working in basketball. Obviously basketball is really big here in China but at this point I haven't been able to make any contacts or research any possibilities that would suit my knowledge, skill set and goals for a change in lifestyle.
If anyone has any alternative ideas for work either within China or remotely online that would fit with my lifestyle choices described above and my work background (would also consider re-skilling or alternative study) I'd warmly welcome those suggestions.
ethos15:
Apologies Shining_brow, hopefully it's a little easier on the eye now ;)
Shining_brow:
Much easier! :)
Firstly - when you start talking of your experience, just mention you've worked for government as a consultant (or some other such similar) - they don't need to know exactly what you were doing. (don't lie, but use more official sounding words... Program Development etc).
Once you've got the GC, you should be set. However, invest some time and money and do a real teaching course. CELTA is the most obvious (and available) - recognised around the world (if you decide to change countries).
Getting the job your after will be a piece of cake! Pay will be low... down to 6000 maybe, unless you get a nice position with the MBA teaching business skills. The time off is easy to get! It's only if you're working in the teaching mills that they work you like a dog (granted, I haven't seen too many dogs working anywhere, but still...). 20 hours a week is standard. Should even be able to get it down to 6 hours in some places...
Haha yeah it's not helpful to read.
I don't have a laptop atm and last time I tried to write that last answer it wiped almost all of it!
So I went back to using the notepad on my phone. Unfortunately when I do that I can't go in and edit into paragraph form. It just adds an extra space after each paragraph rather than a new para.
Will try to fix up the mess.
Thanks Shining_brow for taking the time to respond, the suggestions were really helpful. I'll take on board what you were saying about how to frame my experience during interviews and it was a good reminder that I should be looking to complete a TEFL/TESOL/CETLA course and it seems in China at least that CETLA is the most well respected, and a really good platform to begin teaching.
That's great to hear that you think the teaching job I want will be easy to get! Why do you suggest the pay will be so low? Is it because I'm a first time teacher in the system or more to do with the possible education in the hours woked?
Shining_brow:
A) CELTA... TBH, not a lot of Chinese admin even know what it is! I've mentioned it a couple of times, and had blank looks. And this from the managers... But, if you spell it out, and on the resume, you put the 'CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY" bit in nice big capitals, it will attract attention... "yeah, I studied through Cambridge... meh, no big deal :p"
B) low pay... firstly, you'll mostly be seen as a dancing white monkey - even for older kids and young adults. Many really don't give a toss if you put in effort or not. Occasionally, you'll have students who actually give a damn, and they're the one's you'll enjoy teaching!
Also, if you're only doing 'oral English', pay tends to be low unless you can specialise! For you, doing Business English could pay off! But basic oral English won't.
Lastly, relating to the above - depends which place you are getting work from. If it's a language mill, don't expect a lot of cash unless you put in hours (and are on an hourly contract...). Others, if they're getting contracts from the big companies, and want their employees to learn English for going overseas, it can be quite lucrative!
If you have a nice source of income, NEVER do salaried jobs. A - the pay is usually low (naturally), B - they'll work your arse off! If you're ok for cash, get paid hourly at a rate you determine... and only do the hours and clients you want!
And - go private!!! If a school/agent pays you 250, know that the client is paying AT LEAST 500... if it's for a group (eg, staff at a company), then you'd expect the company to be paying in the thousands for you (while, again, you only get a small portion of that). There' a reason you're still on the bus, and the agent/boss is driving a new BMW!!
Shining_brow, I've been thinking about your last response and I was interested in going private. The issue would be getting a work visa. Have you had any personal or anecdotal experience of going through an agent to get a work visa for the purpose of teaching privately? If so any recommendations would be appreciated.
Could this be another sticky?
If this is considered a sensitive area then I'd be happy to remove the post.
Shining_brow:
Only anecdotal, I'm afraid The one time I tried to use a recommendation in HK, the guy gave me total ignorance, and brushed me off.
Otherwise, an obvious option is to go to university... ie, get a teaching job in a uni where the hours are low.. but you get a visa. Do your own stuff on the side. This would not be in one of the major T1 cities - cos they've got enough people to choose from who would have all their T's crossed.. (ie, no complications). T2 & T3 wouldn't be more likely.. and there are enough of those within short G-train ride to the nicer T1s to not be that much of a problem in living.
