Beware! The TEFL Teacher Vacation Contract Trap - A Costly Scam

[Vagabond]

This Video is self-explanatory and if you don't watch it you will cheat yourself out of two months salary in most countries and 3 month's salary in others... https://youtu.be/9qLbXGjOSIE

[Atlas]

You brought up just one aspect of contract fraud. Another BIG problem are the recruiters who never let their teacher applicants sign employment contracts with the actual school - only their agency. BIG MISTAKE! I suggest everyone read this article from top to bottom to avoid getting screwed out of BIG BUCKS - as much as $10,000 a year. https://chinaforeignteachersunion.wordp ... contracts/

[John V55]

Re: Your link. I clicked on the link and was so surprised that it didn't tell me anything but took me to eight spam filled pages from the CFTU, with so many links I didn’t bother to go any further.

‘I will guess you might be pretty shocked or upset right about now and I don’t want to tuin your day, but just so you know, about 80% of every veteran TEFL teacher went through this same deception.’ Are you sure it wasn’t 80% don’t fall for contract scams?

[John V55]

Like it or not, we live in an age of third-party recruiters. Schools and businesses employ them because they pay them a certain amount and for that they will do all the bureaucratic legwork to get the employer a teacher.

The director knows how much they’re paying the recruiter and also what the recruiter is paying the teacher. It’s not likely that the director or one of their staff is going to do the work themselves for nothing and you get to keep the profit and get paid 30 to 40% more than the rest of the teachers.

What the spammers have to do now is list half a dozen schools that you can contact who will pay you more than everyone else.
International schools that only employ registered and qualified teachers in their home countries don’t count.

It’s not going to happen, which is why all you will get are more links that lead to other links in a never ending merry-go-round, because that’s the purpose behind them. Those who have been clicking on these links will already have realized that by now and also that as one spammer drops out, another takes their place with the same promises and links.

[John V55]

Like it or not, we live in an age of third-party recruiters. Schools and businesses employ them because they pay them a certain amount and for that they will do all the bureaucratic legwork of interviews and visas to get the employer a teacher.

The director knows how much they’re paying the recruiter and also what the recruiter is paying the teacher. It’s not likely that the director or one of their staff is going to do the work themselves for nothing and you get to keep the profit and get paid 30 to 40% more than the rest of the teachers.

What the spammers have to do now is list half a dozen schools that you can contact who will pay you more than everyone else.
International schools that only employ registered and qualified teachers in their home countries don’t count.

It’s not going to happen, which is why all you will get are more links that lead to other links in a never ending merry-go-round, because that’s the purpose behind them. Those who have been clicking on these links will already have realized that by now and also that as one spammer drops out, another takes their place with the same promises and links. Am I the only one in which this is obvious?

[Prometheus]

I sense you have not been teaching recently in China John? I say this because more and more of us are avoiding the shady recruiters and all the scammy visa and job agents and finding our own teaching gigs. That used to be impossible, or at least very difficult about 5-6 years ago because of the language barrier and the difficulty finding the contact information for the schools. But today in 2021 most all the schools have bi-lingual FAOs (Foreign Affairs Officers) or HR people that speak pretty good English, and we can all get the schools contact lists from either the China Teachers Alliance( (CTA) or the China Foreign Teachers Union (CFTU for free. But the CTA only has employer lists for China and the CFTU has free lists world-wide. You can get a copy of the lists by email or visiting https://reddit.com/r/CFTU and scrolling down about half way. I recently got a list of all the high schools in Argentina from them and already have the same for China. So there really is no need to risk getting scammed in China any-more UNLESS you got to work for a China school that is not registered with SAFEA or does not have a SAIC business license. https://www.esl-jobs-forum.com/viewtopi ... light=saic

If you don't know how to verify the SAIC and SAFEA registrations, you can get find the instructions at https://reddit.com/r/chinateachers really quick. At SAFEA they have two women who speak really good English, and at the SAIC you will either need a Chinese friend to help you or fax them an inquiry letter in Chinese using Google translator. Don't bother sending an email because it may take a week or two to get a reply unless things have improved in the last 3 years.

[Vagabond]

Hopefully all of you who have read this thread have renegotiation your contract by now to get those extra three months of pay that you are entitled to by Chinese law - so long as you are a full-time employee. If you are offered jobs that offer you less than 40 hours of work per week, be aware you will lose all of your employee rights and mandatory pay. Even a 39 hour work week is a "part-time" job and by accepting that job you will lose over $5,000 - $10,000 of income per year.