Pros and Cons of Working in an ESL Training Center
Thinking of starting your ESL career overseas? Trying to decide if you should work in a training center or in a traditional school? Here’s my list of pros and cons of working in a training center!
Background: I worked at Meten English in Shenzhen, China. Each person’s experience will be completely different, depending on the company, the center, the city, the students, and the employees. I hope to give some general guidance about what most training centers are like!
Real quick: What is a training center?
It’s a company that teaches English primarily at night and on weekends. Some training centers teach children, some teach adults, and some teach both. Students will attend classes after they’ve finished their responsibilities at school or at work. Okay, now for the pros and cons!
Pros:
It’s a great choice for new teachers
The lessons are pretty straightforward. The company will give you the teaching materials you should use, and many will also give lesson plans. Because of this, you’ll have a lot of guidance during your first weeks of teaching instead of having to figure it out by yourself
Since you teach the same lessons again and again, you have the chance to really practice your teaching skills. Each lesson, try new techniques, new questions, or new activities until you’ve figured out what works for you!
Classes are small
Many classrooms hold about 10 students, on average. Some will have even less! Compared to a traditional school, which could have anywhere from 20-50 students (especially if you’re teaching in China), that’s a lot less to handle. That means less time is spent on classroom management, more time can be spent with each student, and there will probably be fewer times you’ll want to pull out your hair.
Freedom to explore and travel without crowds
Working at a training center means you’ll be working on the weekends, because that’s when students are free to come study. But, you’ll get two other days off during the week. That means you can explore your city or even travel to another city and avoid crowds. If you live in a country like China, this is a huge plus to be able to travel and explore hassle-free.
Flexible schedule
If your working at a traditional school, you really won’t be able to change or adjust your schedule. That’s not the case for training centers. If you want to take a few extra days off to travel or want to go to a concert or special event, it’s incredibly easy to change around your schedule. It’s usually easy to get some extra overtime hours to exchange or simply swap out your days off with other employees.
Little to no lesson planning
At a traditional school, you’ll be responsible to come up with your own lesson plans and ideas. Since training centers want a more standardized experience for their students, most provide lesson plans. Even if they don’t, once you’ve planned a lesson, you’ll be able to reuse it again and again.
No real teaching responsibility
If you’re worried about your skills as a teacher, have no fear. Many times, your students will change often, so you won’t feel the same pressure as a traditional teacher will. Instead of being responsible for a group of students’ success over a whole semester or year, you’ll just be accountable for that one hour you spend with a class.
It’s pretty easy, once you get into the groove
At training centers, you’ll end up teaching the same classes again and again, as the students swap out. Once you’ve got your lesson plans down, you’ll be able to go into autopilot and deliver awesome lesson after awesome lesson. Also, at training centers, your responsibilities are clearly laid out, and you’ll certainly have fewer responsibilities than a local teacher.
Great community with co-workers
I’ve found great communities form within training centers. You work together five days a week, and since your schedules are different from most people, you’ll find yourself hanging out with your co-workers a lot. If your new to the country, this can be a great way to get to learn the culture by interacting with local people, and a great way to make friends overall.
Cons:
Be prepared to be a small cog in a big wheel
You are just a small part of the company, and since you’ll be a foreign teacher, your opinion probably won’t hold much weight. I’ve noticed a general lack of respect for foreign teachers in China, since their job qualification requirements are set at a lower standard than local teachers’. If that’s fine with you, that’s great. But be prepared to keep your head down and just do your work.
Possible legal troubles
Training centers around the world tend to have a reputation for dabbling in the “gray area” of legality. Specifically in China, there are many cases of training centers not acquiring the appropriate work visa for their foreign teachers. Do your research about visa requirements yourself, and look into the company before you sign a contract with them. A traditional school is not guaranteed to be problem-free by any means, but they mostly likely have a closer connection with local government, and are usually more cautious.
Difficulty in meeting other friends
Yes, you’ll definitely be able to build friendships within the training center community. But if you’ve already lived in the country or you have lots of friends who don’t work in training centers, it’s probably going to be difficult to see them due to the difference in your schedules. Don’t under-estimate this difference. Especially in bigger cities, people will just want to hang out on nights and weekends, and that’s when you’ll be working.
Lack of professionalism
Of course, not all training center are the same. But unless you’re working in a huge company, there could be a huge lack of professionalism. There are literally thousands of different English training center companies out there, and many of them are small or start-up companies. This could lead to a lack of communication and professionalism, especially when you add in cultural differences and complicated visa policies.
You could get bored
You’ll teach the same lessons again and again. This has its pros, but also its cons. You could grow bored of going through the same lessons hundreds of times. If you’re considering an ESL career longer than a year or two, you might want to move on to a traditional school after a while.
Your teaching skills might not improve in the long run
When you teach the same lesson enough times, you’ll go into autopilot. Once you’ve got a lesson plan down, you won’t feel the need for further improvements. If you’re serious about an ESL career, a traditional school would help you hone your skills and expose you to a variety of classroom experiences
Little career advancement
As a foreign teacher, you’ll probably not be able to move up the career ladder. Expect to forever be a foreign teacher. Again, if you’re not interested in an ESL career, that’s probably fine for you! But don’t expect to be able to level-up your career the same way you would in your home country. Do your research on the company you’re looking at and see if they have any foreigners in management.
Money > Education
Don’t be fooled. Most training centers are not in it for education. It is a business. Most training centers will make decisions based on how they could get more students or earn more tuition instead of making decisions that would help improve student and teacher experience.
I hope this sheds some light on some of the pros and cons of ESL training centers! For some people, training centers are the perfect opportunity for teaching overseas. For others, they’re looking for a different path. Hopefully this article helped know what to look out for and what to get excited about!