English 1 reviews

4.0

79% would recommend to a friend

(1,202 total reviews)
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Adele Bai

82% approve of CEO

76% positive business outlook

English 1 has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 1,202 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The English 1 employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Educación industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

1K reviews
1.0
Mar 4, 2019

Terrible pay

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

If you want to get into teaching and have NO experience, you can do their 120-hour course and get some background in teaching EFL for free.

Cons

There are lots of negatives. Firstly, if you don't have a TESOL or Celta qualification you have to do a 120-hour course that won't necessarily have any validity outside of EF schools. You don't get a contract until you complete this. Fine, you may say, if you're just starting out in EFL teaching. After all, the course is free. Better to do a course that you can use to find work after your summer work is over though. In my case, I had a lot of experience teaching EFL but just didn't have the qualification (just a PGCE) so it would have meant 120 hours of unpaid hours for me just to get a 4-week job. Also, the company doesn't tell you what you will get paid UNTIL you complete the course. I did a bit of research and discovered that the company expects you to do 6 hours of teaching every week day and then take the students out on Saturdays for an excursion. They pay roughly £400 a week so we're talking about £11 an hour (not including prep time). Some people on here seem to think that's a good rate for a teacher. If that's your view, you're welcome to it. I personally found it insulting. If teachers don't push back against language schools like this, then they will always be treated as though they're not worth much. Don't work for a company that won't tell you how much you'll get paid in order to hide the terrible rate of pay.

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English 1 Response
7y
Thank you for your post. Many new teachers do begin their TEFL careers with EF and benefit from the extensive training, support and development opportunities we provide. A basic TEFL qualification is required of all teachers, even those with previous teaching experience. Please note that the TEFL qualification is not only an EF requirement, but a government regulation when coming to China. In the summer, some staff do work a 6 day week, but this is always clear before you start.
2.0
Feb 19, 2019

Native English Teacher

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You will get paid on time. If the branch you are working in meets sales quotas you might get a small bonus. The students are lovely.

Cons

Teacher's managers don't represent teachers interests to higher ups, they only send information down from the mysterious upper management. EF doesn't actually care about your teaching, they just want bodies to stand at the front of the classroom.

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English 1 Response
7y
Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us. Working with amazing students is certainly one of the most rewarding aspects of teaching with EF and we are happy that you feel the same. Teaching quality is highly valued at EF as evidenced by the range of training and development opportunities we offer our teachers. In addition, we try and promote a culture of open and honest communications, and will share your feedback on communications flows with the Regional Manager for your Center. Thank you for your feedback, which helps us continue to improve in providing the best possible experience for our staff and students.
2.0
Feb 19, 2019

My review

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Meeting local and international teachers. Weekends or different from regular weekends.

Cons

Last minute changes to productions. Had to cover classes without knowing 10 minutes beforehand. A lot of favoritism towards white people (especially male). Not a fair playing field. Sometimes the classes are not equally split, so I personally felt overwork.

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English 1 Response
7y
Thank you for sharing your experience with us. We're so glad you enjoyed the international experience of working with people from all over the world. That's one of the things we love about working in the ESL industry abroad, where we have the opportunity to bridge the gap between countries and cultures through language. We're sorry that you experienced a last-minute production swap, it's not always easy to adapt at the last minute when things change and are out of our control, but we truly appreciate you stepping in to assist your team members. We hope this was only a one-time incident. We are very concerned by your allegations regarding the unfair schedule split, this is not in line with our employment practices, as we aim to create a fair and equal working environment for all of our employees. Please contact us at compliance.china@ef.com so that we can conduct a fair and thorough investigation. And again thank you for reaching out.
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