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      English 1

      Engaged Employer

      English 1 reviews

      4.0

      79% would recommend to a friend

      (1,201 total reviews)
      avatar

      Adele Bai

      82% approve of CEO

      76% positive business outlook

      Ratings by demographic groups

      English 1 has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 1,201 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
      2.0
      Jan 30, 2019

      Ok company, if you're not too into education

      English teacher
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      - You'll have a legitimate visa - Opportunities for growth if you stay with the company - Onboarding training - Cute kids

      Cons

      - Communication with recruiters before you leave for China is sparse and they usually don't respond to you - Sales oriented- Not a con in and of itself, however I was often instructed to mislead parents and tell them false information instead of doing what was best for students - Not many people stay with the company long term so many of the school managers aren't really qualified or good managers, they are just who stayed

      avatar
      English 1 Response
      7y
      Thank you for your feedback. We appreciate hearing from our staff and are constantly looking for areas we can improve on. We pride ourselves on our comprehensive training programs and the extensive development opportunities we provide to our teachers and staff. The nature of the EFL industry does provide a challenge in that people don't always stay for a long period of time. Promotion into an academic management role in EF, however, is very competitive, and all potential candidates must go through a rigorous internal interview in addition to holding advanced TEFL qualifications, and having a proven track record. We have a standardized salary scheme for both local and international teachers, and these take living expenses and other factors into consideration. We do not stand for discrimination of any kind, including unfair termination practices. Please contact us at compliance.china@ef.com so we can discuss the allegations outlined in your post.
      3.0
      Jan 29, 2019

      Quality training, environment and materials - But not worth the exhaustion

      English instructor
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      There are actually tons of good things about EF, at least where I worked, and your mileage may vary. I may be lucky, but my centre is very supportive. Our Director of Studies (DOS) and Assistant Director of Studies (ADOS) are sincerely passionate about pedagogy and teacher training and defend us when there is a conflict between teaching safety (or other concerns) and profit. Of the places I've worked at for the last several years in China, not many will even pay lip service to that idea. As for the teacher training itself, it is quite good. In my time at EF, I have seen several major programme shifts and system shifts and training on how to use them have been very good. In addition, as advertised, you do get TKT training from Senior Teachers who are very experienced and, in our case, devoted. As to the materials and environment, they are quite good overall. All lessons come with a lesson plan, and I typically base a substantial amount of my own lesson plans around that. Some courses are better than others, though. More on that in cons. Another underrated pro is the opportunity for advancement. A good teacher can exit probation during onboarding and become Senior Teacher the next year. After a few years of dedication, it's quite easy to become ADOS. Promotions are internal. After ADOS and DOS, there are other directions one can take still. EF internally provides access to training material to these pathways for free. For the pros, in short, I can say that I'm really developing as a teacher and the advice, mentorship and training are actually valuable compared to my workplaces before.

      Cons

      In a word, exhaustion. You will be worked to exhaustion here. Your weekdays may have one or two classes, and then your weekends will be filled with up to 6 real hours, plus whatever marketing events like demos or craft classes they may wish to add on top of that. If you are unlucky, as I and my coworkers are, during winter and summer sessions, you may work up to two weeks without a single day off. After your holiday, you'll come back to the same awful scheduling. To add insult to injury, you will still be required to work mandatory office hours during that time, and you will not be paid any overtime. These winter and summer sessions may add up to 4 extra real classroom hours to your schedule each day you are scheduled to teach them. Moreover, you will continue to have your normally scheduled classes for that day. EF is a large company, and so they follow corporate procedures strictly and, at times, lacking human consideration. If you are going to be late, you must have XYZ and contact Mr/Ms ABC using their specified method -- or else. If you are going to be sick, you must have a doctor's note. Can't go? Have someone from the company visit you because you cannot be trusted independently. The excuse? Teachers abuse their days off. But that reasoning is hard to accept when you don't even have half a week's sick leave. In fact, I've seen many teachers come to work ill or vomiting because of the danger to their pay. Pay is too low for this position. The low end of the starting salary that EF advertises is typically the salary that EF will provide, be you fresh out of university or experienced. In Tier 1 cities in China, you may find that the competing training centre offers inexperienced teachers the same salary that EF provides its Senior Teachers (who have even more burden than other teachers!). To be honest, although I appreciate how much I've been able to improve, I sincerely regret coming here and I have already secured a position elsewhere.

      avatar
      English 1 Response
      7y
      Thank you for taking the time to share your experience at EF. We are happy to hear that you had a strong manager who was passionate about their job, and supported and empowered you to develop as a teacher. This is an important part of our company culture. Over the past few years, we have increased our training offering and expanded our training team with highly skilled trainers. It's great to learn that you have directly benefited from the training we provided. Teaching is a very demanding job and should be rewarded accordingly. We provide not only competitive salaries, but also comprehensive benefits including, but not limited to, paid visas, flight allowance, health insurance, annual leave, national holidays, paid training, bonuses, and sponsored teacher events. Our sick leave policy complies with local laws. The health and safety of our staff is very important to us, and we are always looking at new initaives in this area. During April and May, we will be hosting a series of health fairs for teachers and staff in China. These health fairs will provide non-invasive medial checks and onsite access to health care professionals, and health related talks and woskhops. We are surprised, and very sorry, to hear that you worked two weeks without any time off. This is not in line with our fair employment practices, and we ask that you contact us at compliance.china@ef.com so that we may conduct a fair and thorough investigation into the matter. Thank you again for reaching out.
      4.0
      Jan 18, 2019

      Foreign English Teacher

      Foreign english teacher
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Excellent compensation. There's also excellent support from local staff for help with visas, settling in, housing, healthcare and more.

      Cons

      The workload is too high. Teachers very often teach more than 24 contact hours each week, which is exhausting and unfortunately makes teaching quality lessons to all students impossible.

      avatar
      English 1 Response
      7y
      Thank you for taking the time to share your experience at EF. It's a big commitment to come to China, and we do our best to make the relocation as smooth and worry-free as possible. We are therefore very happy to hear that you had a very positive onboarding and felt well looked after from our local staff. We understand that teaching is very demanding. We try to keep all teachers at or below their contract hours as this is in the best interest of our teachers and the quality of our classes. On those occasions when teaching hours do exceed contract hours, we do compensate for the extra hours. Thank you for your suggestion on providing more training to our support staff including our teacher assistants. This is an area that is often overlooked and one that we could, and should, focus more attention on.
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