angelica1981 wrote:
> I'm American and haven't had any problems getting jobs in WE. I'm not
> unusual in this because I've worked in several WE schools that had majority
> American staff or split US/UK staff.

That's because you're already there and it's relatively easy if you already have a visa, especially for the Schengen countries. If you're from the UK, and either already teaching abroad or just looking to move, anecdotally it's more difficult now for someone from the UK to get a Schengen visa after Brexit than for someone from the US or Canada.

It's why we hate Bumblin' Boris. He is so incompetent, he's even incompetent at being incompetent.

Suspect this will fall into two camps.

One group will look at how schools manage this in other countries - in the UK for example, there are schools which do a 4.5 day week as it can make savings on cover costs, etc - so that students have the same level of contact time over 4.5 days as 5.

The other group will look to do things like cut salaries by 0.5 days, make teachers work longer days in the 4.5 to compensate for the loss of 0.5, and make students work longer too.

shadowjack wrote:
> Astegar, it's why I am avoiding China. My life is too short to deal with
> their regulations. My friends (not Shanghai or Beijing) are in or shortly
> getting to, three different cities. I think you are right that depending on
> location and school influence, plus local government initiatives, some
> places are easier than others to get to.

Yep, why I'm getting out. Shanghai and particularly Beijing have more stringent rules than some of the tier 2 or 3 cities - but once you get there, the ease of life in those two is much better than many of the other cities.

Did the virtual fair a couple of weeks ago - complete waste of time and effort. It was pitched as a worldwide leadership one for candidates with international experience, however about 50% of the schools were in China so of no interest. In my view it was way too early - and I don't think it's been particularly successful for the schools either as a lot of the jobs which were there are still advertised.

This is the third time I've used Search, and I think it will probably be the last unless something really changes.

Most schools are still considering offers outside China, but if you come up alongside someone who is already here then if everything else is equal they'll go with the person in country, simply because it's a lot less hassle. If you have dependants, though, you can pretty much forget it for the moment because very, very, very few schools - and we are probably talking a handful nationwide - have been successful in getting dependants in recently and most aren't bothering to try now.

The Open University is an accredited university with the same standing in the UK as any other, so I don't think you'll have a problem with recognition.

The requirement for the 'first subject' degree is often more of a visa requirement than anything else. Where you're looking, in Europe and the Americas, it's more likely to be a requirement of the school than anything else, and certainly in Asia it's not so common (I know plenty teachers who teach subjects not related to their degree, myself included!) The UAE is one of the few countries which requires this, I think.

TBH, not really. Make sure your licenses are up to date, and that you're doing plenty CPD. Keep an eye on these boards, and also on places like TES to get a feel for what jobs are coming though and when - hopefully, by 2023 the market should be something more like normal so you're able to predict what's happening.

You could get the Cat 1 qualification for your subject in IB, but it's not essential ahead of getting a job, and if you do get it I'd leave it until nearer the time so it reflects what you'd be teaching immediately. What I would say is that while your AP experience will be valuable in teaching in an American school, if you want to get into IB then you could look now if an opportunity comes up in an IB school in the US.

UK - no teaching certification will definitely be a problem. (But why on earth would you want to move to the country of Boris' Basket Case?)

I think if the school has enough guangxi then they can get dependants in, but I think in Beijing it's pretty much no dependants - even schools who have managed miracles in the past aren't getting those visas.

But if the tuition is taxed, and the teacher has to pay it, it isn't really free, is it?

That actually poses a problem for schools who advertise on some sites, such as TES - UK advertising rules would not allow TES to advertise something as "free" if it incurs a cost. They can't even be described as 'subsidised' because the tax is due on the full amount, regardless of subsidy. So advertising will be difficult.

It also reflects reality. Most teachers simply aren't going to absorb that level of tax easily. So from a Head's point of view, it's much better simply to advertise for single applicants / teaching couples with no dependants rather than attempt to find a place for a family. Also, given the current visa restrictions on dependants in China and with no indication of when that will change, schools would be daft just now to appoint staff with dependants.

I think the OP is talking about a 1st degree, so Batchelors maybe?

Typical Oxbridge elitism though. Only consider people with 1sts or 2:1s, despite grade inflation. There are actually better schools of education in the UK than Oxford, TBH, and setting aside the 'snob' value of Oxford I'd look at others ahead of them.

Heliotrope wrote:
> PsyGuy wrote:
> > Because those waivers will be taxable as compensation AND ISs will not be
> > able to discount the value of those waivers based on incremental cost or
> > some other formula to get around it. Chinese ISs even lower tier ones
> > charge really high fees/tuition making the applicable tax unattractive and
> > prohibitive. Some ISs (mainly first/elite tier)will continue to absorb the
> > tax as part of the ITs compensation, but then that increases the ITs
> > taxable compensation as well (now the tax benefit on those fee/tuition
> > waivers is taxable in of itself), and its kind of a vicious cycle. Its just
> > going to make China unattractive to ITs with school age dependents.
>
> Yes, that makes it unattractive for teachers, but what I was asking was why it would
> change that schools offer a certain number of spots to teacher's children, since the
> tax burden is for the teacher to pay and not for the school.
> The second part of your first sentence is a bit unclear, so perhaps that is where you
> tried to explain it.

Because the tax burden is so high - it effectively adds another £30,000 - £40,000 to your income to be taxed - that the likelihood is most teachers with kids simply won't be able to afford it. This produces an additional tax levy for the teacher of around £6000 - £7000 per child, per year, without a corresponding increase in their take-home salary. So for three kids, that could mean finding up to £21,000 per year from your income - that's around 1/3 to 1/2 a teacher's income, ruling out China as a realistic option for single parent teachers and making it incredibly difficult for teaching couples.

As a result, schools simply won't offer this if they know it could result in people withdrawing from jobs once they realise the total cost. It's just easier to not have this than try to explain or mitigate it fairly, taking into account those teachers who don't have kids.

The problem I'm finding is that being in China, I'm bombarded with "recruitment agents" offering roles at schools which I wouldn't consider in a month of COVID-infected Sundays. That said, there are some schools and organisations on there who are more reputable and while I wouldn't necessarily make contact with them on the site, there could be some useful information (likely to be more up to date than their website) which I could use in an application or interview if it got to that.

The Boots school will take up to three, while the Boring Witch and the Hilltop school will take two.

Of course, that will change because of the tax rules from next year.

I think it depends (like much in China) on where you are and who you know in power. I know of a couple of schools which are making specific preparations for a switch to a more Chinese-based curriculum, and equally other (T1) schools who are fairly confident they're not covered.

The thing is that the parents at the private schools - and particularly the so-called 'rent a name' schools - believe that they are paying for the education that the mother school provides, including things like IGCSE. If these schools can't provide it, they are not going to be happy - the parents who can will send their kids off to the UK/US boarding schools earlier, and those who can't will either just perservere or remove the kids to the state system (after all, if the kids are using the same textbooks, being taught the same lessons, and sitting the same exams, where's the sense - other than pride - in paying £30,000 per year for it if you can get it for nothing?)