By Arnold Vis
The teaching market is changing in China, as there are fewer state school and private training centre jobs available than in the past. But China is a massive country where a lot of upper middle class parents want their kids to be fluent English speakers.
This means that private high schools are now a significant part of the English teaching market.
Here’s more information about these schools, and what it means for you as a potential applicant.
The students
Students attending private high schools in China are doing so with the goal of studying abroad (in places like the US, Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong).
This means they are not studying for the gaokao, China’s incredibly intense one off university entry exam. It takes 10 hours (!), and is widely considered the hardest exam in the world.
Whereas the gaokao is focused on retaining information, students at private high schools prepare for exams relevant to western universities, like AP, IB and A-level.
This means that the goal for those teachers working at private high schools in China is to get students used to a more western style of education and exams.
Subjects you may teach
Subjects we regularly get requests for from our partners in China include:
- history
- literature
- drama
- social studies
Of course these subjects are taught to give students a grounding in them, but the focus is on getting comfortable with English, in terms of speaking, writing, and listening.
Other subjects like economics, math, and sciences may be taught by Chinese teachers at the school, but those classes are taught in English as well.
What is required of applicants
Given that these are private schools with demanding parents, it helps if you have teaching experience. However we have also placed candidates with limited experience who did an excellent introduction video that demonstrated their potential as teachers.
If you don’t have experience but you are a native English speaker with a degree and teaching qualification, you can still be placed, it just means your first job is more likely to be a kindergarten or a state school position.
When it comes to the subject you may teach (history, literature, drama, social studies) it helps if you have teaching experience in this subject, or studied it at university.
But it’s not essential; we recently spoke to Jamie who is teaching literature in Nansha. Jamie was able to get up to speed by extensive research and getting immersed in the subject before starting his job. It’s an impressive achievement, and given that this is such a growing segment of the teaching market in China, one that no doubt will pay off for him.
New teachers may work more with younger students (like year 10 students) who aren’t doing exams yet (this happens in grade 12), so you’ll have a chance to grow into your role at the school.
Hours and resources
At schools like these, your work schedule is regular: you work Monday- Friday during school hours. You can expect to teach 15-25 sessions that are usually around 45 minutes in duration.
The school provides a syllabus, but you have significant leeway to tweak it as you see fit, because ultimately the most important thing is that the students practice lots of English.
Differences with work in our home country
One of the differences between teaching in your home country and teaching in China relates to how you communicate with your students.
WeChat (China’s version of WhatsApp, that also contains features of Facebook and Amazon) is an integral part of life in China and students are encouraged to contact you on it.
This may come as a surprise, and feel a bit uncomfortable at first. But if you set clear ground rules on what they can contact you about, it can be a useful tool to commute with your students and keep them in the loop.
I hope this has helped make some sense of an exciting and rewarding type of job available on our China program.
If you’d like to learn more, check out our program page, and if you’d like to apply you can do so here.
If you have any more questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me: arnold@impact-teaching.com
