Aston is a bit of joke.

Last summer I went for an interview in regards to one of their summer sessions. When we chatted on the phone it was one set of conditions. Only three weeks and not full time and we will pay about 12,000.

THIS WHY YOU READ YOUR CONTRACT!

Well it was 22 days total of work from Monday to Friday. He was right it wasn't full time, it was 38.5 hours of contact time a week. So you had 30 minutes to prep for a total of 4 classes everyday.

7.5 hours x 22 days = 72.7 RMB an hour (great pay)NOT

You stay in a shared apartment, but no chance of getting a housing allowance.

I was dealing with the country wide recruiter. So I also got a sales pitch about what a great school Aston is, and about their corporate culture.

For a short summer session it might be a good deal for some one out of the area, however the job was still misrepresented in the phone call.

This is just my person opinion, but all the laowaiI have met that worked for Aston in a "management" position are TOOLS!

To the original poster, well that is just Chinese management style!

This Aston school might be OK to work at in the future, at some point, once the rough spots are smoothed over. For now one would probably do better to work at most any of the other roughly 50 Aston schools in China. The following are some of the problems a teacher is likely to encounter at the Ankang branch:

1. The teacher will be without a foreign manager to provide orientation or to look out for the teacher's interests, and will also have to perform managerial duties such as demo classes and interviews (both of which require experience), and ongoing promotion, without compensation.

2. This new school requires a lot of ongoing promotion, such as handing out fliers and sitting at a table in various public places to recruit students. Teachers may also have to hand out fliers in grocery stores, book stores, or other venues. Promotional duties can change at the last minute, either in regard to venue or time.

3. School will require teachers to regularly teach off site at public schools to large groups of students.

4. A new teacher should study his or her contract very carefully and know what his/her rights are. There is the definite possibility that the owner of this particular franchise will try to take advantage of a green teacher so as not to pay overtime Teachers should not accept any second contract, or special agreement with the franchisee separate from one's Aston contract. Invariably these well be at the teacher's expense.

5. Teachers should demand to see their utility bills to insure that there aren't "mistakes," which coincidentally will never happen in the teacher's favor. A new teacher should check the electricity meter outside the door on arrival so as not to be charged for prior electricity use.

6. Teachers should not allow the owner of the school to have anything to do with their telephone "bill," but should buy their own sim card to avoid having to pay the costs which are not actully due to the local boss.

7. The local boss has an office in the school and thus can't be avoided. Some teachers may find the constant presence of the boss uncomfortable.

8. The boss will likely want to observe a teacher's classes and give his own evaluations, in multiple instances and on several occassionas throughout the duraction of a term. Note that teachers do not have to be videoed if they don't give their permission.

9. Any under hours will be filled with any work the local boss can come up with, even if it's handing out fliers to the same school for the dozenth time. A teacher may also have to give many one-on-one lessons, help sessions, or demo classes with little or no notice.

10. One's schedule may alter on a weekly basis, and there may be last minute changes to the schedule.

11. There is no compensation for travel to and from off-site teaching and promotional activities.

12. You may work multiple shifts and no consideration is given to this problem. Similarly, there may be large gaps between your classes so that you are at the school for 10 hours but only teach 7 hours of classes.

13. Lastly, nothing is free so don't accept anything unless you are willing to pay for it dearly with your time or effort later.

That said, again, this might be an OK place to work at in the future, when the above wrinkles are worked out, in which case the mere minimum that a taecher could ask of a school would be fulfilled. This will likely be an uphill battle, however, and anyone considering teaching at this school would be wise to get the email or contact information for current or former teachers to find out what the current situation is like, or else ask very pointed questions to recruiters before accepting the contract.