Curious
- 2011-07-29
Everyone mentions that wall street English pays well. Can anyone specifically mention exactly how much RMB they pay in the bigger cities such as Shenzhen.
Interested Party
- 2011-06-25
Thanks for geting back Bob although I almost overlooked your post lol :P Confirms what I have just been told and what I have read in the contract. I just took the 2nd round interview and have been offered a position starting in about a month.
1664
- 2011-06-17
Airfare is not paid.
That should be standard, and they bloody well know it!!
Bob Holness
- 2011-06-16
I'll give you as much information as I can.
Wall Street English has three types of contracts. 1, .7 and .4 1 works 35 hrs, .7 works 25 and .4 works 15.
I'll give a typical schedule of a 35hr contract. Each teacher is basically on a two week rotation. The first week is 5 days (two days off) and the second is 6 days (one day off plus two half days) so each week has the same working hours.
You HAVE TO work weekends. No foreign trainer can take a day off at the weekend unless it's annual leave or a holiday. Remember, most of the clients are professionals and they have their own jobs to do. This makes weekends and evening the busiest times. I know of plenty of teachers with families and some of them hate working weekends and end up quitting while others seem quite happy with their situation. Split shifts are also rotated. I currently have one split shift every two weeks (10:30 - 2; 6 - 9:30) I don't mid doing this as I live near my centre.
Salary is good and always paid on time. I've never heard of anyone getting paid late. The only financial issue I've heard was one teacher did a lot of overtime and the company forgot to pay him one month and then paid him two months of overtime the month after, unfortunately this bumped him up into the next tax bracket and he had to pay more tax. The company rectified this with a one-off goodwill bonus.
Airfare is not paid. However a yearly bonus for contract completion is paid. Currently about 8,000 CNY which isn't a lot I admit but most teachers don't go back to their home nations.
I've not heard anything about teachers not having enough classes to teach and not getting paid accordingly. This must be hearsay.
Wall Street English is expanding rapidly and will always have clients. The target is to open another 50 centres in China by 2013 bringing the total up to 99 centres.
I hope this information is helpful to you.
I've worked as an English teacher for 7 years now, in the UK, Korea and China and Wall Street China has a solid reputation as a business. The only horror stories I've read are about Wall Street in France. Another fact about Wall Street China; it breaks and sets international benchmarks for sales and satisfaction!
Bob
Interested party
- 2011-06-06
Yes I heard that Wall Street was now in the hands of Pearson and that the centers in China were very professionally run from a Western, not Chinese, perspective.
I am considering a position there but would be interested in more information. For example, I have heard that whilst the hours are somewhere in the region of 35 for full time it is actually over a 6 day week and that they can often be split shifts, is this true?
For someone like myself working a 6 day week would be inconvenient not to mention working a split shift. I have a family and as such like to have the time to spend with them to do things together. A 6 day week would hamper that and working a split shift, say morning and evening would also be a pain. I wouldn't relish the idea of having to hang around the rest of the day to start my second shift but returning home in between would also be problematic as you wouldn't really be able to spend the time in between doing anything very constructive before having to set-off again back to Wall Street for your Second shift.
The salary seems decent enough by all accounts. Bonuses appear to be paid if targets are hit, same as any company I have worked for in the UK. There appears to be no deduction for a cancellation and they appear to offer paid holidays and sick pay. Can you tell me however if they pay your airfare once a year as a full time employee. I read about it but is it true?
I also read something about someone who was struggling along because they were not giving the hours as per the contract and as such was paid far less. This information however was posted online a number of years ago and it is my understanding that Wall Street was owned by a Spanish company at the time and since then has changed hands to an American company then on to Pearsons. How accurate is this information about the hours. I do not like the idea of being contracted for 35 hours only to receive half of that.
Some more up to date info which was posted last year around November/December states that an employee was not getting paid on time. His salary could be over a month late and whilst his manager was supportive and constantly calling the head office about the situation it was ultimately the head office had the power to sort the problem, not his manager. Does this happen? I have already been through working for someone who seems to think that payments to teachers on time is not of the greatest importance and I am not in a hurry to go through that again. People work, people teach ultimately to be paid. Not to be a charity who go to live in a foreign country and do it for free. Certainly not me anyway. I have a family to support, food to buy and rent to pay. Are you aware of this being the situation because by my reckoning Pearson owned Wall Street at this point and the poster was not completely negative throughout his post. He said some very good things about Wall Street, this was one of his only gripes so I tend to put faith in what he had to say.
Any up to date information you can give on Wall Street would be appreciated. Especially the 6 day and split shift issue.
TIA
Bob Holness
- 2010-12-19
Evening all, current Wall Street employee here.
I can understand some worries that people brought up about Wall Street but I'd like to clarify some points for everyone.
Wall Street is expensive, but it's not aimed at kids. 99% of students are professionals. We have an extreme minority of high school kids, a slightly larger percentage are university students. 95% seem to be businessmen including some high ranking government officials. We also deal with a lot of corporate contracts from businesses.
Wall Street is not a Chinese school. It was founded in Italy in the 1970s. Italy has over 100 centers. Europe is still the big market but China is the fastest growing. Pearson plans to open a further 50 centers in provincial cities in China over the next ten years.
Pearson Plc. bought Wall Street English last year and this year they bought Wall Street International; the global franchise which uses exactly the same system.
The teaching method does leave some room for improvement but I've found it to be effective if the student remains motivated, which is one of the responsibilities of the teachers.
Students ideally should have two 55 minute lessons with a native teacher every month, accompanied with two complimentary classes and two social club classes. This is after completing approximately 6 hours of computer lessons before they do one class.
Class sizes depend on the type of class. Up to 4 students for a regular class, up to 8 for a complimentary class and up to 12 for a social club.
The regular classes, complimentary classes and computer lessons are centrally produced by Wall Street headquarters in Baltimore, and since the Pearson buyout is going to be updated. All social clubs and English Corners (which are open to all Wall Street students in the area) are prepared by the native teachers.
I'm ain't no mug. CELTA, 6 years of experience in 3 different countries, and I've found Wall Street to be a professionally run outfit with an effective way of teaching.
I welcome your opinions or further questions.