Is this Yibo agency legit???

I think I found their new name. It's YIBO Education.

Disagree.

While Expertise may have a lot of problems, they are nothing compared to problems you will face in most other Chinese companies. Looking back, I think they were very supportive of me, never let me worry a day about my visa and met my every demand. I think Expertise is one of the only companies I have worked for in China that I can trust. While they don't have the highest pay, I can say I felt safe with them as a foreigner in a country.

Hopefully nobody is taking jibs from this company. They will rob every last teacher that dares work for them.

Well this is true, and there are many underlying realities, hidden layers, and nasty surprises in store in China, and its often much better in Beijing than in other parts of China, particularly backwater places.
I know that some people working with Expertise were often unhappy about being based in the West of the City, were activiities are limited and it takes longer to get to the main areas of activity, such as Wudaokou or Sanlitun.
I can't really comment on the stories recounted earlier, although some of my old friend's at Expertise tell me that they are only half the story, but I am unable to confirm.
Generally, living conditions in Beijing or the apartments provided by Expertise are much better than you are likely to find in backwater places, like where I am in the Northeast of China.
Never have I encountered any Expertise provided apartment that did not have a flush toilet or hot water, which my current accomodation lacks.
Also, if you enjoy Kindergarten, or can at least make something good out of it, its not a bad role of teaching. The kids are generally more innocent and more respectful, and Chinese teachers are quick to put them back in line.
Sadly, I have noticed both in Beijing, and in the backwater, rundown, and undeveloped part of the Northeast where I am based, that students in the 17-19 age range are incredibly lacking in discipline, talk over you whilst you are trying to teach, and only pay attention if you agree to their requests to sing a song for them, proving that ones purpose of a teacher is less an educator, and more a figure of ridicule.
There is much speculation, I daresay divination, given to China's rising status in the world, however if students like these are the future, then it aint much of a future.

To bring at least a fair perspective to the reputation Expertise has gained in this forum, yes there may be some truths been reported here, but there are things that bloggers here have neglected to mention.

True, maybe Expertise is hemorrhaging teachers, but this is not purely through mismanagement. I am aware that the teacher who I replaced had left for no other reason other than more money. I was told that the school I briefly worked for preferred him to me, and from what I heard, the relationship was rather content, and hearing from my former room mate, he had no other issues.

Throughout my time with expertise, I did encounter many teachers who would sign up with expertise, only to leave for better opportunities elsewhere in Beijing. This may have been to do with issues at the school, or it may not have.

To be fair, a big part of the problems with expertise is not expertise themselves, rather the schools. This says nothing about the company, just the fact that when an agency recruits for various schools, it is entirely the luck of the draw whether it is a nice, amicable school, or a school with awkward staff who just like to make life awkward for teachers, which can be the case.

However, one legitimate criticism of expertise is they really should stand up more for the teachers and fight their case, rather than taking the sides of the schools.

I really cannot confirm any of the cases of the mishandling of documents. I have only heard about cases of people making runs to Hong Kong or Mongolia within the blogosphere, I never heard of encountered a case of it during my time with Expertise.

I will also say this in their defense, the way they handle the documents is very much to your benefit. Were you to apply for a Z Visa in your home country, you would have the cost of doing medical tests at home, rather than doing them solely in China. They handle it well, I got my residence permit, and all at minimum cost.

And I notice Jolin's name has occurred a few times, and I really would like to speak up in defense of her. She's a friendly, amicable person, approachable and not the person this blogosphere has turned her into. If there is that side of her, I never encountered it, but she's a good person, and someone I could count on, and my time in China did not always go smoothly, but it was not because of expertise. To be honest, I think many people who work for Expertise vent their frustration on Expertise itself, rather than the pitfalls of China, or their own inability to adapt to a very different country.

I think you'll find the supposed fine for leaving early is 1000 USD, not yuan!

When I had to leave Beijing for pressing family issues back home, I informed them two weeks before the end of term that I would have to leave afterwards. I ended on a good note with my school and was getting ready for a difficult time back with my family, when told by the hr director (Jolin) that she wanted to fine me US$1000 for leaving before the end of my contract. However, I knew she couldn't do that because I don't have a legal contract with them, seeing as I am under 24 and have only a business visa instead of a work visa (this is how Expertise gets around foreign worker regulations in Beijing). Aside from that, I simply wouldn't give them $1000 and would get on a plane and leave, and had no obligation to pay such a ridiculous 'fine'.

She said instead of this she would just keep all of my pay from the previous month, which I thought was still unfair because I had worked for it, and Expertise usually keeps around half of foreign teachers' monthly pay anyway, so they had made quite a lot of money off me already.

My experiences with Expertise left a bitter taste in my mouth and the particular nastiness of that one employee more than anything else. If she hadn't been so horrible to deal with, I might not have even bothered posting this. And I can absolutely confirm that after the initial recruiting stage you will see no more of the American recruiter Scott; he will disappear like a ghost.

Hope this helps!

I TOTALLY AGREE! With EVERYTHING you've said. Sadly I think they make enough money out of us before we leave to make up for so many teachers leaving early. So many others I knew at the beginning of the semester have gone home already, and that was only four months ago. Before working for Expertise, I used to work in a kindergarten in Wuhan. Although it was also hard to work with the people there, atleast I knew I was being given all my pay and not giving half of it to some agency pimping me out to the school.

I see Scott has commented below here, trying to gain back some business no doubt, but he should be ashamed of himself. When did you start selling yourself out Scott? Don't you have any friends left in America? Is that why you stay in China, being part of the China machine to dupe foreigners and milk them for all they're worth? I haven't seen you since orientation week, do you take off right after that or something? When I worked in Wuhan, I earned 6000 yuan per month, living expenses were very low, and accommodation was included. Now, I work for Expertise (illegally by the way; they did something dodgy for my visa) and I earn only 5000 yuan and living expenses are much higher. My school apparently pays very well (around 1200 yuan per month), but Expertise keeps the rest of that. On top of that, I have to travel all over frigain Beijing to get to work. I'm exhausted and don't have time for anything, and I feel like a slave.

Scott, Jolin, whoever you deal with, just know that you should look elsewhere. And be CAREFUL. I'm someone just like you, just trying to help.

This is Scott Cavanaugh, a Human Resources Department Recruiter at Expertise Education. I am writing to address these issues brought up by an anonymous teacher who may (or may not) be a teacher at the moment like he/she has stated. Expertise Education deeply cares about their teachers and does take care of them as our company has always promised. I am here to address this teachers comments because they are either exaggerations of the truth or are false.
Of our 67 teachers that joined our program last August, well over half of them are still teaching with our company. Of the teachers that have left, some of them unfortunately were asked to leave by our company due to their actions. Others that have left still have a great relationship with our company and our staff.

It is absolutely not true that our foreign staff have written any positive reviews disguising ourselves as someone else on CityWeekend or the Beijinger. There have been countless past employees who have had good experiences with our company, who have left or finished their contracts on great terms, and who still hold a good relationship with our company today. This teacher assumes that any good review(s) written about experiences in China teaching through our company are fraudulent. That is simply not the case. When our staff is speaking with applicants, we discuss good reasons to join our company by stating facts that exist in our contracts with our teachers and in agreements with our partner schools. Our staff does not write responses to interested applicants that distort truths or misstate facts.

Expertise does not mishandle important documents such as visas, police registration papers, or visa invitation letters. We do place teachers in quality schools and housing. We make sure teachers are conveniently located near our schools. There have been problems in the past with housing, with which Expertise has always promptly taken care of. Although Beijing standards are not the same as western standards and problems can arise sometimes in apartments when teachers are occupying them, our company has always looked out for our teachers and made sure any structural problems are fixed. Roommates change apartments on occasion because Expertise has allowed teachers to change schools in the past, therefore allowing teachers to change apartments too. Expertise also has given nice and hardworking employees second and third chances to try teaching if they are released by schools. When teachers need to change schools, or if they have problems with roommates, Expertise has been as flexible as possible to allow apartment changes to occur.

The teachers comment about visas is the most interesting of all comments made in his/her post. Expertise Education has never asked a teacher to go to Mongolia to get a visa. On one occasion Expertise paid for four teachers to visit Hong Kong. While they were not given much notice, they received 2 paid vacation days. These four Expertise teachers traveled with Expertise staff on a fully paid trip to Hong Kong, receiving free round trip flights and a free stay in a 5 star hotel. Because of prompt changes in PSB regulations, our company made sure that our teachers were able to travel to Hong Kong with as little inconvenience as possible, and did our best to make sure they enjoyed themselves. There have never been any other instances of teachers traveling to Hong Kong or Mongolia or any other country to obtain visas, which is common with many other education companies in China.

We at Expertise understand how some companies in China can operate, and we make sure all employees at Expertise receive what they signed up for. We make sure all teachers have a concise understanding of every aspect of our program before they arrive in China. Expertise fulfills all contract obligations to foreign teachers. Expertise Education is equally as liable for paying breach of contract penalties as teachers are. Many teachers have taken their time to learn countless details about our program for 2010-2011 and have signed up with enthusiasm. We are all very excited about the upcoming academic year.

Sincerely,
Scott Cavanaugh
Human Resources Manager
International Department
Expertise Education Company

Don't fall for the foreign staff who offer to answer your questions. They get paid extra to write canned responses to interested applicants and leave positive reviews on websites like the Beijinger and CityWeekend.

Some extremely naive posters, even those considering themselves to be China old hands, have recently posted that newbies applying for teaching positions in China ask potential employers to provide them with e-mail addresses of present or former foreign teachers who are working or have worked there, respectively. Such posters would be better to delete their posts. They are givuing the rest of us bum advice.
As it would obviously be in an employer's interest to paint a rosy picture of his workplace to encourage job applicants to sign up there, he will bribe rogue foreigners to tell lies, either with cash or with favors from pink room gals or with good dinners. Don't trust what other laowai say about particular workplaces unless you happen to know them very well! Beware of laowai scum in China. They won't think twice before helping unscrupulous Chinese employers dupe other laowai into attracting foreign teachers to their workplaces.