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RE: Is Teaching ESL in China a Dead End Job?!
Very true. I don't know all the positions you could be promoted to if you work in a training center. I have a friend that works at EF and he said that some teachers will exchange a salary increase for a job title promotion. So basically they feel satisfaction in being called a Head Teacher or something lol.
Local training centers or some companies like Kids Castle, Web English or Ashton don't offer that much career advancement.
EF, Disney English & Longman English for example have some kind of a career development plan for teachers. Something worthy enough to put on your resume. I saw some people at Disney English bounce from a teacher to working with creating teaching materials and permanently working at the downtown headquarters thinking of ways to help teachers teach more effectively.
But unfortunately not most of the training centers are pro-teacher.
Some training centers are strictly about "teach English" nothing more, nothing less. Teach without an opportunity to get promoted or lateral into another type of position with the employer.
Another dilemma with Teaching English in China is now they are really cracking down on letting expats work more than one job in China. So it puts a damper on the go-getters and hard workers who can handle two jobs at once. If you have a work visa for English Teacher, you're not allowed to accept other forms of employment with other Chinese employers. The only other route is work online.
Some training centers have more ranks than others.
Promotion are something like this:
Foreign Teacher/Chinese Teacher > Senior/head/lead Teacher and Teacher Trainer > Academic Director/Center Director > Regional Director/HR Management and Recruiting
Academic Directors sometimes have the ability to fire you.
Yeah I felt like those guys got some kind of an ego boost being called "head teacher" "senior teacher"