Delter...good or bad?

Does anybody know anything about Delter colleges in China?  They offered me a position in Nanjing at a Railway Tech. school.  Contract seemed kind of reasonable but one never really knows till they get there!  They have several schools all over China so has anybody worked for them?  They are a Canadian base college.

I also had a private english college offer me a position, pay was $8,000 RMB but that does not include housing which doesn't bother me because I was told by my friends in Nanjing that you can live very comfortable on $2,000 RMB per month plus I can live anywhere in the city.  Only thing is you put in 40 hours a week, 25 is class room and the rest is prep work and you work Sat. mornings....that's hard after a Friday night out.   lol.  However it is common to work on Sat. in China and I would have Sun. and Tue. off.

Thank you   
Laura

As mentioned elsewhere...
They've long been in Shanghai with a school called "Delter-Telfort" that has a naaaaaasty reputation.

There now seems to be a push of new schools under just the "Delter" name, but I don't have any data on them at all yet.
Anyone?

It's only common to work weekends if you're at a private school.  You should negotiate for two consecutive days off.

8,000rmb is really low for 40 hours a week / 25 teaching hours. You should be making at least 12,000rmb for those kind of hours. That's what places like Linguaphone and Only English offer, while Wall Street offers 14,000rmb for 40/30. Please don't accept 8,000 for those hours... especially without housing provided.

Any non-public school will result in working on weekends.

I agree, no housing no deal   Wages are low for that many hours.

I was so focused on the Delter aspect of the question that I didn't really look at the deal.

And this deal isn't a great one. It's so-so.

40-hour weeks and weekend classes...it may say "college" in the offer or the school name, but these are training center trademarks. Real college programs don't work like this.

As such, 8K is so-so for such a deal. You can get 10K or more in Shanghai and Beijing, but in smaller cities, at least in this area, 7K-9K seems to be the standard. It's not a great deal for what they ask, and I've given up on the training centers.

So, it's a training center. But, because it operates under the aegis of a "college", I strongly suspect they've nailed on a lot of college trappings. This in turn entails the bane of ever college teacher's existence: Grading Papers. LOTS of papers. I suspect you're getting the worst of several worlds in this deal.

This job is going to entail very long hours. As employees of Web International and all the zillions of other schools operating in this mode can attest, it's going to be very hard to have much of a social life working here. And the money is not spectacular. It's...so-so.

Are you aware that a 2,000 RMB apartment in China can easily cost you 10,000 RMB up front to move into? You should definitely read the Housing threads in our Library...

If you're interested in this job, I advise:
- trying to negotiate the salary a tad higher. Couldn't hurt.

- finding out how heavily your salary will be taxed. They're big on taxes in Jiangsu, and what you pocket could be very different than what you expect to get.

- finding out if they will cover or front move-in costs unless you're sure you can absorb them yourself. Some schools promise "assistance in locating an apartment" but this is bullshit. They simply call up an apartment agent...and send you the agent's bill.

- getting a very detailed picture of your expected paper grading load.

- finding out exactly what kind of program this really is...college classes or private English school

- clarifying other benefits that would normally come with a job like this: residence permit, travel allowance, vacation and sick days, holiday pay, and so on. Sometimes there are even things like (very limited) medical coverage...

Worth a shot, but probably not very likely to happen... 

I also had a private english college offer me a position, pay was $8,000 RMB but that does not include housing which doesn't bother me because I was told by my friends in Nanjing that you can live very comfortable on $2,000 RMB per month plus I can live anywhere in the city.  Only thing is you put in 40 hours a week, 25 is class room and the rest is prep work and you work Sat. mornings....that's hard after a Friday night out.   lol.  However it is common to work on Sat. in China and I would have Sun. and Tue. off.

Normal in a public university in a random small city is 16-20 classroom hours with no weekends, in most cases no evenings, and no "40 hours a week" nonsense, for 4000-5000 a month plus housing, with at least 8000 toward airfare at end of contract. Private schools generally offer more, often 6000 or so, and pay is considerably higher in Beijing or Shanghai.

Sounds like the money's about right, or marginally low, for a private school in Nanjing, but the hours they want are excessive. Are their "25 hours" actual hours or is that 25 45-minute periods? The latter is a lot more reasonable. Can you negotiate out of the 40 hours?

One problem with many university gigs is that they only pay you for the 10 months of the academic year, not the summer. On the other hand you do get a week off in October and May, and at least four for Spring Festival, all paid vacation. Language centers typically provide far less vacation but pay all year. Beware of a "worst of both worlds" setup, look for "best o b w", 12 months pay and long holidays.

Two problems are quite common for training centers that I'd say are indicators that you should immediately and completely forget working there. One is inability to provide a residence permit. For me, the other is wanting to rent teachers out to highschools with all the hassles of transport.

See the "things I won't do" thread for more on these and other hassles.

I think your all right, the private school is asking for too many hours and from what Raoul has hear, Delter maybe isn't such a hot school.  I am looking into university of Zhenjiang, its approx. 50 mins from Nanjing and it Mon-Fri 25 hour week job for $5000 RMB plus an apartment on campus.  None of this working on Sat. stuff that will get really old by the 3rd week I am there.  Anybody have any info on this university?

Laura   

If you're talking about the University of Nanjing, not something with a sneakily similar name, it's a pretty well-regarded school overall. Doesn't mean their English department is necessarily any good, though...

Yeah, it's the one my students wish they had the grades to attend. 

Laura, don't be afraid to ask mountains of questions, in stages, and drag the process out until you're satisfied with their answers.  This is totally cool negotiating etiquette in China.