Aston English Schools/ Aston Educational Group (Xuzhou)

Hi there

Has anyone ever worked for the Aston Educational Group? I'd love to hear about your experiences.

I want to apply for a job with them,for a position in Xuzhou. They seem to be quite professional but I'd love to hear from teachers who've actually worked for them.

Regards
July27

Uh-oh, I knew this would eventually come up....

My first job in China was with Aston. It ended up sucking bigtime. I truly hate these people.

Most teachers were given horrendous schedules, consisting mostly or entirely of completely out-of-control children's classes, in return for mediocre-at-best salaries and a definite mixed bag of apartments.

I haven't seen any evidence (but ain't exactly looked, admittedly ) that salaries or classes and schedules have improved a bit.
But many things have  changed:
- the right to choose single-occupancy apartments has ceased. All apartments now seem to be shared, period. To which I say: Pah!
- the franchise system has been greatly expanded, with the alleged schools now being run much more directly by corrupt, incompetent, baijiu-swilling-butthead local owners. Of course, this has greatly increased the odds of abuse at such schools, in which case you can apparently absolutely 100% count on the alleged corporate management to back up the local owner all the way and do nothing whatsoever.

I personally was badly burned by this chain. I was treated pretty brutally and un-contractually ripped off of a non-trivial amount of money. I'll freely admit a blind spot here...I hate these people with a passion that still burns white-hot all these many years later.

If I can keep you (and as many good teachers as possible) out of the clutches of these fiends, I will consider myself successful.
Don't go there.

Oh...I'm in the same province (other end) as Xuzhou. I've been through it a few times.
Can I ask what could possibly possess anyone to ever actually WANT to go there?!?

I'm working in Xuzhou right now for Aston. 

It is true that they have had their tribulations but times change and situations have improved (speaking subjectively here). 

The current manager at Aston has done a lot to try and improve things for Aston.  Things could definitely be worse, though shared living conditions is almost guaranteed, vacation time is spotty (I plan on taking my 2 weeks but have been told that the summer is "not a good time to do so"). 

The other teachers definitely seem to have more gripes than I do though so take this with a grain of rice.

'Things could definitely be worse' is not exactly a ringing endorsement, nor is everybody having gripes, though there's no denying that soem people even if they get to Heaven will complain that they would have liked a choice of more than 2 places to spend eternity.

What is actually good about the school? The money, training and development, resources? What are the books and materials like?

I have to admit I've never worked for Aston but my a couple of my friends worked for Aston in a different city.
The first one quit in disgust over conditions and pay (they tried not to pay her twice in 4 months) and she said that the school was run terribly.
My other friend quit the same school after about 6 months, the school dragged their feet on his visa and there was a chance he was going to be deported as the school kept his passprt and forgot to apply for his new visa and he was in China on an expired visa for about a month.
We all know chains tend to vary but I've never really heard a review of aston that was better than so so.

@Mr Benn

"What is actually good about the school? The money, training and development, resources? What are the books and materials like?"

I quite like my (shared) apartment.  I was told that the school did an extremely thorough cleaning before I arrived (and even then it still had it's kinks here and there) but I also enjoy doing handy work around the house.  Many people are not like me.

I also enjoy my 3.5 day weekends, though the 16 hours on Sat. and Sun. are stressful on the mind and body.

Some teachers claim that the training left them unprepared during the first 2 weeks of school, but teaching is really a trial by fire kind of deal if you ask me.

I can remember a few good things about working for Aston School X in X province. It was kind of nice working in a small school with mostly friendly people to share ideas with. I had more friends among the Chinese teaching staff too, because they were mostly young, unmarried and open to socializing with foreigners.

Also, the curriculum was pretty fool proof, with handy teachers guides which, being new to the profession, I found useful. In terms of teaching experience, the curriculum combined with a genuine interest in teaching meant that I improved a bit over the period I spent working there, and picked up some ideas that I still use now. I also liked the small classes, which often had working air conditioners...

However, I have to admit that I mostly just remember the bad things. For example, shared accommodation (though I was really lucky with my housemates, who from what I've heard, could have been a LOT worse) and my least favorite of all things, promotion. Standing around handing out fliers with a smile on my face and shame in my heart was mighty unpleasant. As was having my picture taken by people I didn't know at ridiculous monkey-show 'parties'.

Also, being close to some of the Chinese teachers meant that I took it pretty badly when they were grossly mistreated by the evil, capitalist pig running dog owner.... Oh yeah, and the way students would keep passing into higher levels when they were clearly incapable really bugged me. The parents just would not listen to reason, though I guess most people don't take their babysitter's opinions that seriously.

Overall, I can't say I regret it, but I wouldn't recommend it either... then again, every school is different and if people can find one they like that is run in a civilized fashion, then good on them.

Aston and EF are perhaps the most written about chain schools on at least 2 other major ESL forum sites (eslcafe.com and eslteachersboard.com). The gripes are long running and extensive accross many different branches. Therefore it must be be compulsory to not only read those posts extensively but to also email multiple current and former teachers in the locations you are aiming for. Without thorough research and analysis, teaching anywhere in China (or any other country for that matter) means you will be taken advantage of with your salary and entitlements, housing and teaching schedule at some point in time.

My take is that it's best to simply avoid the chain English mills altogether...don't even send them an e-mail. The odds of getting abused are no lower than among the independent and public schools, but the compensation package with most chains is not really that great for the work required.

Most if not all chains started as single-location schools. They got to be chains by being very, very good at knowing what they can get away with.

My take is that it's best to simply avoid the chain English mills altogether...don't even send them an e-mail.

It would be no loss to the world if they all went out of business tomorrow