Shane enlgish school

Hi guys, recently been offered to work for these guys above, they have a nice website and seems like a great place to work many foreigners employed here. Anyone have any experiences from this school that could be advice for me?

Is there a city or province?  You can post the link to the school so we can see

Shane is a chain (hah!) so DD is right, we'd need more info to really give advice. I've heard good things about some of the Shanes, bad things about others. I think as far as chains go you could probably do worse.

Have they let you speak with any of the foreigners currently employed at the location you're looking at?

They want me to answer some questions and then Skype chat ect. I found their website and like everyone says they are a chain, but the city NINGBO is where they wanting to place me and maybe this being a westernised tourist place it might be a good teaching gig on offer.
.  job in ningbo
   
Our school  welcomes you to experience the rapidly evolving and multifaceted culture of China first hand, with the support and expertise of one of the largest British owned EFL organizations in Asia. it was established in 2005 and currently has 4 schools in Ningbo, teaching over 2000 students and employing over 25 foreign staff. Teachers at our school  teach a full range of student age levels, with a high percentage of Young Learners classes.

1. Our salary is highly competitive. A first year teacher earns a minimum of 10,000rmb per month.
2. Our support and training of new teachers is among the best in the business. Each new teacher  receives 3 weeks of hands on and relevant training for your given class schedule and of course initial and ongoing development and support with experienced local and foreign managers.
3. Teachers have excellent resources for classes. Every teacher is provided with In-house designed teacher¡¯s books and manuals, CDs, supplies and props for games. You are joined in class by a well-trained bilingual teacher¡¯s assistant. Our multimedia-capable classrooms are tech-enabled with small student numbers (1O ¨C 12 students).
4. We feel that only valuing teaching over training, preparation, and self development is counter-productive and unfair. By having set shift hours teachers can contribute to the development of their teaching, have more time for preparing lessons, make ongoing student assessment a focus, and have more access to their managers.
5. Academic staff completing their first year¡¯s contract are paid an 8000rmb completion bonus, making it easy to get home, bonuses double for returning teachers.
6. Each staff member has the opportunity for regular raises and promotions within Ningbo, and because our school        is a worldwide company, all staff have the ability to grow with the school across the globe.
7. We provide a substantial raise and increases to bonuses and vacation days for staff returning for a second year with our school, and do all we can to help our folks grow with us as long as they¡¯d like to.
8. All staff have the same 2 consecutive days off, which makes possible a warm and healthy teacher community, where teachers often travel together to nearby sights.
9. We don't impose living conditions on our staff such as forced roommates, curfews, filthy or cramped apartments, isolated neighborhoods outside of the city center, etc. With ample guidance from our Welfare Officers, we give teachers their choice of apartments.
10. Teachers are rewarded for their success. Performance bonuses ranging from 3500 to 6500 for an initial year's contract are not only available but attainable for all first year teachers.
We¡¯re looking for energetic, positive, creative and patient individuals who love working with children. We are only able to hire Native English speaking candidates who are university graduates and have been working for at least 2 years (preferably in an education-related field) after graduation.
For further information on Ningbo, see the following websites:
www.ningboguide.com
www.helloningbo.com
www.beyondmandarin.com
www.ningbofocus.com

I enquired about the position and they want me to answer some questions regarding myself;

At our school we work hard to create a relaxed, respectful and friendly work place. We have more than 20 teachers from all different walks of life, but who are all dedicated teachers who put their students first. Our western managers work hard to give them the best contract, training, and support. We also want to give them an exciting experience in China.



Because of this, we get a lot of responses from potential teachers. So, I need to collect your responses to some questions first. The following questions will help us learn more about you. Then one of our western managers will conduct a telephone or Skype chat. At the end, if everything goes well, we’ll be very happy to make you an offer.



Can you send me your thoughts about these questions?



1.  Many of our classes are for children ages 3 to 5. Although the class size is small (ten students), this presents a challenge for many teachers. Energy, enthusiasm, patience, and a gentle persona are important for these classes. How do you see yourself in this light?



2.  Our students love coming to our school because they don’t view it as ‘going to class.’ The teacher is important in this way. Students are engaged by our teachers. Interested in them. Laugh with and at them. Like to be around them. Feel comforted by them. As an extension of your natural tendencies how would you describe your teacher persona?



3.  Training and support are essential to your development. Could you tell me more about your ability to adapt to new systems, your willingness to listen, learn, and implement?



4. Working for a school like Shane differs from a public school in that, at the end of the day, we are a business. What are three factors worth noting for a teacher being employed in the ‘private sector’?



5.  What are 3 goals you have for your first six months in Ningbo? Personal, work, or travel related are all acceptable.



6.  Although our teachers come from different places and have different backgrounds, everyone gets along and spends time together. Our community helps strengthen folks’ experience. I would love to learn more about you as a person. Could you type a short paragraph about yourself?



7. We are looking to bring over a few teachers quite soon. What timeline works best for you?



8. Last, could you let me know a date, time, and most current phone number or Skype ID for a chat?

Interesting questions, and, personally, I like them. It sounds like they have a Western DOS there who knows what he or she is doing. I particularly like the question about the school being a business. With lots of private schools the fact that the place essentially exists to make money is the big elephant in the room. You'll find managers that try to dance around the issue and claim it is all about providing a quality education, but that's not exactly true. I like that they're up front about that and want you to realize the differences between public and private.

We have some members here in Ningbo, particularly Fozzwaldus. Perhaps he can give some more insight about the location and/or this school if you PM him.

I'll feed back to wiley in a pm, at some point, but these questions are good. Another school in Ningbo, when I asked what they were looking for in a foreign teacher said, 'a native speaker,' and then struggling to expand upon their person specification, eventually added, 'with a passport.' 

Of course it depends what you want from a school. I guess these questions are designed to weed out the backpackers. Shane Ningbo had a bit of reputation for that 4 years ago when I arrived, but that was a long time ago.

I think that there are a number of Shanes in Ningbo, and they may not all be the same. Are they recruiting centrally for all the local schools?

Know some people that have been to Shane schools in various countries. Some centres will make you teach for 30+ hours a week, particularity the Japanese ones. The ones in the Czech Republic just tend to hire Europeans on a part time basis. The Japanese ones were regarded as work you to death hell holes that were a last resort for those desperate to get a job in Japan.

As for China, not idea they were here. Though I would suspect that they would be more close to the Japanese version with hours etc.

I did try for a job with them but after I took the time to answer the questions and write essays etc they never even replied to say no thank you, I could not help but feel the time would have been better spent sending some apps to several others that required less time.

I had an interview with them very professional and they offered me a look at a sample contract and they sent me a document with their tough policies and procedures which did seem very tough and long winded for a company that comes across as a friendly ish kinda team to work with. The work hours look like wed-sun and 2 other off days. It seems they want to work you hard it seems and offer 10,000 in Ningbo might be little tough (I really not sure but westernised city can be $$$). I just feel public schools offer similar package but less work and not a business type of organisation.

Most public schools won't be offering in the vicinity of 10K a month, even in Westernized cities, not unless you're working with special programs (joint venture, etc.).

Public schools usually do require fewer hours, however, so some would say it all comes out even in the end. It would depend on specifics I guess.

I also doubt it would be that difficult to survive in Ningbo on 10k a month unless you were trying to support a family. Although it might be close, I don't think the cost of living there would actually be higher than that of Beijing.

I worked for Shane several years back.  They are a big-assed chain, so the first thing to be said is that, IMHO, 80 percent of the quality of an outfit depends on the guy in charge:  a good can make a poorly equipped place run well, while a knob can wreck anything.

Shane's bread and butter is children's classes.  If you'd rather not do that, go for, say, Web or another adult training centre.  Shane is largely a starter job, where they take enthusiastic but inexperienced newbies and train them to entertain kids while taking them through the classic teaching steps.  To that end, if you don't have teaching experience I hope you've at least taken a TEFL/TESOL/et.al. course with classroom practice (I didn't, and my word, did I ever suck at first  ).

Ningbo is a seaside town, and unless you want a village sized life, shouldn't be too big and noisy.  And at 10,000 a month you should be quite comfortable.

Try find someone who's worked for that centre recently.  RECENTLY- schools turn people over fairly quickly, and reports on them also age quickly.

Lastly, Shane has a franchise policy for dealing with teachers, a process that protects you as much as you can be. 

And if you don't like it, you can always leave for another place.  Good luck to you!