Does anyone have (or know anyone who has) experience as an English teacher here. I have a freind interested in applying for a teaching position at the Quick Learning Center. Is this a good company to work for? Any idea of what they pay? Is it a good job? Seems as though they always have an ad in the Novedades looking to fill positions. Is there a lot of turnover? Any info will help. Are there other schools that can be recommended or schools not to recommend for employment?
@poco: About 2 years ago, I went to the interview at the Quick Learning school located kind of behind Commercial Mexicana on Tulum. I saw their ad which promised "15K-25K pesos/month"... Well, at the end of the interview, I asked about the salary and the guy(cant remember his name...) said that "oh no, those numbers are for Mexico City, Oaxaca and such. Here we can offer you 9000 pesos/month." That was my first "hint"... Well, I decided to do the tests. Passed them as they are fairly easy. The next step was to fly to Mexico City, to spend "2 weeks at their training facility". They said that they provide for the flight, accommodation etc. which I thought was great. But, apparently the cost of the trip and such, would have been discounted from the first two months of pay... So, they kinda lend you the cash - NOT "pay for it all". That was the 2nd thing that made me think... The 3rd thing was the schedule. "7AM till 12(noon) and then 4PM till 10PM, Monday to Friday." So "Saturday and Sundays off, right??" Well, not quite as 6 hours EVERY Saturday was going to be used to "summarize" the week... The 4th and final thing that made me decline it all was that they told me that we had to say daily prayers in school... Not my thing, to say the least. Everyone of the people that I did my tests with that day, walked out and never came back after all the details were clear. Now, this was in 2009, and I have not heard anything about it since, so they might have changed things.
Rawkus covered it all about Quick Learning, the prayer thing turned me off right away. Most of the English schools do have a split shift, early morning then free during the day then back in the afternoon. Working Saturdays too. I worked at Harmon Hall for five years (obviously not a horrible place if I was there that long). IF you get full time hours (and not everyone does, it's based on seniority among other things), the pay can be about 14000 pesos a month. When I left, the hourly rate was about 90 pesos (give or take, again, depends on seniority and level of training within the corporate structure). I would have them look at Harmon and Interlingua. Both have limits as to how many foreigners they can have on staff, so there might be a wait if that's an issue. (One foreigner for every ten Mexicans). Good luck!
Wow, great information. Thank you both. I thought there was some underlying issue with Quick Learning since they are always looking for people and I think they only have 2 locations here. I also saw that the ad promised an above average salary. I told my friend that there are a few constant jobs posted in the paper. English teachers, timeshare/vacation club sales, telephone sales to sell cheap all inclusive vacation packages so people can go to a timeshare/vacation club presentation, and "In House Concierge (stand in a hotel lobby and get people to go to a timeshare/vacation club presentation...anyone see a trend?). These are the jobs that people new to the area take, but after a while, most of them abandon them to find a more stable income. Not to say that they are bad jobs because the commission can be attractive, but it is really hard to get people to attend the presentations. But I must say, they sell alot of vacation club and timeshare memberships so, someone is buying them, thus the available jobs. Plus, I don't think you actually need the proper FM to work in these areas so it is an easy job to get.
