Better than any other teaching agency. - ESL Teacher/Coordinator of ESL Services Vinalearn Employee Review

5.0
Jun 18, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

When I first joined Vinalearn, I was working for another agency. They were a good company but they never spent any time and effort to support me in my teaching role. There were no incentives for hard work and no materials to base my lessons off of, other than a book and page numbers. At Vinalearn, I was shown a completely different experience. When I joined, I received extensive training, an abundance of materials and tons of support from both management, as well as the support staff. At the end of my first teaching year, I was offer a raise, a performance bonus and an extra bonus for signing up. I was also invited to workshops on various aspects of teaching and given additional support with ways to engage my students and teach them in a fun and effective manner. Another year has since passed and things have only improved, people who caused issues with other teachers have left, the managers have rebuilt the support system with additional staff and the training has become even better. I also got great feedback from the schools where I taught, and once again was offered a raise, as well as a performance bonus at the end of this school year. I can strongly recommend Vinalearn for any long time teachers or aspiring new teachers. Especially now that the management team really seems to have fixed the things that were the most troublesome.

Cons

No company is perfect and Vinalearn isn't exempt from this fact. In the past - before the new management team was instated - the only way to receive performance bonuses was by attending workshops or meetings which were held on Saturday mornings. This conflicted with my schedule, as I taught on Saturdays. So, I felt like I wasn't being rewarded for being a stable teacher. There was another way to receive better bonuses and that was by covering classes, but seeing as my schedule was already full, I had no time to cover. All of this made it feel pointless to work towards bonuses as there was nothing in place to reward teachers who do their jobs without fault. Although, I can happily say that since the management change up, the reward systems have become much more sensible and now, as long as your feedback is positive, you'll get rewarded. Another thing, is that they didn't quite have as many workshops as I expected. Teaching is not something you master by only doing it but by learning new skills and applying them in your classroom. The only other thing is the cost of paperwork and documentation, however, this is strictly a result of my nationality, as I know teachers of other nationalities have a much easier time, as well as lower cost than I do. My country doesn't have a great relationship with the government here so paperwork is unfortunately more expensive for anyone from my country but that's politics and nothing to do with Vinalearn. Anyway, thanks for listening to my TED Talk.

Explore other reviews about Vinalearn

3.0
Mar 3, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Overall, it's not the worst company to work for if you're interested in working at public schools. There are certainly much worse places to work. They always pay on time and are willing to correct errors if made. The local staff members are friendly and amicable. If you want hours, they are more than happy to give you a full schedule where you can work at one or two schools only (this can be rare with English Language agencies). The management has also begun to improve some of their organization and increased their standards of professionalism and communication.

Cons

They don't cover any documentation, health check, or visa fees–you pay for everything out of pocket. They also don't offer assistance with helping you to find time off to get to the government offices to turn in the official documentation. Additionally, some of the foreign management can be ingenuine and have lied to the English teachers or manipulated situations to make employees feel powerless to leave the company or find other work. However, again, things seem to be improving.

2
1.0
Apr 7, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Quite flexible and opportunity for extra hours. Ok pay.

Cons

There is toxic atmosphere that begins with the boss Joe who is a narcissistic bully. He has control of everyone and everything. You cannot avoid feeling the teachers vs management culture of the company. Please walk away from this mess.

2
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