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      First Leap

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      First Leap Reviews

      3.3

      51% would recommend to a friend

      (180 total reviews)

      Charlie Cao

      59% approve of CEO

      33% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      3.5

      Compensation and benefits

      3.3

      Work/Life balance

      3.1

      Diversity and inclusion

      2.9

      Culture and values

      2.9

      Career opportunities

      2.7

      Senior management

      First Leap has an employee rating of 3.3 out of 5 stars, based on 180 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The First Leap employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Education industry (3.7 stars).

      Ratings by demographic groups

      Reviews by job title

      180 reviews
      2.0
      Apr 19, 2020

      First Leap is a good means to get experience, travel etc. but certainly not a good career option.

      Teacher - centre mentor
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      My centre was outstanding, here's why: - Chinese staff and foreign staff got on great. We had few issues. - I actually enjoyed going to work everyday for the most part. - My Assessors/Teaching advisers were good. - The centre mentor before me was also very good. - General centre culture was positive.

      Cons

      Please note my *cons* are not targeting the Chinese staff, as I do understand they operated in their own jurisdictions that did little to affect foreign staff. That being said: - This is a training centre. Many of the people that work for FL will not be qualified teachers. Before 2018- a lot were not even on Z visas... Make of that what you will. - The average working age are usually those 23-26ish? You will have people fresh out of university (if on a Z visa). Expect all that comes with that, good and bad. - High up management (Beijing, foreign staff) can be pretty obtuse and disconnected. Often making decisions for seemingly whimsical reasons largely for what seems to be a power trip. Superficial and lacking substantial professionalism. I've known people denied for promotion because they wore jeans to bootcamp... - Don't get comfortable. Things will change weekly. Lessons, protocols, meetings, updates the whole shebang. This was toward the end of my time there and really wore down positive environment of our centre.

      avatar
      First Leap Response
      6y
      Thank you for taking the time to leave a review, we value all feedback from our teachers on how we could enhance the experience of working at First Leap. Our International Teachers have varying ranges of teaching experience, ranging from extensive to minimal. We provide substantial Orientation Training and Phase Training within a Teacher's first six months with us in order to make sure everyone receives a high level of support and guidance. Our International Teachers also have access to continuous support during their time with us, both teaching related and non-teaching related, from their regional management team. During the last few months, things have been more subject to fast change due to the epidemic. In order to deal with this and keep all our staff, parents, and students safe, processes have had to be altered and this has sometimes needed to be done at short notice. We appreciate this is not always convenient, but hope you can understand the reasons behind it. Our management teams work towards maintaining and improving employee satisfaction, continuously striving to improve teaching quality, and to ensure all our customers are satisfied with what we are offering, whilst working in ways that can be beneficial and effective for each of Teachers. We understand that not everyone will find every working process to be effective, and thank you for your feedback on this.
      2.0
      Feb 5, 2019

      Great, easy job if you're NOT a qualified teacher

      International teacher
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      - Good pay - Easy job. Lessons are planned for you, down to a script of what needs to be said in the lessons - Work with different, interesting people from around the world - Chinese colleagues are, for the most part, lovely and helpful too - Perfect job if you are an actor/actress. You're on show all the time; a foreign face; if you love acting - great - No real responsibilities

      Cons

      - Foreign teachers are just for show. As long as you have a foreign face, you'll help bring money into the company, and that's all they want. Your opinion/ideas don't matter. - Lessons, curriculum, training developed by people who HAVE NO QUALIFICATIONS IN EDUCATION. Most of my trainers/academic staff were unprofessional, unqualified and didn't actually know what they were talking about with regards to teaching and education. Very few pedagogical resources/ideas actually used and implemented. - Teaching style is "the first leap way" or no way (not necessarily what is best for those students/what is best according to educational research and theories) - Script for the lessons means you're very rarely having to use your brain. Becomes a bit tedious, boring, un-stimulating. - Training sessions take up a lot of your free time and are a waste of time. Every single training session/meeting I had could have been summarized in one email. - Lots of time sitting around in the office doing nothing. - High turnover rate. Kids won't miss you as they're used to getting new teachers all the time. - At the end of the day, you don't matter.

      avatar
      First Leap Response
      7y
      Thank you for taking the time to leave a review. One of the great things about working here is getting to meet people from so many different backgrounds, we’re happy to hear that you had that experience with us. With regards to the teaching style, we train our teachers so that they are free to teach creatively as long as the lesson requirements are adhered to. The lessons are created by a team with a mix of teaching and educational experience. New teachers often find it easier to follow the script very closely until they feel comfortable with the materials, then with more experience they tend to use their own methods to deliver the lessons. The turnover rate for international teachers is higher than in other industries, that’s the nature of the overseas English teaching industry. In terms of training sessions, we strive to help teachers as much as we can, and we always evaluate how the training sessions can be tweaked, so we will take that feedback into consideration. Every teacher who works for us does matter, we do our best to make teachers feel that, and to make sure they know that they are here to help make a difference in children’s lives. Thanks again for your time at First Leap and we wish you continued success!
      3.0
      Apr 1, 2022

      not that good

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      working with different people in different culture

      Cons

      dealing with hard parents and child

      Viewing 1 - 3 of 180 Reviews
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      ReviewsFirst Leap reviews

      Glassdoor has 201 First Leap reviews submitted anonymously by First Leap employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if First Leap is right for you.