BEWARE!! YUMING EDUCATION IN TIANJIN

[paulclayton]

Be warned about a company which goes by the name of Yuming Education in Tianjin. Most of their ads have the header "High Salary Teaching Job In China". In these forums they are going by the username of "eduinter".

Yuming is a notorious recruiter who have conned many teachers over the years myself included. If you have a read through their ads and also their website you will see reference to the holiday periods. These are basically stated as being approximately 4 and 6 weeks and it goes on to state that during these "unpaid" holidays you have the option of taking leave or continuing at your full pay in one of Yumings teaching camps. This is not true. Yuming do not have teaching camps or any schools of their own in any way. They are a placement service, you work for a customer of theirs that being for the most part private schools.

The actual length of time you will be on holiday will be around 3 months in the Summer and 2 months in the Winter so all together 5 months. Plus you have all the Chinese national holidays to add on and any additional days where the school may be taking the kids on a field trip or when they are taking exams. All in all you are looking at around 6 months of the year on holiday and unpaid. They have little or no work to offer anyone during this period and given the fact that your contract will also have a clause in it which states that employees of Yuming cannot undertake any private work outside of Yuming when under contract the only way you are going to make ends meet is by breaking the rules of your contract.

Yuming know they don't have enough work to offer but fail to make this clear. When I worked there I specifically asked about additional work and was told not to worry. When the holidays arrived they had nothing at all.

Many teachers who have had no choice to do extra work to pay their rent and buy food have been found out and Yuming think nothing of informing the PSB and the police that you have been fired. The only person(s) they don't tell are the teachers leaving them on an illegal overstay, fined and kicked out of China. Those who complain they can't get by will be frowned upon and similarly disposed of as they fabricate some story of your failures as an employee and have even begun to build up a reputation with the PSB for this kind of thing in the city.

Those who attempt to leave Yuming with the intention of moving on to a new employer will find themselves in the position of being unable to do so as Yuming will not obtain the required documents from the PSB which are required to do a visa transfer. Your only hope then is to start the whole visa process from the beginning in your country of origin and if you hadn't planned a trip home is going to be very expensive and in many cases people just don't bother coming back.

There are complaints all over the internet about these people and all they can do is make empty threats of legal action which to date have never been followed through. They know they have cheated many people and do not have a leg to stand on but still post threats in some vein attempt to silence everyone. If they thought for a second they had a case they would not be wasting their time posting threats it would be in the hands of a solicitor.

Please please please take heed and avoid ruining your chosen life in China for the sake of some greedy little business that treat ESL teachers like dirt. There are so many decent employers around if you look, this place is just not worth the trouble.

If you want more info on the things they have done to various teachers over the years then take a look at this:

http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin ... read=38932

[paulclayton]

Just been having a look at their ad again and I think it is worth pointing out a few things in regard to it.

Contract 1 8000~12000RMB Per month. In other words 8000RMB the same pay that they have given for the last few years without any consideration for the increase in the cost of living in Tianjin especially since the Olympics 08.

2 hours free course of Chinese, traditional dance, traditional Chinese drawing, calligraphy, kongfu. Our center will provide 2 hours free Chinese language training per week. (the free courses according to our center schedule) - Emphasis on the last statement in parentheses. Roughly translated and based on experience what that actually means is you won't be getting any free courses from them as they will always say they are too busy. No-one I know that has worked there has ever had any free lessons of any kind and I must know of at least 15 ex members of staff in the city.

Accommodation: Apartment find help. Basically they will take you to an apartment which they have a deal with the landlord to tell you a laowai price and take a cut from the landlord of the overpayment. This has happened to a few teachers I know in the past and they found out when other laowai not connected to Yuming moved into the same building and the subject of rent happened to come up in conversation.

Accommodation: Accommodation allowance. This is not accommodation allowance they find you the cheapest and dirtiest apartment they can find and pay for it. Allowance would be to give you the RMB and allow you to find your own decent accommodation or let you do that and tell them to pick up the rent. Two Canadian girls arrived last year to begin in September and were eventually taken on a drive to an apartment 2 1/2 hours across the city. When they arrived the place was a dump. Dirty, insects, barely any furniture, a mattress on the bed that even a tramp would turn his nose up at and the door wouldn't lock!!!

They said they didn't want to stay there based on the distance and the state of the place and Yuming took offence. They were taken back to their hotel pleasantly enough and told to wait until they found a better apartment for them but never got back in touch. The girls had to go to the office and when they got there they were told rather rudely that seeing as you didn't like the apartment we gave you we are not paying for any of your hotel bills and we have no responsibility for you anymore. They had to return to Canada and I have no idea if they ever came back.

Be a citizen of U.S.A, Australia, U.K, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand.
Age: 20 to 60.
If you are interested, Please send your CV/Resume, Passport, Education Diploma/Teaching certificate relevant,3 recent photo to our email.

WHy do they want a photo. Well to make sure you don't look Middle Eastern, Asian or African of course. Yes, regardless of how qualified you may be as a teacher they would sooner employ some spotty backpacker with a grade 5 English level than someone with a masters if they don't look English.

The only time they do is when they are desperate for teachers so have no choice. As soon as they have enough teachers again they will find some way to get rid of you.

Be warned about this despicable company. Just don't work for them it is simply not worth it.