NOVA Fails to Pay English Teachers

its a very slow titanic.you can see what’s going to happen but know one wants to believe it!

I’d still be surprised if Nova went under. I think they are going to have to close the less profitable branches and the locations they opened mainly to flood the market and drive out mom and pop schools but they will consolidate and keep their main branches. I believe they probably won’t have to pay back as many contracts as long as they keep enough schools open to reasonably accommodate those who had signed up at other locations.

This situation isn’t as disastrous as it sounds though (at least not yet). While it is possible that they have to delay paying because they lack funds, it’s also possible this is related to the fact that Nova pays on the 15th of each month and that is a Saturday this month. What is more, it’s a 3-day weekend which means the earliest they may have been expected to pay (unless they decided to pay a day early on the 14th) would have been September 18th.

Nova has always done this bit where you are paid two weeks after the end of the pay period. That is, they pay you for the first to the last day of the previous month on the 15th day of the following month. You’re always two weeks behind until you quit at which point they pay you all you are due. They do this so they can keep your money longer but also to discourage people from bugging out without notice. This applies both to foreign employees and Japanese.

Clearly though, this is not a good sign. If it is related to holding the cash a few days longer, it could get worse and worse as time goes by until you’re getting paid later and later all the time and eventually you don’t get paid at all. However, the person who felt the Japanese government would do anything about this has a relatively inflated sense of how the Japanese regard individual rights. They won’t bother to involve themselves if a bunch of gaijin don’t get paid and they don’t care about how this affects perceptions of Japanese abroad (not that it would as most people back home have no idea about this language school business).

Bummer.

I think the lack of English language proficiency sometimes keeps excellent Japanese students and scientists from making an international impact. One English language school less would not be helpful. How good is the instruction in these schools?

Karma’s a bitch, ain’t it?…

If their practices don’t protect students in the first place, what makes you think they’ll help the instructors?

I am scheduled to leave on October 16th. My CoE is currently on its way and my plane ticket has been purchased for a month.

I will be eating the cost of my ticket and watching my CoE expire.

Unfortunately, I do not have marketable Japanese language skills, so taking my Visa and running with it does not appear to be able to net me any possibilities. I tried looking into other options, but frankly, the only comfortable solution I found was to remain here and find a way to visit Japan sometime in the future.

Quite frankly I have no faith in Nova and if they so happen are able to pull a miracle out of nowhere and survive, I will never apply to work with them again — new management or no. It is a different ball game when looking at working at a company in a different country.

I did, in fact, speak with my recruiting office, however the lady I spoke to was more interested in finding out how I knew what I did so quickly than in really providing a comprehensive answer.

It completely sucks, it hurts a lot but frankly, I think I made the best possible decision. I would not risk anything with Nova right now. And those people who do not believe that Nova will go under, or who believe their jobs are safe are deluding themselves.

I highly empathize with those in my position, but hey, small consolation right now, but at least we found this out BEFORE getting over there and facing Nova going under and not paying us. I’d rather eat the cost of my ticket than get all of the way over there and be penniless in a month because I’d have to purchase a return ticket without ever having gotten paid.

I highly doubt that Nova is handing out their guarenteed interest free advances right now if they can’t pay their current employees on time.

D

NOVA broke? Get a new job….down under.

I read on one of these boards that 5000 of the current Nova teaching staff are Australians. With this in mind, I thought I’d post on the ESL situation back home.

First thing you need to know is that there is a teacher shortage at the moment. Most schools are finding it hard to get the teachers they need. It’s been that way for a couple of years now, but the shortage has been particularly acute the last six months and will only get worse as the peak study season rolls around.

Although ESL teaching is quite different from Nova’s patented “4 bunnies in a box” approach, many of the things you picked in Japan will stand you in good stead back home. (For starters, ex NOVA-ites are usually pretty good at keeping a up conversation with low level learners and have usually picked up a fair bit of knowledge about how English works and how it can be taught).

Within Australia there are dozens of schools in each capital city: more than 100 in Sydney alone. The ESL industry in Australia is regulated by the Federal Government’s ESOS Act 2000. Aside from compulsory insurance to protect students if schools go under, schools are accredited by a body called NEAS that ensures schools, teachers and curriculum are up to scratch. You can get information/addresses on accredited schools from NEAS at http://www.neasaustralia.com

The reason for the teacher shortage at the moment is probably because the general job market is so strong. Schools are finding it difficult to get good teachers and some of them a resorting to poaching them off each other. Salaries are around $35,000 to $65,000 per annum (I think that’s 3,5000,000 to 6,5000,000 yen), depending on your experience and qualifications.

Speaking of which, to work at a NEAS school you will need a minimum of a Degree and a legitimate TESOL qualification (deemed to be a Certificate IV in TESOL or a University TESOL Post Grad Cert/Dip or an RSA CELTA). Once you have these things you can pick up work pretty easily. You can even get recognition for the work you did in Japan which should reduce the length and cost of getting a Cert IV TESOL through a process called RPL (recognition for prior learning). One Cert IV TESOL provider in Sydney is Greenwich College (www.greenwichcollege.com.au ) And there are others in NSW and interstate.

For jobs … you can approach schools directly (see the NEAS website) or contact job hunting sites like http://www.eslstaff.com who should put you in touch with jobs. General job hunting sites like mycareer.com or seek.com run ads too.

Non- Australian teachers can join in too. Pretty much all schools are happy to take native English speakers,a variety of accents is even viewed as a bonus. If you’re under 29 years old you can get working holiday visa unless you’re from USA (coz the US govt doesn’t like WH visas) or New Zealand (coz Bondi is a New Zealand suburb, so our Kiwi bretheren can live here anytime they like). You can get info from http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/49whm.htm

The teaching itself is pretty different from NOVA; students study for 20- 25 hours per week in mixed nationality classes of up to 18 students using a set curriculum and text books that werent published in the cold war. Most classes run five days a week from 9am to 3pm with an hour off for breaks. Decent employers usually pay for lesson preparation time (using a daily rate).

So why am I putting all of this down? Well, I used to work in Japan (including 12 months at NOVA) and I can appreciate the stressful feeling of working in a company that’s on the ropes. However the main reason is that I am now the director of an ELICOS College in Sydney and am finding it hard to get teachers – so if you’re thinking of calling it quits at NOVA, then get in touch! (blueterrace-AT-hotmail-DOT-com)

PS For stat junkies, you can see the size of the ESL market in Australia by looking at the government statistics http://aei.dest.gov.au/AEI/MIP/Statistics/Default.htm Students numbers are up in every market except Japan which experienced a 5% decrease (another sign the English bubble has broken??) . Another good site is English Australia http://www.elicos.edu.au

well put anthony. i guess outside of the big cities you meet more serious teachers than the typical drink themselves to sleep everynight of the week.

did you hear if anyone got paid on the 27th, as monkey bridge promised??

They also stopped paying people’s final salary payment. If you leave Nova don’t expect to get any money for the last month that you worked. I’m currently asking my Japanese wife to help me get legal advice as I’m not letting them off.