- China
About Program
Work and live in China for 6 months with ImmerQi's Teach & China program. Find out why 500+ people have taught in China every year since 2005 with ImmerQi.
The program consists of Training & Orientation for the 1st month and a Teaching Internship for the last 5 months. During training, you will meet fellow participants and be given the opportunity to participate in Mandarin classes, culture activities and excursions, including the Great Wall, Olympic Stadium and the Summer Palace. When the training is complete, you will be TEFL certified and travel to your teaching placement. Expect friendly 24/7 support from ImmerQi staff every day. From airport pickup to the welcome dinner to optional travel tours, you will feel at home every day and make many friends.
When this amazing 6 months is up, you will be an internationally certified TEFL teacher with teaching experience.
Video and Photos
As an alternative, ImmerQi offers a 6 month work-visa teaching program now!
Program Highlights
- Trial your new career before you commit to it long-term
- Test-drive your knowledge and skills in a challenging, international environment
- Enhance your CV in China, a market all multinationals have a keen interest in
- Build your professional network in a place that is encouraging innovation and research
- Exposure to the Chinese environment, customs and culture will help with future job searches
Response from ImmerQi
Hi Cliadhna, thank you for your feedback.
I’m sorry to see that you were disappointed with your experience.
I do want to apologize on the behalf of ImmerQi if you were made to feel like we did not care about your safety or about you having a good experience. Although we are a for-profit company and do have to support the ten staff that are tasked with running our teaching program (including providing 24/7 support to over 400 interns like yourself per year) our primary goal is to ensure that all interns have a positive China experience. The points you bring up about our company and service have been shared with the team as we continue to evaluate ways in which we can offer an even better experience.
So far in 2015, our feedback scores from our teachers have been 89% positive so experiences like yours are rare, but we know they do happen. Our top priority is stepping in to assist a teacher as soon as we discover that are having issues with their placement or school, so we can only apologize if this did not happen to you.
I would just like to clarify that we do endeavor to make the timing of placement announcements very clear to our participants when they are applying for the program. Announcing placements so late is a conscious decision as we wish to avoid any confusion or disappointment associated with last-minute placement changes, which can be very common when dealing with Chinese schools! I’m sorry that this made you feel as though we were disorganized; I can assure you that careful planning goes into placing over 400 interns per year in schools across China.
With regards to your allegation that your ‘salary’ was of 10,000 Yuan and that ImmerQi took a portion of this, I’m afraid that is simply inaccurate. While ImmerQi does receive a placement fee from the school (as do all agencies placing both interns and full-time teachers in schools in China), this is much less than the amount you suggest and completely unrelated to your ‘salary’. We do make it very clear to our applicants that the program provides a small living allowance, not a salary, as you are here in China on an internship. You were aware of the living allowance amount prior to your arrival in China, so I am sorry you found it difficult to budget for living expenses with this amount, despite the fact that accommodation and meals are also provided. I contacted your school, as I was afraid there had been some misunderstanding, which led them to communicate this false information to you. However, they assured me that they had not spoken to you. They mentioned that perhaps you were comparing you living allowance to a full-time teacher salary at the school.
Lastly, I completely agree that the internship is not for everyone and that some people are better suited to seeking out full-time teaching work in China. This is not something that ImmerQi tries to hide, as we mention full-time opportunities for qualified teachers both during our interview process and in the program terms and conditions you signed. We explain to all our applicants that to qualify for full-time work in China you need to be at least 24 years old, be a native English speaker, possess a university degree, and have at least two years of post-graduation work experience. This means you would not have qualified for full-time work when you joined the program. However, I am really sorry that you feel you were misled in this regard.
I hope that my response clears a few things up for you. Once again, I apologize on the behalf of the whole ImmerQi team that your experience was not what you hoped it would be. As you know, all of us working on the Teach and Travel program are former program participants ourselves. This means that we really do believe the program is a great opportunity for those wishing to discover China or those wanting to find out if teaching is for them. I’m sorry you did not feel the same way and please trust that we have taken your feedback onboard to improve the program for future participants.