ABCi claimed to reimburse travel for its volunteer teacher trainees. However, having left 2 months ago, I still have not received a penny from them. Unfortunately, there is no written obligation from ABCi in their contract with trainees to pay travel reimbursements. However, since this was a core element in their job advertisement on The Guardian and TEFL Jobs websites, this is a clear case of false advertising.
Having complained to ABCi about this on numerous occasions, they now no longer respond to emails. Previous responses have been unprofessional and claimed former volunteers are no longer registered with ABCi. I am also deeply suspicious of reviews left on online forums. For example, the review, written by a person called 'Millie', appears to contradict the claims made against ABCi regarding travel reimbursements. Whilst Millie may be a former student from a different placement who did recieve her travel reimbursement, there was nobody of that name on the April - August 2015 intake.
The trainee contract is written in German and ABCi refuses to provide a written translation into English. I was instead assured during the interview stage of the application process that it would be verbally translated upon my arrival in Austria. This service was never provided, in spite of requests being made several times. However, after using Google Translate, I am deeply concerned about the organisation's insurance policy (or, more accurately the lack of it) with regards to its volunteers, who are not recoginsed as official employees or associates during their three-month voluntary placements. This is particularly worrying given that teaching takes place in an Active Learning environment, where children are running around inside classrooms, and with sporting activities and lessons making up a crucial component of the project weeks. Although trainees undertook a day of training with the Red Cross (as they are obliged to under Austrian Law), we never received formal training on how to safely teach sports or deal with any injuries that may occur. Given the lack of clear insurance policy and procedure, this is clearly unsafe for both trainees and the young students they teach in Austria.
The contract contains no statistics whatsoever in such important elements as the number of working hours required of volunteers, dates and amounts of reimbursement money to be paid, or classroom sizes teachers can expect to teach. Nor does it specify any obligations on the part of the organisation to provide safe and secure accommodation for its volunteers. In fact, it does not even stipulate the nature of labor which was to be expected of us. This had implications for the volunteers on my placement as we were expected to assemble furniture for ABCi's offices after a full day of teaching in late July, even though the welcome pack clearly states that volunteers could expect to have their afternoons free after the intensive CERTesol component of the course, which had ended two months before. To be clear, this was not a voluntary option and were not provided with a way to opt-out. We were instead told one morning that after school that day we would be driven to the new office to build furniture. The furniture building took two hours longer than expected. We were then housed in the old office, and expected to sleep 10 of us in 9 beds (which had been constructed by the volunteer office interns), and provided with only one shower, which was broken, and two kitchen hobs with no oven or grill. There was also a shortage of bedding meaning I didn't have a pillow or bed sheets for several nights. This was an ongoing problem, since on our day of arrival it was clear that the apartment had not been cleaned (there were dirty razors in the bathroom, uncleaned floors and old food left in the kitchen). Again, I did not have a pillow or duvet cover. This is highly demonstrable of the way in which ABCi routinely disregarded the welfare of its volunteers.
Response from ABCi
We are genuinely sorry that you did not enjoy your time with us here in Austria, but all of our staff work really hard to ensure that all our trainees have a rewarding experience here in Austria: the combination of a TEFL teacher training course, teaching training placement in state schools and travel throughout the alpine region that ABCi offers as part of our trainee teaching placements is truly unique – I think you’ll find that there is nothing else quite like it in Europe. To be honest, most people DO in fact take advantage of these opportunities and gain both the theoretical knowledge and practical experience required to advance their careers as young ESL teachers in a beautiful setting. The "ABCi" (The student-centered initiative to to bring together English native speakers and Austrian children at all the secondary schools in Austria by 2020) has also gone through some big changes recently, namely being absorbed by the English Teacher Training College. The combination of college staff to provide teacher training and the practical teaching experience in Austrian schools means that no one leaves our course without knowing how to teach. In any event, we really do hope that you'll apply again - we take valid feedback very seriously here at the college and are quick to implement suggestions.
Please remember, the English Teacher Training College and its associated Bilingual Classroom Initiative (ABCi) is a not-for-profit Austrian College with a dual mission: Firstly, as a college, to provide a practical education in teacher training for trainees from the English-speaking world based solely on the candidate's academic merit. Secondly, as a charity outreach, to promote language learning, cultural exchange and foster understanding between English-speaking countries and Austria by bringing hundreds of teachers from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, America, Canada, New Zealand and Australia into Austrian classrooms to reach every child with a free English project by the year 2020.
For your intake of trainee, reimbursements for travel to and from Austria were a part of the programme. Trainees were told that the reimbursement time is typically between 8 to 12 weeks, however no exact time frame can be given due to the different steps involved in this, some of which involve outside parties. The organisation is working to get the reimbursements paid to the trainees of ABCi as soon as possible and we thank them for their patience and understanding as this process takes place.
The trainee contract, which has been written by both ABCi and our legal advisers, is now written in both English and German. The contract is a legal document without which trainees would not be allowed in Austrian schools as they would not then be covered by the organisation's insurance.
It is made clear to trainees that this is not an employment contract, as they are on a course. Therefore there are no labor hours involved. Similar to a University degree, attendance is expected and, if a session is not attended, absences are noticed.
There is now a full time Welfare Officer at ABCi to deal with all concerns. When a lack of bedding was highlighted to the organisation by trainees, new bedding was purchased the next day and given to them. ABCi has professional cleaners, this is an external company which ABCi has been working closely with to ensure that they are meeting high standards. They clean the flats once a week. Trainees are responsible, however, to make sure that communal areas remain clean and tidy.