Stay away.

I did the Teach and Travel China internship through i-to-i TEFL and I would definitely not recommend it! It was one of the worst experiences of my life and to think I paid almost $2000 for it makes me sick to the stomach! The company, schools and entire programme is shady in its practices and many many people have quit the programme.

We arrived at our schools ill equipped, we had no cooking utensils and I had to beg my advisor for money so we could buy cooking stuff. The money they pay you is NO WAY enough to live off if you are placed somewhere expensive like Beijing. You will end up spending a lot more than you earn.

Many people quit the programme as their contracts were broken by the school, some people did not get their pay, some people had no running water or working shower for months, some people had no food (school meals) and no money to pay for food because their pay did not arrive on time. Some people has infestations of rats, bedbugs and other insects in their room. These people did not get refunds and were not relocated as promised. One person was fired for no good reason by his school. These people all lost their money as they did not receive refunds.

The company that run the programme (ImmerQi, who run Teach Travel China) are very shady and totally illegal practices, they lied to us, telling us that if we quit the programme, our visa would expire instantly and we would have to leave the country or break the law. This was a lie. They also got a company in Beijing to lie and say we were working there so they could grant us visas. This was so they did not have to tell the government we were making them money and they took most our paycheque for themselves. They charged the school almost $2000 a month for having us as teachers … we received less than 5% of this payment. They also lied to the school about our experience, telling them that we were more qualified than we actually were. They just make money out of you and then charge you for it. They also told us to lie to the authorities if anyone asked, and to say we were not getting paid anything at all.

A few people had their laptops, mobile phones and money and passport stolen by the schools (or someone at the schools) too. We were warned to lock our items away in our cases as people at the school have keys and will come into your rooms and apartments whilst you are teaching and steal your things.

Stay away.