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-----Original Message-----
Dear Mr. Sulzer,
I have received your application to teach with Hess. Upon reviewing all of your documents I would like to conduct a telephone interview with you. I would like to schedule an interview with you for the following date and time:
Monday, June 23rd @ 8 pm (your time)
Please confirm via email if this is suitable for you. Also, please read the information below to prepare any questions you may have for our interview.
Thank you and I look forward to speaking with you.
Kindly, Meagan Solomon
Thank you for your interest to teach with Hess Educational Organization. To ensure that you are well prepared for our interview, here is some information regarding contracts and what we provide for Hess Teachers for you to read over. Please read this information carefully PRIOR to the interview so that you may address any questions or concerns at the end of the interview. It's also a good idea to go over our website, www.hess.com.tw, for any further information you need or want to ask about.
Thank you!
General Information
For each class, there is a Chinese speaking co-teacher (CT) allocated to each class to assist our NST's. All teaching materials are provided, such as books, flashcards, and there are props for games and activities at the branch. Should you be made an employment offer, you would need to sign a one-year contract. Our starting salary is NT$560 per hour with raises and bonuses also part of the pay structure. Raises and bonuses are granted through teacher evaluations every 6 months. Teachers are evaluated on the basis of their teaching ability, attendance, and general professional conduct. Please remember all teachers need to prepare for classes and grade homework. This is seen as part of a teacher's responsibility of teaching a class and so you wouldn't be paid for doing this.
Contract Options
Hess Language School Contracts (Contract A)For the evening English language classes, NST's, or Native Speaking Teachers, teach students from the ages of 6 to 15 years old. Teachers work six days a week: Mondays to Fridays from approximately 4:30 in the afternoons until about 8:30 at night, and there are Saturday classes, as well. There is a guaranteed minimum of 20 hours per week, or 10 classes and a maximum number of hours per week, 28 or 14 classes per week. For Hess Language School (HLS) classes, there is a CT in the classroom with you each class. For Young Scholar's, a CT will be in the class at least one time per week; for Junior High classes, there is a Teacher's Assistant allocated to each class. Language school classes are 100 minutes, with a ten-minute break for which you're paid for the full two hours. Kindergarten Contracts (Contract B)Contract B is considered a combined contract, as it is kindergarten in the morning and then HLS in the afternoon. Kindergarten students range in ages from 3 to 6 years old, however, you would not have a three year old and a six year old in the same class. Teachers work kindergarten Monday to Friday, from 9:00 am to 11:30, and then go on to teach their HLS classes in the evening. Contract B contains the guaranteed 12.5 hours of kindy and a minimum of 9 classes, or 18 hours a week, of HLS. Kindergarten semesters begin in March and August of each year. Our teachers teach English, as well as life skills, such as self-help, motor skills, hygiene, etc. The kindy curriculum is theme based with a new topic each month that is fully bilingual – half day English and half day Chinese. Only Chinese teachers teach the Chinese portion of the class.
Full – time Kindergarten Contract (Contract C) This is considered full time kindy, which consists of twenty-five hours per week teaching kindy. Classes are from 9 to 4, Monday through Friday. There are also a minimal number of HLS classes per week that teachers might be asked to teach depending on class availability at the branch.
Documents
Upon acceptance of a job offer, we will send you our Online Acceptance Package that clearly details the information and instructions for preparing your documents. As a quick outline and reference for you, here is the list of documents you would need to prepare:
¡¤ 2 copies of each page of your passport, signed in blue ink ¡¤ Your original degree (bring it with you to Taiwan) ¡¤ A health report, which includes a chest x-ray and blood test ¡¤ 14 colored passport photos ¡¤ A signed one year contract ¡¤ A Criminal Record Check done at your local police station (Hess requirement)
Once we have all of these, we then submit these documents to the Taiwanese government to apply for the work permit. Once this has been approved, they will begin to process the ARC, or Alien Resident Certificate/Taiwan ID card. You would also be eligible for national health insurance once you receive your ARC.
Start up costs of coming to Taiwan
We highly recommend bringing about USD $1500-2000. You will need to pay for your own airfare, put down a deposit on an apartment, buy some furniture etc. Hess also offers a one-time interest free start up loan for $30,000 NTD that is payable for up to six months.
What Hess provides
We provide airport pickup and hotel accommodation during the training program. The first day of training will consist of orientation. In the afternoon, there is a seminar on culture shock and how to prepare for the year ahead in Taiwan. There is a final documents presentation followed by individual meetings with our documents staff to confirm the status of teacher documents and to ensure that teachers fully understand how the process works to work in Taiwan.
On the first or second night at the hotel, the HNST (manager for foreign teachers) will phone new teachers to introduce themselves and to discuss housing options. S/he and the branch staff will begin to look for appropriate accommodation. The rest training program will consist of TEFL training, child development and curriculum training, in which new teachers observe some classes and do some teaching demonstrations. After this initial training, teachers will go to their allocated areas where they will receive branch orientation and they are introduced to the branch staff.
All teachers are required to attend 1, 3, 6, and 9-month follow-up trainings. They will cover both teaching related topics and overseas living topics, as we want to ensure that everything is ok with teachers inside and outside of the classroom. Teachers may miss some class time to attend the trainings, but missed class time will not count as vacation time. Upon completion of an NST's first year contract and the training program, teachers are issued a Hess TEFL certificate. All teachers regardless of education (such as having an education degree or TEFL certificate) and experience (such as experience teaching in a public school or TEFL teaching) must attend our trainings to ensure standardization of our program.
If you would be interested in advancement opportunities, we do have some available as well: HNST (Head Native Speaking Teacher), curriculum writing, recruiting, training and other special projects that come up over the course of a year.
Kindly, Meagan Solomon
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