Hi everyone,
Been doing eikaiwa for some years now, and have been offered a job at a good local university with Westgate. I know they’re not the best, but looks like a good opportunity.
Problem is, the contract is only three months, and I’m not sure what kind of visa they sponsor. (Could anyone enlighten me on that?) I do have another job that should be open for me after the contract ends, should I choose WG.
However, I was just offered a lead teaching job at a good local high school. 1 year contract with long paid vacation, but the pay is less, and really quite low most months of the year. However, this looks like a good opportunity as well.
I’d like to ask anyone who worked with Westgate their experience and opinion. I know it varies school to school, and I’ve read reviews here and elsewhere online.
Just wondering what kind of visa Westgate sponsors, the experience of people who worked there, and general opinions on this situation. Just interested to hear what you think.
As someone who isn’t planning to be a lifelong teacher in Japan, I’m mainly thinking over the course of the next couple of years at most.
Thanks very much!
4 comments
Westgate should sponsor you for a professor visa, which is what you need to work in universities.
I worked for Westgate when I first came to Japan, and I enjoyed my time working for them. However, 3 months isn’t a long time so you’ll need to start searching for your next job pretty much straight after starting.
I assume that the job is to start in April? If you are looking to stay for longer than the 3 months, I’d recommend the high school job though. It’s going to be really hard for you find good teaching work during the summer months. I also think some experience teaching in high schools is more valuable than teaching at university, because aside from Westgate, you’ll really unlikely to get a university teaching position. The high school job is likely to lead to better teaching jobs.
If you get an offer for the Spring from Westgate and do decently at it, youre likely to get the Fall contract pretty easily. Theres about a month and a half break between where you’re on your own, but its not too bad.
The real trouble is from Fall to Spring, because there’s about 4 months between them. Though, if you get the Accredited position the gaps are shorter since those contracts I believe are 4-5 months instead of 3.
Do Westgate pay you during the school holidays? If not, then the high school job does not pay less surely.
For both the university and high school job, you’ll need an instructors visa unless the high school is contracted through an Eikawa. Meaning you will indeed need to throw out your humanities visa. Most likely it will only be a year long instructors visa as well. I don’t see a way around that unless you want to continue eikaiwa work at a different place or stay at your current.
The high school job seems overall much better to me though. A full year working at the same place and no dispatched to two or more places throughout the year plus long vacation.