Can anyone shed some light on Westgate Corporation’s reputation? What are they like to work for?

10 comments

1. Fuck Westgate. Trying to invade one of the last places professional English teachers can still make a decent living.

2. dispatch eikaiwa posing as long term uni subs.

3. Merciless: like many English teaching companies they will find anyway to skirt regs and cut costs. They won’t employ you if you’re “overqualified”, too old (in marketing terms, or present small problems at the outset (like not taking their provided accommodation).

   Despite laws being changed they still manage to somehow legally avoid providing year long contracts. You are effectively only employed during the semesters and left to fend for yourself during holidays…it also means you are not signed up to Shakai Hoken (last I heard), so you have to make your own contributions to pensions and healthcare, while being out of work for up to 12 weeks a year.

   Schedules are packed and not representative of a proper lecturers teaching hours or resources.

   If you’re financially independent and want adjunct teaching experience, it’s good to have on your CV..thats the only reason to work for the.

4. I wouldn’t trust them, or any university that employs their services. It’s just a way to skim money from teachers for them, and a way to cut administrative corners at the expense of teachers (and their students) for the uni.

5. They have a terrible rep among teachers, and good universities look askance at their name on your resume, since it’s not considered to be representative of the university teaching experience. It’s hyped-up eikaiwa in disguise at best.

6. In addition to everything else said here, they REQUIRE you to have a bank account with Japan Post. They literally will not (or cannot) pay you if you have an account elsewhere. It sounds like some way to withhold money or commit wage theft as they overcharge you for rent at their properties.

   The poor contract and stain on your resume doesn’t seem worth it if you actually want to work for a University.

7. From the outside: the reputation is bad. I once worked at a low-grade university that also employed some Westgate people (mostly for extracurricular activities, not for actual teaching for credit). The people from Westgate were pretty much ignored/ostracized by the other, real, teachers who had stuff like experience, expertise, and credentials.

8. They’ve been sending me info about b positions and the like and then I looked at their contract structure.

   Paid for only 5.5 teaching hours, but you’re at the job from 9-6 or the like. No vacation, you have to apply for your own health insurance and they do not take out for pension.

   Aren’t Gyoumu Itaku contracts illegal now?

9. So dirty. They pay eikaiwa wages, dodge the social insurance copay, and while they specify they hire qualified English language trainers, they also accept people with no PD or qualifications.

   The company is the only winner here.

   Each warm body Westgate hire squeezes out a teaching professional who could contribute to research and education development. For a rock-bottom wage and precarious conditions.

10. I worked for them in 2019 and had a positive enough experience that it made me want to come back to live and work in Japan. However, some of the criticisms I have seen in this thread and my recent investigation into ways to come back to Japan have made me more dubious about it. I was almost willing to just take the pay and professional cut just to go back to a place where I could live in my own apartment when I was there. However, I heard on this sub that they were apparently shifting into doing share houses instead of private apartments for the same 80,000~ yen rent.

    I think it may have to do with your supervisor, too. I think that Westgate’s extracurricular program was honestly one of my favorite and easiest jobs I’ve ever had, and I’m a licensed English teacher. However, I think that due to the length of contracts and the sketchiness others have described that it is probably **increasingly** a thing that you should only use to get a taste of Japan. I was really tempted to go back and try to get them to let me work with their young learners contracts due to a good experience in the past. However, I think that the pandemic had a seriously negative effect on their growth and they’re still trying to employ strategies to make them money while not taking the hit for the lost revenue. I don’t know that much from my end, but that’s my profession.

    So, my honest impression: I **loved** working for them when I did (again could’ve just been my placement and having an awesome supervisor who was very chill), but I don’t think there’s any growth after the first year or so unless they really want to groom you to work in their main office, and when I asked if there was a pathway to try and work longer periods of time with them, they said no.