n response to Re VipKids in China (Tiffany)
Not sure where you got this information. I am definitely African American and had no problems getting a job or staying fully booked with VIPKID. I am in a group that represents VIPKID teachers of color and there are several thousand people in the group that actively teach. Oh, and by the way...you MUST have at least a bachelors degree and some sort of teaching experience to even be interviewed. I am sorry, it sounds like your interview did not go well. But please get you facts straight about who they hire.

Oh my God, have you blown Tiffany out of the water or not? She should either apologise (as I have done a couple of times when I've made an arse of myself) or take issue with you. Is I right or is I right?

Well, I agree it is up to the chinese who teaches what and where, but given that even folks from parts of the UK or antipodean countries have unintelligible english I actually feel that standard american english as spoken by your average chinese or other east asian citizen is a lot easier for younger chinese to understand. Northern and scots dialects are a bit too harsh for their ears, and I found one had to revert to a colonial sounding british accent, whip them all into shape so to speak, what what, all good fun, lol

No they do not hire non-white people. In fact, all of their coaches are white as well as their representatives. Not too mention that majority of them do not posses any formal degrees of higher education therefore they are bias towards non-white persons and quite racist!

Bit annoying for the non-whites but the whites shouldn't knock it I suppose. I gather this vipkid outfit is an important football or basketball training-centre which employs many coaches? Pretty strange actually because there's lots of blacks who do well in both of those sports and would look the part, whereas in teaching English...maybe not. Either way it's up to the Chinese who they employ for sport or teaching alike- not our business.

I am a British teacher, fully trained and qualified teacher in the UK and i re-qualified in
Hong Kong to gain local quals as well, i Have a PGDE in TESOL, a Masters In TESOL and a
CELTA and I have been working here on the Primary NET scheme for 10 years, and
previously worked in China with primary ages learners as well.

It appears that your PGDE, MA TESOL, CELTA, and NET have resulted in certification interaction that has caused your ADHD.

I totally believe you. Thank you for posting.

So much of your posting is not correct.
There is a contract for each teacher and it has a pay rate. The .50 or $1.00 is a bonus per class for the teachers that teach more than a certain number of classes each month.
The orange shirt is required, but it is a t-shirt and sold at craft stores for $2.50 or goodwill for even less.
A lot of information is shared in the interview; and much more in the contract they give you upon hire for review.
The inbound transfer fee for your paycheck will vary by Your Bank. VIPKID can not control what your bank charges. Some banks charge $0 some charge up to $12 I believe it is.
The company is not American or Canadian; there are cultural differences, but that is to be expected.
When a class is cancelled it is clearly posted in your schedule or on the ap - just sign on and see. You are paid 1/2 for the cancelled class.
Just wanted to chime in with some details .. I am a VIPKID teacher and have enjoyed the experience very much. I like the schedule flexibility and learning about a new culture. The students are wonderful.

I'm a 47 year old teacher who has been employed at VIPKID for over 2 months now, long enough to decided whether I like it or not, and whether or not it is a scam. Yes, I like it for the most part. They are not a scam, but I can see where it might not work for everyone. I don't understand where all the crappy reviews are coming from though. I have no problem getting bookings, I don't cancel classes because I am professional so I stick to my schedule and show up for class.

The first month I made $700+ dollars; the second month I made $1500. I have no problem teaching over 70 classes a month to get the bonus money. I have over 10 years of teaching experience in the public school system and I prefer teaching at VIPKID to that, if you must know, although I made a lot more money at public school teaching but that was all I did, I had no life. I'm serious about making a career out of teaching online and VIPKID is my first venture into it and so far I'm impressed, and pleasantly surprised. I think many of you sound like haters.

No one is paying me to write this review. This is honest and true, but believe what you want. Of course it remains to be seen, it's only been 2 months but it gets better every day.

Well stated. They are full of themselves. I've noticed many of their recruiters don't last
long teaching for VIP.

I agree. Don't believe any of the hype you see on other sites. I'm pretty sure all these great reviews are written by their employees at the main office.

While they imply you will be making a certain amount during the interview, that is not guaranteed as two of those dollars are based on getting to class on time (if any IT problems come up, you don't get that dollar) and teaching over 45 classes a month. If you teach 30 classes a month, you will get .50 cents for each class. If you work any less you will not be paid. You will also only be paid for your training after the 6 month contract, which is pretty ridiculous. None of this is told to you in the interview.

You are required to have a bright orange shirt to wear while you teach, so if you don't have an orange shirt, or you simply can't afford to buy one yet, then you will be endlessly hounded for this. There are multiple videos from VIPKID of teachers online not wearing orange, so I'm not so sure about this policy or why they're ok with posting videos of teachers not wearing their "uniform." You will also be told to buy many things for your classroom to make it look like an "educational tv show."

Interacting with employees is also pretty stressful as they are either short with you or very critical of your performance, from day one. They do not give positive feedback, only negative.

Note that $12 will come out of your paycheck every month because the money is being transferred from a foreign account. They do not tell this to you in the interview.

Many classes get cancelled without your knowledge and you are only paid half for these classes. If you are teaching Trial Classes, which are classes with students who are considering entering into the program, over half of them will be canceled. If you have only taught 15 minutes of the class and the student has an IT problem, depending on the type of class you're teaching, you will also only be paid half.

You will be considered an independent contractor with this company, so you will have to remember to save a portion of your paycheck every month so when tax season comes around, you're not caught off guard. Also note that you are self-employed, and you will be taxed at a higher rate.

Do you have to pay your own taxes for the money you earn from this company?

Hi Alexis, This is a bit of a tangent but I can't find the answer and you seem like you might have the experience to know. Can you get paid with a foreign (not American) bank account? I'm American but live in Asia (Cambodia now but soon moving to Taiwan it looks like) and will soon be applying for VIPKid. I'm on a short, rare visit to America now and in planning ahead could set up an account while here but would rather not if I don't have to as it would be more convenient to be paid into my local bank.

Thanks!
Kristel

Thanks for such a great positive note! I'm really needing summer work and this seems like it would fit very nicely.

Is there a phone number to call with questions. How do they schedule the class's can to 3-4 in row instead of spread out though the day?

Hi,

Is there a base pay regardless of class bookings?

Hi Mell, my name is Alexis, and I've been working for VIPKIDs for over a year. I assure you, 100%, that they will do nothing with your bank info except pay you. I've been a teacher and a practicum evaluator, the ways of evaluating teachers for bonuses has changed (for the better) and I have never ever had cause for concern about my account information. Ever. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions.

This is a paid political announcement if there ever were one.

I am selling the Brooklyn Briidge cheap. Any takers?

Hi all,

I have been teaching with VIPKID (not VIPKIDs) for the past 8 months, and I hope I can help put some of the fears/speculation to rest. I am a fully certified teacher in the U.S. who used to work at a well-respected international school in Thailand. I discovered VIPKID last summer, when I was looking for some extra work to fill my time. My experience was so good that it led me to quit my full-time job. And yes, I make just as much money working part-time for VIPKID as I did working full-time at my school in Thailand (around $1,500 USD/month).

In regards to the application process: yes, it is time-consuming. Yes, it can sometimes be frustrating when there are technical issues or when trying to communicate with a company that is 12 hours ahead of you. However, I can assure you the process is 100% safe, fair, and worth it in the end. And, in fact, I think the hiring process is what makes VIPKID stand apart from other online companies. VIPKID is committed to hiring experienced, qualified teachers so that parents are assured quality lessons.

VIPKID is a highly professional company, and to call it a "scam" or compare it to fake schools in China is just absurd. The numbers speak for themselves: over the past several months, VIPKID has experienced immense growth, recruiting thousands of new parents/students and hundreds of teachers (all of whom are happy clients/contractors). The company has also won several awards for innovation and teaching quality in education.

If you have any more questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me by email.

Hi Shelly,

I am currently applying and wondering if you have any suggestions for passing the practicum?

I've read all of the information and am currently watching the videos for pratice tips and suggestions.

Hopefully I get accepted

Kindest Regards,
Amanda

No passport needed...they also accept drivers licenses

Hello,

I had the same thoughts, but I still applied. I am at stage 5 in the application process (practicum stage).

After looking through their FB page and other videos, I see that they do have a diverse group of teachers.

I will let you know if I make it through the practicum stage.

All the best!

Be careful with and a little wary of VipKids, China. They require a video intro., short biography, and passport copy to even apply. The initial interview always goes super well. I think the Recruitment team is trying to fill their department queue to the maximum with portfolios, if this is true. It also takes time for them to evaluate your application, and their multiple means of communication (Skype, email, application account you have to set up) don't get back to you consistently sometimes: you have to check with both of the Recruitment and Ed. departments to be certain that their very short time limits for each stage don't elapse. I fell through the cracks the first time.

The Education Team that follows up on your approved application gives training. But this consists of watching 7-8 hours of videos and skim reading 2-3 hours of reading materials and previewing song tapes. They are, after all, a kindergarten and primary grade school-age school. You have three days for this; sometimes 2-and-a-half (in my case). The the Practicum 1 you have to be brisk (1-2 minutes average) per slide. You also have to memorize their teacher guidance found in the captions at the bottom of most slides (because they appear very small on the VIPKIDS online classroom slideview, as do most things that crowd the page), or be very well prepared to cover their material and their phonics presentation system with its standard letter name/sound system.

If you don't perform splendidly on Practicum 1 (by practicing the teaching unit they supply you for several hours) or, quite possibly, are not found in their projected demographics for preferred teachers at that time (check their YouTube videos for the kinds of people they hire), they may try to weed you out in Practicum 2 by adding a special method or additional teaching requirements not found in their training materials. They did it with me. Still they praised me, recognizing all my preparation and knowledge of their materials and methods, but said I failed. You have to get their strict criteria right 85-90% of the time!

Basically, this is an online school that takes lots of applicants, asks 10 hours of self-preparation out of them, and then hires apparently very few of the applicants - maybe just their targets.

Can you please provide information about the Practicum part of the interview process. I am thinking of applying to VIPKIDS. I have tons of experience teaching ESL to young students. If you could please describe in detail what is entailed to successfully pass the Practicum portion of the onboarding process. Thanks

Hi I am a teacher with VIPKID and also a recruiter. Calling us a scam is ridiculous. While there are major gripes that are justified in the application process which is being worked on and has even improved in the last couple months, I have not met a single teacher out of the 200 or so that we have that is unhappy with the job itself.

Just because you did not get accepted does not give you the right to call the company a scam. Where is the scam? We pay for training and the actual pay is the highest in the industry for online child teaching. We never ask for any money from the candidate. We pay for the equipment our teachers use. We even pay for the t shirt you are supposed to wear.

It is pretty damaging to label a great job a scam because you were not accepted. It would be appreciated if you either removed your post or justified it with facts.

Hey all,

Well I have had a different experience with VipKids. I applied in 11/2015 and was hired. I was afraid it was a scam as well. However, I received my first paycheck on time, wired to my bank account with no problems.

I've been working there for a month and so far, it's been pretty good. The only thing that has been disappointing is when trial students cancel at the last minute, you only get paid 50%. So, on a given day, I might have 4 major classes and two trials. If those two trials cancel, I only get paid half of the hourly rate for those, plus the full pay for the major classes whether they cancel or not. To be fair, that was all explained in the training.

Sometimes there are technical issues with the network connection, but that is to be expected, I guess.

It's been pretty fun for me personally, but I like hamming it up and being silly with little kids. I also like wearing pajamas to work and not having to commute. But if you are more low-key and prefer an older age group, this probably wouldn't be the school for you. Also, I have a graduate certificate and this didn't factor into their pay scale at all-- everything is based on an evaluation rubric that you don't get to see until after you take the evaluation. They don't seem to care as much about credentials as how entertaining you can be. That seems to be par for the course as far as my experiences teaching in Asian schools, though.

Hope this is helpful!

Vanessa

Hi Shelly, thanks for posting this. I was looking into applying with this company and found your post through a Google search. There doesn't seem to be many reviews from teachers who have worked for VIP Kids that I can find. I was hoping you could provide some more information about your experience? Did you interview in person or over Skype? We're you offered a position that you turned down? If not, what was their feedback to you? Could you elaborate more on why they need local teachers instead of foreign? Thank you again for posting this!!