Frequently Asked Questions

No. Question Answer

1. 3 month business visa with company upon entry

2. Degree or higher (we recommend notorising your documents in Vietnam)
3. Teaching Certificate (IMPORTANT: you must bring your original Degree and TEFL certificates with
you)
What documents do I need
1 4. Background check from your local authority
to work for your company?
5. Health Check
Please note that the background check needs to be within the last 6 months of date of the work permit
application so only apply for this 4-6 weeks prior to arriving in Vietnam.
Health check must be done in Vietnam by an independant hospital approved by the Vietnamese authority.
1. Visa application and Visa extension
2. Airport pickup
3. Accommodation
4. Training
2 What do you assist with?
5. Work Permit and Residency Application
6. Continuing Support
7. Insurance claims

1. Confirmation of agreeing to visa assistance

3 Visa Application
4 Accommodation
5 Training
6 Work Permit
What are the benefits of As stated clearly in the offer letter, you will not be able to go on a full salary rate without submitting the
7 having a work permit and documents for work permit application.
residency card?
2. Flight details
3. Scanned image of passport page with photo and personal details
These details are needed 2-3 weeks prior to teacher arriving in Vietnam.
4. You will need $50 and 2xpassport photos (4x6) for the airport
5. The remaining fee (currently $50, may change) is paid by Mayor and deducted from the first or second
wage.
Fully furnished house shared between 4-5 ESL teachers with private bedroom and shared common
facilities such as kitchen, living room and dining room (Many but not all have private bathroom). Rent,
internet, cable TV and utility included. Electricity is shared between teachers and deducted from salary on
a monthly basis.
Assist with temporary stay registration, a legal requirement in Vietnam.
1-2 weeks introduction training unpaid.
Training is continuous through regular observations and feedback, other support is available as needed.
1. Assist with notarisation, legalisation and translation of documents (UK residents must get their
documents notarised before leaving the UK)
2. Hospital appointment for health check
3. Assist with applying for Vietnamese background check
4. Work permit application
5. Residency application
1. Financial: it costs less to get the temporary residency card than having to reapply, extend or go on visa
runs every 3 months (approximately $175 per time)
Full process of work permit application cost approximately $300 inluding notarising and legalising
documents.
Full process of residency card cost approximately $150.
2. Time: having the work permit and residency card will enable you to live, work and enter Vietnam freely
for a minimum of a year.
3. Law: it is a legal requirement in Vietnam to have if you want to live and work here for longer than 3
months. It allows you to apply for a Vietnamese driving license to legally operates vehicles such as
scooter/moped and car and be covered for insurance purposes.

1. Make own arrangement for accommodation at the start of employment

2. Notify company of address, this will be taken as your permament location when assigning your teaching
location
In event that you move house, the company will not be able to change your teaching location due to this
What if I would like to live
8 nor will we be able to provide any travel compensation should the location be more than 10km radius from
in my own accommodation?
your place of work.
3. The accommodation must be in the areas assigned by the company.
4. Housing allowance will start after the training period and is paid on a monthly basis along with monthly
salary.

You are likely to teach offsite (not at the company).

We will try our best to ensure that you are at one location for a full shift to ensure time efficiency.
9 Where will I be teaching?
We will try pur best to ensure your teaching location is within a 10km radius of your accommodation.
Anything above, you will receive travel compensation for.

We offer classes with a variety of levels, but you will be assigned to one or two levels only. We always try
our best to ensure teachers are teaching the level they enjoy and feel comfortable teaching. We decide this
based on a number of factors:
What level will I be
10 1. Your preference
teaching?
2. Your experience
3. The level you performed best during training
4. Customer demand in your location
 This again depends on where you will be teaching.
For offsite public schools (the majority of available work) or colleges, the class size are usually between
How many students per 35-40 students.
11
class? For university, it can vary from a lecture hall of hundreds to group sessions of 15 students.
Classes at our international school or centre are usually around 20 students.
Business classes are usually around 15-20 students.
Aside from the ongoing support and assistance from your academic coordinator (each school/course has
an academic coordinator assigned to it, they are the people who have been working closely with the clients
from the start and know the students' level, customer expectation and curriculum very well), you will also
What facilities do I have to
12 have other materials such as books, syllabus, teaching tools such as flash cars, CDs, laptop, games and
support me?
toys to help you.
All kindergarten, primary school and low English level classes will also have a teaching assistance in the
class to support you.

Because we have a variety of classes with students of different levels and learning objectives, we also use
a variety of sources to adapt to our customers.
What books or materials do Of course each course will have a set curriculum and even a syllabus for teachers to follow which can be
13
you use to teach? as details as listing the content and objective of each lesson.
Our teachers would then based on these information and plan a lesson with the type of activies and
methods they would use to deliver the content and help students reach the objective set out in the syllabus.

The 24 paid holidays are all assigned by the company, about half of those days are national holidays such
as Tet (Lunar New Year), the rest are academic holidays such as end of term.
Can I take the paid holidays
14 If you have other dates when you would like to take holidays, you need to put through a request in writing
when I want?
at least a month in advance. Even then, it is subject to approval by your manager and will be classed as
unpaid holiday.

After signing this contract, the teacher must work for the company for a minimum of 6 months. If either
party named in this contract chooses to cancel this agreement they must:
Have a reasonable reason for ending before the end of their contract.
Have committed to a minimum of 6 months since the date of the signing of the contract.
Give the other party at least 30 days notification.
What happens if I break my
15 If, in any case, the teacher breaks their minimum of 6 months commitment and cannot give at least 30
contract?
days notification and must leave before the date agreed, the company has the right to deduct
1,000,000VND for each remaining day of the notification period.
The company also has the right to deduct any fees relating to fulfilling the contract such as health
insurance.

The health insurance with the company covers for treatment of illnesses or accidental injuries (please note
What does the health that if you are the driver and do not have a license you will not be covered on any insurance).
16 insurance policy cover me The cover does not include general checkups.
for? It should be noted however, that those types of services are generally very cheap in Vietnam.
For more details, please refer to the health insurance policy attached.

The salary is reviewed at the end of each term, namely in January and June and it is entire based on your
performance.
How we measure your performance is based on a number of factors:
1. Feedbacks from the customer
How and when is my salary
17 2. Feedbacks from your colleagues (academic coordinators and teachers)
reviewed?
3. Re-enrollment rate (how many classes continue to study with you after the end of term)
4. Observation reports
5. Any complaints or disciplinary actions prior to review
6. Recommendation from deputy chief and quality manager

1. Gathering of all required evidence: feedbacks from customers and collegues, re-enrollment rate, reports
including from observation and disciplinary actions.
2. Taking into account recommendations from deputy chief and quality manager
3. Academic manager produce a proposal for salary increase, including recommendation of increase and
evidence to back up this proposal to board of management (CEO and share holders)
What is the pay rise
18 4. The proposal will be looked at and reply with the following response within a week:
procedure?
* Accepted: proposal has been accepted and can be implement as of the following month.
*Decline: proposal declined and no changes can be made, next proposal must be at least a month from this
date (this case is extremely rare).
*Recommendation: the board will give recommendation on what they think the increase should be
(usually less than the academic manager's proposal but more than the inital salary) and why.

During the probation period, your salary is at 80% of the quoted salary, it means that during this time, to
review your performance and suitability for the position, your salary is less than the quoted amount on
Will I get back the 20% of
your offer because you have not yet been offer the official employment contract and have yet to become
19 my salary during the
an offical employee of the company.
probation period?
It does not mean that we have kept 20% of your salary as deposit but more that you are not entitle to full
pay until you have passed your probation period.

The cost of living in Vietnam can be very low. If you eat local food and drink local beer you will find you
can live off 2 million ($87) a week comfortably. The average wage in HCMC for locals is $150 a month.
Most people when they first get to VN will spend more than this as they get to know where they can eat
How much should money
20 and drink cheaply. Other than that it depends on lifestyle choices, such as how often and where people
should I bring with me?
socialise. We would recommend bringing enough money to get through the first two months to be safe and
give yourself a comfortable buffer. If you wish to rent a motorbike straight away, the cost is between 1-1.5
million a month.
 Most things can be bought in VN. Please bear in mind, although you can buy western size clothing, it is
harder to find and will cost more. We require men to wear shirt, tie, smart trousers and closed shoes. For
21 What should I bring? woman teaching we require them to dress smartly, in either long trousers or a dress/skirt below the knee
and blouse that covers the shoulders. Footwear for woman can smart shoes or sandals with at least a back
or ankle strap (not flip flops). A laptop is useful but not essential as we have computers in the office for
teachers to prepare lesson plans on.
Full time teachers are contracted up to 25 hours a week. In addition to teaching hours we schedule teachers
for Admin hours. This is time we give to complete your lesson plans. You do not have to come into the
20 Working week? office and if you have already completed your lesson plans you can use this time however you want. The
only requirement we have is that during these hours you are on call, so you have to be contactable and
available if needed to teach. Sample schedules will be emailed to all succesful applicants.
Teachers are paid on the 15th of every month for everything worked in the previous calendar month, all
bonuses and allowances are also paid at this time. The 100 hours bonus: many teachers do not get
scheduled for 25 hours a week, this bonus is there to reward those teachers who are willing to push for
19 Bonuses and Pay? more. The subbing bonus: this bonus is to reward those teachers who do 8 or more hours last minute
subbing in a calendar month. We also pay over-time for all teachering hours over 100 and for any subbing
with less than 12 hours notice. The prices you're quoted in the offer are after tax, Mayor pays all tax for
you.