Did you know that in China alone, an estimated 8 million students are learning English online?
And with the aftermath of coronavirus, more and more Chinese students are switching to online learning to stay stimulated during school shutdowns. This means the opportunities for online teaching are growing too!
It makes sense, then, that demand for online English tutors is at an all-time high.
But job availability is just one factor that has influenced thousands of English speakers to teach Chinese students online.
Maybe you’re keen to start working from home now that everyone is practicing social distancing. Or you need a reliable, stress-free side hustle. Or you want to get an idea of what teaching English is like before you commit to moving to a foreign country.
Whatever your reasons, teaching English online can be a rewarding and versatile career opportunity. And, the icing on the cake? Many educators find they love teaching their online lessons and having the chance to engage with so many eager students.
- Seize unique opportunities
- Find your work-life balance
- Boost your professional skills
- Work with great companies
- Have fun at work!
Seize unique opportunities
Before the recent worldwide shift to online learning in response to the Corona pandemic, there has been a boom in foreigners teaching Chinese children online over the past few years and the sector is expected to keep growing.
That means online English teachers are in high demand and have access to some unique working conditions, such as being able to:
Find a job quickly
There are thousands of online English teaching job opportunities being offered at a growing number of companies . That means you can find a job relatively quickly since the demand is there!
To meet the requirements of China’s policy for online teachers, you need a bachelor’s degree, a 120-hour TEFL course, and a criminal background check.
But, if you have these three things, the hiring process for online teachers can move very fast.
Once you successfully apply for an online teaching job, you’ll be earning money within days, rather than weeks.
Become self-employed if you’re currently out of work
If you were recently laid off or out of work due to global social distancing measures, this is a great opportunity for you to make a decent income and still be able to support yourself during these unprecedented times.
Everyone is looking for alternate ways to make money online while they navigate these changes.
With an online teaching job, you’ll be able to continue to work even if you’re self-isolating or in quarantine.
Choose your own work hours
Online teaching contracts often come with flexible working hours.
As a teacher, this gives you a frankly incredible amount of freedom to choose when you want to work and how much you want to earn each month. But, more on this in the next section.?
Find your work-life balance
Teaching remotely will obviously mean you can enjoy the benefits of working from home. But what about the benefits of being able to choose your schedule?
Most people’s work-life balance leaves them either working too much or earning too little. But becoming an online ESL teacher is a neat solution to both of these problems.
As an online English tutor for Chinese students, your lessons will run on Chinese time. This means being available to teach when Chinese kids get home from school, whatever time of day that is where you live.
Naturally, you might have to make some early starts to factor in the time difference. But, as long as you’re available to teach during peak-time slots, how much you teach is up to you.
This means you can teach as many days or as many hours as you want per week. And, don’t forget, most online classes involve minimal lesson prep and no marking. So, your working hours are simply the hours you teach.
Choosing your hours also means choosing how much you earn each month.
Hourly rates can be generous, with companies like GoGo Kid paying up to 25$ an hour for home-based online English teachers. Plus, many companies let teachers choose whether they want to be paid monthly or bi-monthly.
Put together, and this makes being an English teacher online the perfect job to fit around your life, whether you’re looking for a full-time gig or a side hustle.
Boost your professional skills
Teaching online involves the same challenges and rewards as teaching in the classroom. To be successful in both contexts, you’ll need a unique combination of organization, knowledge, and the ability to connect with others.
And you’ll need to develop key soft-skills to get your message across to your students and make learning happen.
According to LinkedIn, the most in-demand soft skills of 2020 are:
- Creativity
- Persuasion
- Collaboration
- Adaptability
- Emotional Intelligence
All these skills you’ll put to use in the classroom daily and can add to your resume later.
If you’re trying to build up your resumé (for education jobs or to work in other fields), teaching English will equip you with the soft and hard skills that are in demand in the modern workplace.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg! Online English teaching in China will add intercultural experience and tech skills to your CV.
You could gain experience working with kids or teaching business English to adults. You could experiment with creating teaching materials. Some teachers even use their comfort in front of the camera to transition into vlogging.
So, however long you plan to do it for, working as an online English teacher in China means developing professional skills that will last long into your future.
Work with great companies
In the past few years, the online English language tutoring market has expanded rapidly in China. And, as education companies have grown, so have their reputations, internationally and online.
In 2020 there are some genuinely great companies hiring online English tutors for Chinese students.
For example, kids education company GoGoKid is among the top online English teaching companies around. The benefits of working at GoGoKid include great pay, flexible hours and lesson plans provided.
But that’s just one example of the many companies you could become an online English tutor for Chinese students with. As you start your job search, you’ll find there are a vast number of companies to choose from!
So when looking for online teaching jobs, do your research. There will be plenty of online reviews from individual teachers and international experts in the field to help you choose a great company to work for.
It’s fun!
Finally, who doesn’t want to do a job they enjoy?
Many educators love teaching English online. In fact, having fun is practically a job requirement!
At around 25 minutes, most online lessons are short and focused on communication. Classes for kids often focus on learning games, songs and conversation.
Beyond making learning fun, teaching online can also be enriching. The cultural exchange that happens during online English lessons in China is unique.
Without even leaving your home, you’ll learn all kinds of details about life in China for your students. And you’ll get to share your culture too.
On top of this, you’ll experience all the joys traditional teaching has to offer. The rewards of connecting with others and seeing students make progress with your help are hard to match, whether you’re online or in a real-life classroom.
That’s why thousands of teachers across the US, Canada and the rest of the world log on to teach students in China every day!
And there are plenty more online teaching jobs in China available. So, what are you waiting for? Try it out for yourself and enjoy the best work-life balance and a super fulfilling career!
