Notes from the General Manager: Looking East!

Chinese author Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2012, the first Chinese citizen to win the Nobel in its 111 year history. This is an extraordinary achievement for a man who was forced to leave school at 12 and work in the fields due to the Cultural Revolution. In many ways this reflects the journey that China has been on and continues on now. I know China-bashing is in vogue in certain parts of the world, but personally I remain awed by the continued transformation taking place there – from country almost literally starving to a world superpower in less than a generation. And they are doing it their own way, picking and choosing what they want to assimilate. While we may not always agree with their methods, you can’t but admire their single-minded ambition and undeniable results.

All eyes were turning East this week at Teachanywhere, as we won two major contracts for recruitment next year. Woo hoo! First we were awarded a large contract to recruit Australians and New Zealanders to Hong Kong for their state school EFL programmes for the 2013 school year, which is making our Australian and New Zealand offices ecstatic. Then we were announced as the strategic recruitment partner for Dulwich College Schools in China, which is a rapidly expanding group of English National Curriculum schools with a very long and prestigious history in the Independent school sector in the UK (Dulwich College in London was founded in 1619 and it’s a member of the Eton group of schools to give you an indication).  We are assisting in their recruitment drive starting with an interview event in November in London.

Both opportunities are so very different in terms of what they are looking for, but both provide dedicated teachers with an opportunity to experience the very best of China and Hong Kong by working for very reputable and established operations. Both are very specific in what they want – in Hong Kong they seek only Australian and New Zealand trained teachers with a specialism in Primary and Secondary English/EFL. At Dulwich, as you can imagine, they seek very experienced (minimum 3 years) British trained teachers who have a solid history teaching the best and brightest children with a UK curriculum ideally with independent school experience.

Don’t get me wrong, the Middle East team had their share of success as well – we are in the midst of a huge recruitment drive in London, Ireland, Sydney and Auckland for teachers to work in state schools in Abu Dhabi for January or September starts, and the Middle East team has a huge variety of immediate start vacancies in international schools around the region.

All in all it’s been a super week for the company. As the weather is turning bad in London (dismal, dark and rainy yesterday. Hello October!)  the climate within the company is bright and sunny.

All the best

Diane Jacoutot

General Manager, Teachanywhere.com

Ps. If you want to send in your CV or express your interest in any of the above here’s the emails:

Dulwich:  LMC@teachanywhere.com

Hong Kong: HongKong@teachanywhere.com