If you want to succeed in the online teaching industry, you need be working for more than one company. My next company is my favorite. This company is called Beijing Pathways English. This company is for people with experience working in the ESL industry, online or live classroom experience. Why? Because this style of teaching requires you to teach Chinese children in their school setting. Let me dive a little deeper into the company and my experience with them.

Who is Pathways English?

Pathways English is an online English education company located in Beijing. We have a reading oriented curriculum which is used in schools across China. Dual Teacher Class and teaching materials are all provided by the company.
Online teacher with a local teacher from a public primary school co-teach a 30-min class in a classroom setting.

Working hours:

If you want to be working full-time in this industry you need to fill up your hours anyway you can. For me, Pathways has given me an opportunity to work early mornings and earn more money than working with other companies. Pathways hours are  Monday—Friday 8 am-12 pm mid-day, 2 pm-5 pm Beijing time, UTC+8.

I live in Europe so I take advantage of 2-5p.m slots, that is 6-9a.m. However, if you live in the East Coast of America you work from 8am-12pm Beijing time as it’s your evening time 8p.m -12.Even better if you’re from the West coast as you will start from 5p.m -9p.m.

Pay

Pathways provides one of the highest paying online jobs. You earn $12 dollars for each 30 minute lesson, that’s $24 an hour. There are no step—up schemes or on-time bonuses.

You also get paid for training, which is $10 an hour.

If you don’t complete a class due to internet issues or other reasons you get deducted $12. If there is an urgent cancellation on the company’s side, you’ll get paid $6.

Payment is on or around the 15^th of each month, always allow Bank Holidays, the 15^th falling on a Friday or just general problems that occur. I have never had any issues getting paid. Payment is sent to your bank account.

My monthly earning with Pathways has been pretty decent, in December 2019 I earned $850 (747 euro) and in June 2020 I earned $984 (823 euro) and this is just from doing an extra 3 hours in the morning.

Students and lessons.

As I’ve mentioned, this is a dual teaching environment. You’re on a big screen in the students class and you have the local teacher in the class, helping you with class management (putting students in to groups, dealing with unruly children) and sometimes translation of words or instructions.

The lessons are reading lessons with activities throughout. It’s necessary teachers approach these lessons with confidence and preparation. This environment is the closest thing you’ll get to an in-person classroom. It will involve planning extra activities for the class, taking advantage of the large class to create group work, competitions and remembering to get as many students talking and practicing English.

The students range from 4 years of age to 12 years of age. The students are generally well-behaved and participate in class.

 The platform.

We use ClassIn to conduct the lessons. ClassIn is a multi-functional platform and I’m still learning new things about it. I upload my own reward systems, videos and activities.

Below is an example of the calendar in ClassIn.

 

  

What is Pathways English really like?

I have nothing but positive feedback about Pathways. We are a small but developing team. There is constant support throughout the semester. We conduct trainings in small groups, to reflect about certain lesson plans and how we can improve our teaching styles or give ideas on warm-up games. The Beijing team is friendly and are always on hand to solve problems and answer questions. You need to have a WeChat account, as this is the main mode of communication, for I.T issues or scheduling issues.

This online company cares about its teachers, just this summer I received a questionnaire about the lessons and what the company can do to improve lessons.

 The requirements for Pathways English:

Native English Speakers, holders of US, Can, the UK, AU, NZ, SA passports ONLY!!!
2+ years of teaching experience and ESL certificates
Note: Stable schedules from teachers are required.

*Pathways next semester is starting in September until February. I didn’t get this job by applying through the usual TEFL job sites, I was lucky to have been found by my LinkedIn profile and asked to an interview. Pathways don’t have a direct website, so if you have a LinkedIn profile add Pathways English to keep an eye out for more opportunities.

Interested in working in China and want to find out more? Our UK agency ensures that schools are up to top standard and provides an additional layer of protection and reassurance when negotiating issues with your Chinese school. To find out the latest vetted and quality assessed top providers in China check out nooneliterecruitment.com/teach-english-in-china.