Next week I'm scheduled to sit down and talk with the second most erai guy in town about "how well the CIR's and ALT's abilities are being used." = 2
I saw a flier on my boss' desk for one of the new private ALT companies. = 2
2 + 2 = American corporate culture, welcome to Aomori!
I suspect I'm really there as part of an investigation into the cost and benefits of having JETs. The city department of education is now responsible for 6 JETs, and threfore reserving more than $200K every year for us (closer to 300 depending on who you ask). For a backwater like us, that's a hell of a lot that could perhaps be spent much smarter.
For example, if they were to opt for the private ALT companies, the pay is lower, and the contracts much more flexible. JETs need to be compensated for all overtime, and our salary agreement means that our employer covers all of our taxes from home and from japan. Our pre-tax salaries are nothing to cough at either. Especially considering we JETs usually have no experience. Add to that generous vacation packages and the travel expenses, since all JET travel expenses to and from japan and to the various "attendance required" conferences must also be paid by the contracting organization.
As for the private ALTs, none of that is true. They can often be hired on contracts much more beneficial to the employer, eliminating overtime pay and the tax arrangements. Quite often, these are former JETs meaning that they have experience, better language skills in Japanese, and they are actually in Japan already. Even if they aren't travel expenses may not be covered.
More importantly, the corporate JETs don't have the national government in their corner. If the BOE gets fed up with a lameass JET, they can't really show him or her the door. The government enforces our contracts to the letter, and is quite often the advocate of the JET (though hardly partial to JETs over their employers).
Private ALTs have none of that "baggage". They're actually much less protected than the regular japanese employees.
So, from an amoral standpoint, I don't really know how to defend the JET program. I don't even know if I should. If you read this post and have any thoughts, lemme know.
(update: no one seems to know the point of this meeting, but it looks more likely to be the opposite of what I thought. My boss thinks the deputy mayor wants to know how the city can best encourage our jets to recontract, and wants to know my thoughts.)
Technorati Tags: japan, jet program, ALT
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2 comments:
It's probably true that private ALT's would cost less, but then wouldn't the Federal government consequently give the municipalities less money to pay for them? I guess one benefit of having a mostly underused ALT taking up space in school offices is that JTE's are forced to interact with them on a regular basis and improve their English as a result. If Japanese teachers of English were better English speakers there would be no need for private ALTs or regular JETs. Then again, if the board wants to hire private ALT's to conduct the boring as Hell teacher seminars then I'm all for it!
thanks, always good to have a celebrity opinion. I'm pretty sure that the private companies do save a fair bit of money for the cities, can't say how much, or what the drawbacks are.
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