British Council Reviews

Pros

The people
The reputation
The work/life balance

The British Council is a great place to work with a fantastic history. With flexi-time, generous annual leave packages and a range of opportunities for international travel, I would not hesitate to recommend it to people as a place of work.

Cons

Lack of opportunity for involvement in the strategic direction of the organisation and somethimes a distance between senior management and staff.

Advice to Senior Management

Improve internal communications processes to all employees.

Pros

I would say that for those who like to travel, are tough in character and resilience, this is a good place to be.

Cons

The long, unsociable hours and poor working conditions can make the work demoralising and uncomfortable for responsible, sensitive or inflexible perfectionists.

Advice to Senior Management

Respect all workers and give them praise and respect when due. it is only sensible to treat them well so that they are happy and giving of their best.

Pros

Pay and benefits are good compared to other institutions in the industry. There are lots of experienced teachers in the organisation to learn from.

Cons

The organisation tries to portray itself as a modern dynamic company. In reality, managers are inflexible, usually out of touch with what's going on on the front line and they are too busy ticking boxes to look good further up the chain.

Advice to Senior Management

You can still make money if we do things properly and give our customers a quality product. In addition, you will look even better.

Pros

Interesting Multinational exposure
Work Life Balance
Laidback culture
Central Location
Everyone's opinions count
Low Turnover
innovative organisation with constant new ideas to do things

Cons

not fast paced
indecisive senior management
too many contractors
hierarchial organisation
pay is not commercial
low promotional aspects
good if you want an international career

Pros

1. Job security (unless you...)

Cons

1. Boring environment try to raise pay

Advice to Senior Management

Bring change

Pros

BC Seoul is VERY well paid in the industry. There is huge amounts of overtime going and the base salary is very nice: up to 750 pounds sterling per month, 2.3 million won local per month, 830,000 rent allowance per month, medical insurance, flights, bonus and tax-free for the first two years. If you're not saving a thousand pounds a month there is something wrong. When you work it out it is like earning 50k in the UK.

Professionally, you will teach on a huge range of courses, thus giving you a beefy CV and coupled with the professional development (CELTYL / TYLEC, DELTA, PGCEi, MA) you'll come out on top. You'll also get very good support from your colleagues

The centre has very good management these days who are responsive and understanding in most cases.

As of now (September 2011) there is a positive atmosphere in all three centres in and around Seoul and people seem to work well together.

Good holiday allowance and from 2012 these can be taken flexibly.

Cons

That said, management seem to promote those already in their 'circle', though this may be a perception amongst the bitter rather than the truth.

Very, very long hours including early morning starts - 7am classes meaning you'll wake up at 5ish.

Advice to Senior Management

They need to remember how hard teachers work and reward with positive comments. Extra work done on top, such as materials writing, is often unrecognised and unpaid.

Pros

Support - as a teacher you never have to deal with complaints or difficult customers beyond an certain point.

Training - colleagues tell me it's not as good as other employers, such as IH - but it's paid.

Atmosphere - depending on the centre (e.g. not Martinez Campos), colleagues are friendly and helpful.

International opportunities - it's relatively easy to move around in the BC.

Career development - I haven't ranked this very highly, as their insistence on the DELTA exam means that some incapable people are promoted, while other very capable people are stuck in monotonous positions. However, if you have this exam, there are decent prospects.

Holidays - very long, about 6 - 9 weeks (although inflexible).

Cons

Rigid hierarchy - see above note on DELTA. There is little to no flexibility within jobs and promotions are very official while unfair.

False transparency - managers usually employ who they want (and know), and make the incredibly lengthy applications fit their foregone choice. This means a lot of time wasted in hopeless applications.

Antisocial timetables/bad contracts - the centres that offer decent timetables tend only to offer short contracts, and those that offer permanent contracts demand antisocial working hours (Friday, Saturday, or both, as well as evenings). Inequalities surrounding contracts are famous both within and outside the BC. Teachers are only registered as working part-time (with preparation time not included), which means they fall short of the threshold for a standard pension.

Managerial attitudes - due to the rigid hierarchy, and since middle managers come exclusively from teaching backgrounds, their attitude towards teachers can be painfully patronising (eliciting the obvious etc.).

Decreasing pay - pay rises always happen in retrospect, and don't meet the real rise in the cost of living, so teachers are proportionally poorer each year.

Advice to Senior Management

Increasingly obsessive attention to the bottom line means that staff are less loyal and committed.

Lengthy internal application process does little to make selection objective. Much time and energy is lost in employees fighting to earn competency points, which does not encourage commitment to the company as a whole, but rather to managers' own career progression.

Teachers are the ones who deal day-to-day with middle managers and know whether they are competent, professional, and discreet. Feedback should be 360º.

Pros

Prestigious name that is recognised/appreciated throughout the world for its traditional "English" professionalism and stiff upper lip

Cons

packed with jobbers who have risen to the dizzy heights of middle-management through absing themselves in the remote hope of being selected for promotion

Advice to Senior Management

Go back to grass roots. Start to think as the management of an independent private company where your ability to compete in the market place is not merely based upon the fact that you're financed by UK plc

Pros

People excellent to work with
Good opportunities in the future likely for permanent staff (though I was only a contractor)
Using leading edge technology
Took me back after travelling for several months, big plus.

Cons

I was only contracting, going permanent was not a easy option.
Money offered was slightly lower than the market rate

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Advice to Senior Management

Enjoyed working here for the 10 months or so I did. Great environment to work in and easy going.

Pros

the culture is friendly, very nice colleagues. Everyone is willing to help out when you bump into a problem. They are open to your ideas.

Cons

Working in providing administrative support can be boring. You may find doing the same stuff day after day and pretty monotonous.

Advice to Senior Management

I think in the british council every employee is pretty much engaged in their roles, the leadership within the organization is alright.