For Beginngers - Marketing Assistant American Learning Institute Employee Review

Great team to work with. Most planning done for you.

Schedule broken, so hours limited.

The staff and other teachers here generally have a positive attitude. The owner is elusive but nice. They write your lesson plans for you, which saves a LOT of time. The school is generally very laid back.

The pay is dismal for the industry. $18 an hour (I've heard they've gone down to $17) and no sick pay. You also have three weeks off in the summer and 5 in the winter with 0 (yes, zero) pay. The company cares little for teacher retention. Established teachers are routinely looked over in order to accommodate new-comers (having their schedules changed for a new hire; being passed over for extra hours for another very-recent hire; and these are just what happened to other teachers with excellent backgrounds/skills). Bonuses have also disappeared as of 2016. Promotions and opportunities for additional work in the office seem to depend purely on connections to a sole person or two, rather than on experience or seniority. You'll have to do a lot of grading on your own time, without being paid an additional stipend (as other area schools do). Having the school write the lesson plans for you also means that you have little room to deviate, and I frequently found that the material mismatched the ability of the students (there was little recourse in this case). The course books change every trimester, so instructors start from scratch every trimester. FINALLY, since this is a matter of public record, the company is under review by ACCET, its accreditation agency. The decision is publicly available online and you can read why on the agency's web site. If ALI loses its accreditation, kiss this job good-bye.