In January 2010 I approached the Overseas Visitors Club (OVC) in South Africa with the intention of teaching English in Thailand. The reason I had chosen to work through them was their good reputation in South Africa and the fact that they offered a programme for Non-Degree Holders (I have a diploma). My mind was set, I had done a lot of research online via blog sites and forums and was feeling very confident. Unfortunately, the agent I was working through at our local OVC branch was quite hopeless and didn't show any excitement or enthusiasm in her job at all. Her bad attitude didn't deter me and certainly wasn't going to keep me from going.
Before I paid for the programme fee, the course fee and my flights I had already received my Final Briefing that I noticed had been compiled by a company called Teach Travel Asia (TTA). It was at this point that I was informed that TTA provide the programme to the OVC who sell it on their behalf. I felt even more confident now as this was a company based in Thailand and therefore they would be offering the best service to me. TTA is owned and run by a Mr. Kevin Meldau who is a South African operating in Thailand. The Final Briefing was signed off by him and we were encouraged to look to him as a "father figure" upon our arrival as he would be able to help us with anything we needed - including giving us a temporary savings account!
Up until 3 days before I was due to leave, I was still following OVC's recommendation that R8000 would be enough spending money to take with me to Thailand. However, just days before my departure they informed me that this amount should be increased to R12000. I had sent an email the week before asking my agent to confirm that R8000 would be enough as I hadn't been to Thailand before and was trying to be as organised as possible. So the email stating R12000 came as quite a surprise as it was a big difference and a lot more money that I hadn't budgeted for. This was accompanied by an updated Final Briefing which had many changes to it compared to the first one I had been working with. I had been doubting my decision on selling my car, but now was very grateful as I had the money available - it was meant to be saved away for my return to SA!!!
I was one of a group of 32 South Africans who arrived in Bangkok to commence a 4 week TEFL course arranged by TTA in mid-March 2010. Not even 2 days into the course I started to realise that there were many discrepancies regarding the programme:
We had arrived at the begining of Thailand's main school holiday which is 2 months long. This meant that after the course we would have to find a temporary job or travel around BUT we had only been told to bring 1 months spending money and not 3! (as we assumed we would be paid in arrears). Many schools are closed completely over the holidays and therefore weren't available to do interviews.
The amount of spending money recommended to each applicant varied quite considerably. Some people had been told half the amount to what I had and some had been told double.
Clothing - my agent was no help at all regarding the dress code for a teacher in Thailand so after some extensive research on Thailand's teaching forums I was able to form a vague idea. I was worried about finding clothing in Thailand that would fit me so I bought many shirts and cotton items before leaving. After many discussions in our class, our lecturers informed us of the actual dress code for teachers in Thailand and most of the class had been way off the mark. Our limited spending money now had to be stretched to buy clothing as well.
As mentioned I had applied and paid for the Non-Degree holders programme. The agency we were all assigned to by TTA, had a website that we all needed to register with and compile an online CV. After a couple of days we were called in and spoken to one-on-one with the agency director who informed us that he'd "improved" our CV's and added a Bachelors Degree from City University (doesn't exist!). This, we were told, would increase our chances of getting teaching jobs as due to the large number of us, he was going to have a problem finding us all jobs. I was horrified as this constituted fraud. He had not only logged on to our personal CV's, but 'enhanced' them with false information. A few of us asked for these bogus degrees to be removed from our CV's but he refused, saying we had to remove them ourselves. As I had specifically applied for a 'non-degree holders' programme, this was not what I had applied for and so I removed it from my CV.
I emailed my agents after 3 weeks into the course, and I specifically outlined each issue that had arisen as well as the conflicting stories we had all received from our respective agencies. I didn't receive any response. This was when I re-read the Indemnity Form I was pressurised to sign. It appeared that once we were in Thailand, OVC were no longer responsible for any issues arising regarding our programme. We now had to deal with Mr Kevin Meldau. However he wasn't available for three weeks to help us or answer any of our queries as he was out of the country. Good support system we had!
Another thing that added salt to the wounds was the fact that we were receiving marketing emails from OVC, advertising places available for the April intake of applicants - 60 positions were still available. So after all of our complaints, they still didn't see the need to relook at the programme.
A meeting was arranged with Kevin and we demanded an explanation. After an hour of Kevin skirting around and side-stepping the issues we raised with him, we left the meeting extremely unsatisfied with none of our questions and concerns resolved . He manipulated his words and was always very careful to not mention the "fake" degrees and he acted as though he knew nothing about them. He blamed the OVC for most of the other issues, including the spending money, the clothing and why we weren't informed of the holiday. This to me, wasn't good enough!
The fourth week of our course was meant to be the week in which we all graduated and received our certificates. This didn't happen. The agency blamed the political unrest in Bangkok as the reason why we couldn't graduate as all the schools were closed and we couldn't do any practicals. This was ridiculous, as we knew of other South Africans who were teaching and their schools were operating as normal. This was mid-April. It is now towards the end of July and I still haven't received this certificate.
The TEFL course which we were lead to believe was accredited by the American Peace Corps and would be internationally recognised was very misleading. The accreditation wasn't correct either, the agency were only using a textbook as reference which was compiled by American Peace Corps. Our certificate wouldn't mention American Peace Corps anywhere. Neither the agency nor Kevin Meldau would give us a proper explanation as to the recognition of our TEFL course. The agency eventually explained to us that there is no actual monitoring authority in the world for TEFL, meaning that anyone could offer the course and call it TEFL. Without a degree, the course wouldn't mean much. Don't get me wrong, I'm well aware of the TEFL/TESL/TESOL courses available which are internationally recognised and carry a very good reputation. We were however, doing a course which wasn't worth anything.
To this day I have not received any explanation, apology or acceptance of responsibility for my experiences in Thailand from either the OVC or Teach Travel Asia. Each time I brought something to the attention of the OVC, I would either not receive a response or would be told to contact Kevin Meldau with my issues. Now I paid the OVC directly, the only time I came into contact with TTA was during that meeting with Kevin, 3 weeks into the course, why should I direct my problems to a man who hasn't even been in email contact with me? My agent notified me that the OVC Program Manager, Willie van Loggerenberg, would be in Thailand upon my arrival in Bangkok. What I found interesting was that this was the first time an OVC representative had been to Bangkok to see what was happening and how the program was run, this was according to Willie himself. How can a company with the reputation it has, be so lackadaisical about a program as expensive as this one. The fact that almost a quarter of the group had returned to South Africa within 4 weeks of ending the course says a lot. These figures do not say much for the service that should have been offered.
I have subsequently been onto the OVC website and the following extract is contained under the Thailand programme advertised on their homepage: "October departures. OVC has over 100 positions available. No degree needed. If want to step outside of your world and truly experience something fantastic, this is an experience of a lifetime. You need to have a degree and be 21 to 40 years old. A good level of English is essential."
I don't know whether it is a mistake on their part, but this states that no degree is needed, then a degree is needed. It must be a typo.
After my experiences in dealing with the OVC and TTA, I would not trust anything they say.
To anyone who is interested in teaching English in Thailand, degree holder or not, I would recommend not working through an agency and rather get to Thailand and approach the schools directly. Regarding the TESL courses, there are many highly regarded courses on offer and some schools will only recruit teachers possessing these certificates.
