Founders

Kai En Corporate

Quality Control and Franchising

Staff at Kai En

Promotion Opportunities

Why teachers choose to work at Kai En

Kai En English Language Training Center is a joint venture language training school in Shanghai. Kai En was one of the first entrants into the language training market in Shanghai. The first Kai En center was established in 1996. The founders, Brian McCloskey and Ken Carroll were involved in managing language schools in Taiwan before deciding to move to Shanghai to establish Kai En. The name Kai En is a combination of their Chinese names.

 

Founders

Mr. McCloskey, who has a Masters in Education, worked as a teacher, teacher trainer and academic director in an ELS franchise school, where he worked closely with Mr. Ken Carroll, who was also a teacher trainer. They recognized in each other a passion for teaching English in China, a thorough knowledge of language acquisition theory, and a vision of how to provide a superior education opportunity to students, teachers, and managers.

Both Brian and Ken saw in Shanghai an opportunity to realize their vision. They could build a new school in which students would be treated with respect, encouraged to participate actively, and to have fun while improving their English fluency. It would also be a school in which teachers could learn teaching theories and techniques to facilitate their enthusiasm in the classroom.

The first Kai En English language training center opened in Shanghai on Wu Yi Road in November of 1996. The second school opened in downtown Shanghai on Zhe Jiang Road in June 2000. At this time Mr. Steve Williams joined the Kai En management team as a partner. Mr. Williams had worked at Kai En in various capacities for three years before being offered a partnership. His financial expertise and management ability while managing an MBA program have added great value to the operations of the Kai En management team.

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Kai En Corporate

In 1998 Kai En established a corporate training department delivering business English courses to the corporate sector. This department has grown steadily and has built a solid reputation among international companies in the Shanghai area.

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Quality Control and Franchising

 

Kai En has established a strong reputation for delivering high quality language training in the local language education market. In order to retain control of academic quality and protect the Kai En brand, the partners decided not to franchise with local partners. All Kai En centers are managed to ensure a focus on teaching quality. In 2004, Kai En opened a further two centers in Shanghai, in the Yangpu district and in central Pudong.

Although Kai En has experienced rapid growth in the past few years, we have managed to retain our focus on recruiting and retaining excellent employees. Indeed along the way we’ve kept on many of our original local staff. Several local staff members have been here from the beginning.

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Staff at Kai En

Currently we employ over 80 local staff in our four centers and in the corporate training department. We have between 35 and 40 full-time foreign teachers in our four centers. In addition, we have 10-15 full-time corporate trainers. As with many successful companies, one of our biggest difficulties is attracting, recruiting and retaining suitable staff. We believe in promoting from within for all company positions and therefore it is important that we hire the right people who can move up within the organization.

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Promotion Opportunities

We typically, promote teachers into junior training positions [eg. Senior Teacher] and ultimately into full teacher trainers. We also consider teachers for other positions within our organization. For example, teachers finishing a first year contract may wish to be promoted into the position of senior teacher, who conduct placement testing and student support services. Teachers also have further opportunities to get promoted into positions such as academic administrator, academic coordinator, corporate academic coordinator or corporate business development manager.

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Graham Jones joined Kai En as a teacher. He became a teacher trainer trainee after 8 months and was promoted to the position of teacher trainer after 12 months.

 

 

Why teachers choose to work at Kai En

We typically attract teachers who are interested in personal development. With our strong focus on academic standards and our investment in teacher training, we are attractive for teachers who are starting their teaching career and wish to have academic support to learn valuable teaching skills. Whether you are a teacher who has just qualified with a TEFL course and want to put the theory you have learned into practice or whether you have been teaching for a number of years and want to continue to develop your teaching skills, Kai En’s training program will motivate you to continue making improvements.

If you are interested in working in an environment where you will receive strong academic support and be able to attend regular seminars on teaching and participate in ongoing teacher development through interactive workshops, Kai En is the most suitable school you will find in Shanghai.

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Why students choose to study at Kai En

Students choose to study at Kai En over our competitors because of our reputation for delivering student centered classes with qualified and friendly teachers. Over the past decade Kai En has focused on our core competence, recruiting, training and retaining strong teachers and our reputation as the school with good teachers is one of the main reasons students join Kai En.

When a student enrolls in a Kai En course, he/she expects to have an interactive experience with the vast majority of the class dedicated to student interaction and practice. Our marketing message is clear to our customers - we don't use computers to teach English, we believe nothing can substitute for a strong teacher using a communicative teaching methodology.