I have recently interviewed with POD travel an teach and I have been offered a place. I did find the interview process and offices a little 'unprofessional'. I did not plan to go until September, however I have since been reading a lot of forums and reviews and the situation does not look good.
There is no solid evidence but they appear to be a reinvented company of English International, who were also based in Leeds. This company has some horrendous reviews and people are reporting some very bad experiences.
I can confirm with POD you have to pay for your own filght and visa. They only offer a tourist visa (it is illegal to work with this) or a cultural exchange visa (again this is a grey area and they either exist for US only but again you cannot work with one). You must have a work visa and you can only have one of these when an establishment has decided to employ you and sponsor your application. With POD you do not find out where you are working until youarrive in China, you can therefore not have one to enter the country.
POD offer 4000RMB as a salary (£400), and according to my research most schools pay a minimum of £1000 to the recruitment firm. Further to this, the more i look the more i find people are being paid a hell of a lot more than this out there.
I have found another firm that lool very reputable and offer triple the salary, place you before you get out there so you have the correct visa, they pay for your visa and help towards your flight!!
My advice, do not jump into this without doing extensve research, it is a long way from home to have so many 'unknown' entitites.
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