Is VIPKid A Scam? An Honest Review [UPDATED]

VIPKid is a digital education platform for recruiting teachers from America And Canada to teach English as a second language to children aged 4-12 years old in all parts of China and 63 more nations across the globe in real time full Language immersion online. 

They are a Global Educational Technology Company with a mission statement to inspire & empower every child to learn the English Language. VIPKid was founded in 2013 and launched the following year in 2014 and are now the leading EDtech startup in China.

They are a large organisation with over half a million students and 60,000 teachers on their books.  

And in 2018 VIPKid partnered with highly esteemed institutions in the field of education including Oxford University Press and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to develop a fully comprehensive Pre K 12 program. 

Key Investors in the business include Northern light Venture, Sequoia Capital and, although I can't confirm I suspect Alibaba is a key investor too - (their website is registered by Alibaba cloud computing!). 

A Teachers Salary is advertised as up to $22/hr depending upon ability and experience. Most Teachers fall in the $15-$20 hr category. I'll talk more about the financial aspect later...

Keep reading!. 

If you don't meet the requirements listed don't waste your time applying to be an English Teacher with VIPKid. A mere ESL certificate and the ability to speak the language is just not enough!. 

VIPKid are seeking qualified and educated professionals that can deliver a high quality learning experience for their students. 

• Must Have at least an undergraduate degree. It is not an Absolute must that your degree is in the field of teaching or the English language, which is naturally preferred, any field is suffice. 
• Must Have "some" experience in teaching children of K 12 in the USA or Canada. It is not stated how much "some" experience is. 
• If you are accepted you have to be ready to sign a 6 month contract which is renewable upon agreement by both parties.

VIPKids has a minimum technology requirement that you MUST meet before they can consider offering employment to you. 

The reason for this being is because you will be teaching online and a fast up to date computer will help you to deliver a quality lesson. Nothing worse than you wasting their student's (read: customer's) time with dated and failing technology that is just not up to speed. 

• Must have a Laptop or desktop computer. Tablet or smart phone not accepted. Period!. 
• Must run on at least windows 7 or higher For an Apple  Mac OS 10.8x. 
• 4gb RAM minimum with intel i3 processor or greater.
• Must have a webcam and microphone 
• DSL connection 20MBPS. - wired not wifi!.

If you have bought a laptop or desktop within the past couple of years you should be smashing all of those requirements. Speed of 20Mbps should be easily available. 

Thinking of teaching and travelling at the same time...keep reading. I'll talk a little about that later and my recommendations. 

This is where it can get a bit awkward. As I mentioned earlier this is a Chinese company seeking American And Canadian Teachers. 

There is the time difference thing going on. Depending on which part of the US you are from there can be 12 hours and more time difference. 

Peak hours, typically after school hours are stated as 6pm and 10pm Bejing time week days. This going to be 6am to 10am State side. 

Weekend Peak hours are stated as 9am to 10pm which is 9pm through to 10 am on the weekends. 

Take note while in US clocks change for summer time and winter time, here in Asia this does not happen. There will be a further hour of difference to the times stated. 

See the awkwardness?. If you can work around that - great. 

It is required and expected that you work at least 7.5hrs a week, some of which will be during those peak hours, but you do have the flexibility to work as much or as little as you wish during those hours. 

But once you are established with VIPKid as a regular teacher you can, if you wish, make your money go that bit further by living and teaching much closer to China. 

I'll talk a little about this later - I have lived in South East Of Asia for nearly 10 Years now and some countries you will have to avoid - internet speed just doesn't cut it in some countries in the region. 

Firstly and foremostly as a teacher with VIPKid you are classified as an independent contractor and are responsible for your own taxes. 

Your pay is $7 - $9 for a 30 min class and $14 -$22 for an hour long class. There are some incentivised bonuses such complete 45 classes in a single payment period and you can get a $1 bonus per class - a nice $45 extra. 

You also get a $1 bonus per class just for showing up - even in the event that you show up and the student doesn't!. 

Your payment is direct to your bank paid on the 10th to 15th day of each calendar month. 

Yes, you can earn up to $22 and hour as a teacher with VIPKid.

If you work, establish yourself with the company and obtain a regular client (student) list 20 to 30 hours a week is possible assuming the time difference is not a problem for you. This saying $2,500 USD a month working from the comfort of your home is possible. 

As a work from home online teacher - what is to limit you to working with one company and fill out your hours with others? 

Also, perhaps the more interesting part, what is to limit you to your location? 

It is not easy to land a job with VIPkid the application process, in my opinion is pretty normal for a world class edtech organisation and I would expect quite a process to make sure that not every Tom, Dick and Harry makes it and the company gets only the best. 

• Send In Your CV (resume!) So that VIPKid can screen and check for your qualifications and teaching experience. 

• Record a demonstration lesson of 30 min or schedule a 30min demo lesson/session with them to show case your teaching talents to a specialist in house recruiter. (be prepared for an adult to act like a 5 year old kid!)

• Watch some training videos to learn about the company, and what is expected of teachers and the curriculum. 

• Get involved with a practice session teaching a class alongside another teacher. 

• Complete some background checks, send them some documents and sign your contract.  

If you have made it to that last step - congrats - you are a VIPKid teacher. It is required that you schedule your classes and availability 2 weeks in advance and if you are going to miss one - you still have to tell them 2 weeks in advance. 

That last bit - a bit strong for some. How can you schedule in being sick 2 weeks in advance?. It is something that you will have to live with.

I suspect that once you have an established relationship with them and are well liked by the students, parents and the company you can come to an understanding at short notice particularly when you get hit by the flu or something!. 

As it is with everything and anything else in life - nothing is perfect. I was able to dig up a few complaints and in particular a friend that does work for them and has done so for a quite a few years was able to give me some inside information. 

• Teacher support is pretty poor and can take their time. 

• Not really that understanding when you need to cancel a class at short notice due to a personal emergency. 

•  Tech support can interrupt classes with feed back (which can be annoying as well as distracting)

• Lesson reviews can be done by "Pushy Parents*" that understand zero English and a lot of confusion occurs due to poor translations and unjustified bad ratings can occur (which can affect your hire-ability)

• Can be some errors when it comes to getting paid (this is rare and quickly fixed though!).

*Pushy Parents an aspect of the culture is the parents often see themselves in their kids and often ride them hard to over achieve and be fantastic at...everything! Like bragging rights through what their child can do "my kid can xyz"

If the child's English is not perfect, it is obviously the teachers fault..despite the parent not understanding a single word of English. 

As part of Chinese as Asian wide culture, the parent will never be seen as being wrong as the company will do everything to ensure the parent does not lose face. Losing face is a HUGE part of the culture over here.  

No, VIPKid is not a scam. It is one of the top edtech companies worldwide with huge businesses investing into the company. 

An online education institution valued at over $3bn with 60,000 teachers and 500,000 students can not be a scam. 

VIPKids is 100% legit. Once you pass the application process you can work and be confident that you will be paid for the classes that you have given. 

If you are a teacher, and in particular an adept and gifted language teacher and wish for less time at school and more at home time then VIPKid could be ideal for you. 

Can you make a career out of it? Maybe, $22 an hour all depends on your location. $22 is worth a lot more in Thailand, Vietnam and of course China.

Given the cheaper cost of living you can easily say it is worth $44 and hour equivalent state side. 

If you wish for a year out or career break to go travelling. Then by all means teach and Travel. Being in Asia will allow you to work in a time zone much closer to what it is in China. 

As far a high quality fast internet goes - Viet Nam (where I am now) is world class. Thailand is great too. To be avoided - Malaysia*, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Phillipines and Myanmar all have horribly slow internet. 

*Special exception for Penang island and the CAT co-working centre at the bottom of Lebu China in GeorgeTown - the only place on the whole island where you can enjoy fast internet uninterrupted. 

Given the peak hours, it can very much be a enjoy your day and work in the evenings and weekend mornings sort of thing.