Online English language firm picks PH as recruitment hub

CHINESE firm 51Talk, which claims to be the biggest company offering online English language teaching, has chosen the Philippines as its recruitment hub due to the country’s large and skilled talent pool.

This is according to 51Talk co- founder Sue Ting, who said that Filipinos are well-equipped to teach English to their Chinese clients. Ting was in the country recently with 51Talk CEO and cofounder John Huang, who spoke about their company’s search for English teachers online.

“Filipinos are extremely passionate and very familiar with Western culture, making them the perfect choice to be English language teachers for Chinese students,” Ting said.

Thanks to globalization, the executives said English has transitioned to being one of the world’s top languages, triggering the demand for English teachers around the world in the process. But China, which has risen in the world stage due to its booming economy, has found its progress impeded by the inability to communicate well in English, according to 51Talk.

Though English classes have grown more popular around China, this has not provided students there enough skills to work with or hold conversations with other English speakers. This problem was an issue that Huang and Ting wanted to address when they put up 51Talk, which seeks to provide students with an immersive one-on-one lesson with a foreign teacher.

The company provides teachers and students with an online learning platform, which allows both students and teachers to create their own schedule that matches any of their scheduling needs.

- vides both parties with the freedom to choose. By providing professionals with a schedule that is easy to manage, they are able to work on 51Talk whenever they are able to make time.

Depending on how often a teacher uses 51Talk, the best performing teachers are able to earn P80,000 per month to over P1 million a year. The company now has over 8,000 Filipinos working as English language online teachers.

“We go through hundreds of resumes daily, and select only the best candidates, with preference to teachers with teaching experience. They need to undergo a stringent

test being an actual teaching demo with a live client. After that, we provide multiple training sessions every month to ensure that our teachers can pass on the best knowledge to our students in the most effective way,” Ting explained.

“We invest a lot in our teachers’ training and development, and ensure that our teachers love their job, because only in that way can we be sure that they love their students from the bottom of their heart,” she added.

The executive said 51Talk’s unique teaching platform allows teachers to work from their homes, choose their own schedules, participate in regular and continuous teacher training, and have full access to the company’s online

“These create favorable lifestyle changes for 51Talk’s online homebased English teachers. They can have more time to spend with their family and avoid hassles that one usually gets from a regular nine-to-

and graveyard shifts,” Ting said.