A decade ago, pretty much any foreigner, native speaker or not, could get a job teaching English in China. However, last year the Office of Foreign Affairs and the Board of Education jointly announced new rules for foreign teachers.
Now if you want to obtain a legal work visa and residence permit in China, you must be a native speaker with a college degree and a few years experience or a TEFL certificate. Slowly but surely, China is approaching the standardized model of South Korea and Japan, ensuring that the full-time English teaching professions in its public schools are qualified.
However, unlike Japan and Korea, the Chinese ESL market continues to grow at a rapid pace. For every legal job in China, there are three positions that will hire teachers without all the requirements. Rather than obtaining a legal visa and work permit, these teachers either teach on tourist or student visas, or they obtain a business visa and leave the country every few months. While this is technically illegal, the Chinese government has yet to crack down on this practice.
For those of you aren’t native speakers or don’t have a college degree, you will still be able to find a job teaching in China (at least for the time being).
However, your salary will probably be lower and you will have little job security. Your company may also claim you’re American when you’re really from Austria, or say you graduated from UCLA when you only have a year of community college under your belt. This way they can command a higher fee from parents and students while paying you a lower salary than they would pay someone with the correct qualifications.
Overall, while China is creating stricter visa requirements for those who choose to work through legal channels, the practice of working outside of those remains common.
Article Reference: www.gooverseas.com