Frequently Asked Questions
Here you can find answers to the questions we are most often asked. You can click on a question to jump straight to the answer for that specific question, or you can scroll down to read the answers to all of the questions. Q1: When can I apply to ALTIA CENTRAL? Q2: Can I apply from overseas or only from within Japan? Q3: How and when will I find out if I ‘passed’ the interview? Q4: What is Orientation/Training like? Q5: What training related costs does ALTIA CENTRAL cover? Q6: How long a commitment does ALTIA CENTRAL require? Q7: Is a letter of recommendation in Japanese acceptable? Q8: What should I prepare for the interview? Q9: Is it possible to interview by phone or online using Skype? Q10: What prefectures do you have contracts in? Q11: When does ALTIA CENTRAL find out about next year’s openings?
Q1: When can I apply to ALTIA CENTRAL? A1: You can basically apply to ALTIA CENTRAL at any time during the year but our main placement periods are April and September, so the best time is the month or 2 leading up to those months. For April start positions, our busiest season, we start accepting applications and doing interviews as early as November but any earlier than that tends to clog up the system a bit so we ask that you don’t apply too many months in advance. We do also occasionally have the odd position to fill in any given month so check our Available Positions or look for our ads on gaijinpot.com throughout the year. Q2: Can I apply from overseas or only from within Japan? A2: We generally hire most of our ALTs from within Japan but do hire some overseas applicants as well. People who have finished working for another company as an ALT, finishing up on the JET program, or coming over from an Eikaiwa position make up the vast majority of our new ALTs. We are generally looking for people who have experience living in Japan, have attained a decent level of spoken Japanese, and understand how to successfully teach Japanese students. Overseas applicants must first pass a screening process by a Recruitment Agency before being interviewed a second time by ALTIA CENTRAL over the internet. For overseas applicants especially, we do place a lot of emphasis on previous work with young children, degrees in Japanese or East Asian studies, participation in an exchange program here in Japan, and we rarely bring over those applicants with neither formal teaching experience nor Japanese language skills. Q3: How and when will I find out if I ‘passed’ the interview? A3: Well, if you ‘passed’ the interview, we will definitely be in touch with very soon to begin discussing a possible placement for you. Obviously if you are interested in working with ALTIA CENTRAL, and you impressed us and we would like to have you work with us, then it’s in both of our best interests to keep in close contact with each other and work out the details. We may need to collect more documentation from you, apply for a Certificate of Eligibility or Change of Visa Status, confirm preferences and timetables, and keep you up to date on position availability etc. On the other hand, please understand that due to time constraints, we may not have time to contact each and every person whom we are not able to hire. Q4: What is Orientation/Training like? A4: Orientation/Training at ALTIA CENTRAL is a very professional, very comprehensive 4-day training seminar which will get you familiar with all levels of the Japanese public school system, teach you basic skills and techniques, get you acquainted with our resources and materials, and prepare you for your first day and first month at school. We have multiple trainers for both Elementary and Junior High school training events as well as all the supervisors and many company staff available to assist you and answer your questions etc. The 4 days are intensive but also very rewarding. You will be tired afterwards, without doubt, but you will also have a chance to meet many great people, have a lot of fun, and really get fully prepared for your new position. Q5: What training related costs does ALTIA CENTRAL cover? A5: ALTIA CENTRAL will put all new ALTs up in a local hotel at or very near to the training venue. Most of the time we are able to cover your travel expenses to and from O/T as well but this obviously depends on where you are coming and where you are being placed. We don’t mind paying for you come from Osaka to Nagoya and back again when you are going to be working in Osaka. But paying for you to come from Hokkaido when you are being placed in Hiroshima is obviously out of the question. We also subsidize your lunch each day and offer you free refreshments all day to help you feel more comfortable. Q6: How long a commitment does ALTIA CENTRAL require? A6: A full school year commitment goes without saying in this kind of position. The commitment to the schools, the teachers, and the students outweighs anything else and this is very important to us at ALTIA CENTRAL. We bring in a new ALT for a new school year and the students deserve to have that ALT continue for the entire duration of the school year. That is, as school starts from the beginning of April and ends at the end of March, we expect each and every ALT to work through until the end of March regardless of when the ALT started with ALTIA CENTRAL. Q7: Is a letter of recommendation in Japanese acceptable? A7: Yes, by all means. If you have a letter or recommendation in Japanese we will accept that and actually may even prefer it in some ways. You may have experience teaching with Japanese public school teachers, or had Japanese managers etc at your English conversation school, or perhaps a Japanese language professor from University. These are all acceptable but please understand that not only would we like the letter, but we also would like to have our Japanese staff contact your referees by phone so contact information is also necessary. In the case that a letter is not available, contact numbers are perfectly acceptable. Q8: What should I prepare for the interview? A8: There are many things to discuss and talk about at the interview and not a lot of time to go over documentation. So by having all of the requested materials prepared and ready to go is much appreciated. When we can confirm a date and time for the interview, our recruiting department will let you know exactly what to bring for the interview itself. This will include among other things, your passport and visa copies, a copy of your 4-year diploma/degree, 2 recent passport style photos, a couple references with contact information and a lesson plan which we will tell you more about in the confirmation email. Some of these documents can be scanned and emailed beforehand (or afterwards if otherwise impossible) but we do prefer that you bring them all to the interview so we can quickly go over them together. Q9: Is it possible to interview by phone or online using Skype? A9: Well, actually, no, not really. Unfortunately, or fortunately, there are just so many applicants to meet with literally hundreds and hundreds of them in Japan and within a reasonable distance that we don’t feel we need to settle for a phone interview. The positions we offer, teaching young children in public schools, are just too important and we feel that our best chance to find just the right person is a lengthy, casual, face-to-face interview. For overseas applicants, once they have passed an initial in-person screening interview with one of our Recruiting Agency staff members, we do a follow-up Skype interview but this is pretty much the only exception. Sorry if that disappoints, but we take our interviewing process very seriously and in-person interviews are really important to us. Q10: What prefectures do you have contracts in? A10: Well, as you can see here in our Available Positions page, we are concentrated around the Chubu area of Japan. Our head office is in Nagoya, Aichi and thus most of our contracts are in Aichi and neighboring Gifu, Shizuoka and Mie prefectures. We also have some contracts around Shiga, Osaka, Okayama, Hiroshima and Nagano prefectures, but not much outside of these areas. Q11: When does ALTIA CENTRAL find out about next year’s openings? A11: That is the million dollar question! The general process begins in the fall and continues throughout the winter for April start contracts. We discuss with the various Boards of Education, our current clients as well as many others, about their needs, budgets, special requests etc. Generally by the end of January we can get a good idea of which of our current contracts will sign up for another year and which areas we will have to make a proposal or give a presentation for. This happens throughout January, February and even into March with results coming about a week or so after that. By the beginning of March we know about the bulk of our positions and by then have also found out from our current ALTs whether they are planning to move on or not. Thus March is the really, really busy period matching up all the current ALTs, the available positions, and the applicants we would like to employ for the coming year. It sounds late, but by mid March everything is finally becoming completely clear and most of our positions are filled except for a few special cases. Orientation/Training starts soon afterwards so if things do need to be decided before then.
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