Learnlight

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• I've been teaching for this company for 8 years and for the first time am considering to resign. The "Trainer support" team mostly deflects issues or suggests you forfeit the learner if you experience any problems, instead of addressing the issues. The company approaches companies in Spain and around Europe, not individuals. The biggest problem with this is that learners' companies pay for their English classes, therefore learners don't pay a cent, so they don't give a sh... about their classes. They arrive late or simply don't show, they don't prepare, they interrupt or know better.. Most learners are a nightmare to deal with and if you contact the "support" team about any of it, they simply say you can transfer the learner to another Trainer. Very frustrating company to work for.

• So if learnlight is such a terrible place to work AND with slave wages, can someone provide examples of companies that teach online and ARE well managed, as well as paid properly?

• You must be high, because 10-12$ an hour was competitive 30 years ago. Anyone working for that date is undermining all other qualified instructors

• Recently, I wasted my time having LL onboarding training. After, the hard training they told me they would not hire me. They didn't pay me for the number of hours I wasted going through their rigorous training. I am happy I didn't get in there because their demands are just unbearable.

• I work for learnlight currenly and i can confrim it has good and bad sides. 9euro per hour is a good amount to make depending on where you live, It's a lot better than many other online tutoring companies, But as everone else mentioned, You have to write reports after every session and there is a lot of other administrative work that takes up your time that you will NOT get paid for. You work long hours and the support team dosen't actually support you. They only give you ultimatums and warnings when you make mistakes. It's good because there are hundreads of students and groups available and they won't hesitate to fill up your schdule if you request it so you can make over 1500 euros a month if you're willing to work 200 hours a month. But don't forget every new student means more reports to write and more bull to deal with! It's a good company if you have no better prospects. but over all its just a giant machine that exploits cheap tutors with no better options. I won't stay here for more than 3 years.

• Learnlight reflects the way the whole (online) EFL industry is going. That is to say, it has embraced the gig economy: freelance contracts weighted entirely in the interests of the company with pay based only on contact hours, making no allowance for administrative and other tasks that the 'Trainer' is obliged to undertake. (I estimate that for every hour paid for I spend at least 80 minutes on LL work.)

  The job has also been de-professionalised with trainers required only to deliver pre-prepared material. There is scope for deviating from this which means that the learner experience will depend very much on the attitude, experience and knowledge of their trainer. Anecdotally, I have heard that the company now emphasises hiring non-native speakers to teach English. This is having an effect as, although 'screened' for their language ability, they often have a limited grasp of idiomatic usage (British or American) and little insight into the cultural background. If all they are required to deliver is 'International Business English-lite' that's OK, but it's not what many students think they are going to get. (I suspect some of these people are also involved in producing teaching material and/or proofreading which may partly explain the dive in standards, with a lot of simple errors, factual, grammatical or relating to vocabulary, occurring that a native speaker would be unlikely to make or (as a proofreader) allow to go 'live' on the platform. (The system for reporting errors has also been made too convoluted with the result that I no longer bother.)

  Some years ago the owners, and founders, of LL, having failed to sell the company, threw in their lot with a private equity company. Their website states that 'building value and enhancing profits is at the core of what we do'. That's a euphemism for screwing every last cent out of the business in any way possible. Often cutting costs is a large part of that drive towards growth and profit, twin obsessions of all venture capital companies. Hence recruiting barely competent staff ('rigorous screening' is clearly not preventing that), using low-paid interns, blocking pay rises, 'streamlining' admin functions etc.

  The day-to-day experience of working with Learnlight is not bad. Most of the 'learners' (the company's preferred term) are a delight and support staff are helpful and polite if not always entirely on the ball. ('Supervisors' disappeared some time ago - a few of their number remain, overseeing a pool of trainer support staff; mostly interns, I suspect). Pay rises are ruled out for the foreseeable future. I guess the company is able to recruit non-native speakers in parts of the world where what are to us (in Europe) starvation wages represent a healthy income.

  So, if you want or need to do this kind of work and the flexibility appeals to you, just be sure to go in with your eyes open.

  PS If you take it upon yourself, as I did, to point out the shortcomings of the platform as presently constituted, and other areas where improvements could be made, you will find yourself, more or less politely, rebuffed. You will have to resign yourself to living with LL warts and all. Also take heed of A Anderson's comments before you consider contributing teaching material to the platform. (You'll get a nod of thanks, no other reward, and be deprived of the copyright on your own work!)

  • If I were Siemens, T-Mobile or Hyundai I would be angry that I was paying so much money for shitty untrained "teachers".

  • What are the pay rate and hours? Thanks John

• Do they pay through PayPal or Wise?
  Because Wise is a terrible way.
  Please reply asap

  • I believe they pay with both. Why don't you like Wise? It works great for me.

• I just applied and was told they no longer are hiring due to the deluge of out of work teachers coming out of the student teaching industry in China. I have 40 teaching experience, licensed in the US and Thailand. 8 years online experience to go with it. Plus, I a have a degree in Education. Seems like the attitude was mostly geared toward UK teachers but that could have been just me. Every job I have applied for was rejected if it was based in the UK.

• iTutor pay can be low depending on where a teacher lives and they lack transparency in the remuneration process so you never know what you'll be paid until your first pay. Unless you live in the USA.

• Working for Learnlight was pure slave labour in my experience, and you could earn more money stacking shelves in your local supermarket. It is pure exploitation. I worked for them for 3 years - off and on - while I was taking a break from proper teaching. The business professionals in Spain that I was teaching English to were lovely, but the company itself seems to be quite happy to exploit the on-line teacher wherever it could. You are expected to produce reports that take 15 minutes in 5 minutes and are offered no perks whatsoever. In addition, if they like the teaching resources you personally produce, they will ask if they can have them, and when they do take them and use them on their site, they claim rights to the copyright and do not offer you any compensation. They altered the contract employees sign a few years ago to give them a right to do this. It was hidden in a small clause near the end so nobody would notice, unless they read the small print. Therefore, if you agree to let them use any of your personally-created resources, you lose all your rights to ever use your own work again without asking them for permission first (your work, created in your own time, not theirs). They do not tell you this when they ask to use your personal materials and they do not pay you. They do like to do everything on the cheap it seems. A very unethical company in my opinion.

  • I currently teach for Learnlight and totally agree with you on all points. Slave labour.