Just a brief post today as I have a lot of exams to mark. The main thing about TBI to note of late is their increasing desperation in the area of recruitment. There are now a number of indicators that Luke Preece’s plan to “get by” using illegal labour has hit the rocks badly and finally, finally they seem to realize that having, you know, a few legally employed Native Speaker teachers might be in their best long-term interests.

As recently as 2009 this company used to boast that they were so much better than the likes of EF that they never needed to pay for job ads at all. EF Swara might have been endlessly recruiting for their schools, but people just walked into TBI Kuningan wanting to work there. They were beating off applicants with a stick! (As I have argued- narcissistic delusions of popularity and success are one of TBI’s main weaknesses). But it was true that they were once popular and didn’t need job ads. My how things have changed since Preece and his minions took over the asylum.

In recent months there have been multiple signs of acute stress within their businesses. Firstly, TBI Malang opened with just 2 Indonesian teachers (Yeni and Agnes) and no Native Speakers at all. They have such a recruitment crisis that TBI Malang is an “expat-free school”, showing that TBI is effectively turning into the new LIA (a large chain of cheap schools which employs no Native Speakers at all). Then Luke’s minion on the Jakarta Japanese School server started ranting at us to shut up about VKU teachers (the illegal ones on 2 month consultancy visas) as they were none of our goddamn business! Touchy touchy! 

Then in recent weeks TBI reluctantly opened the purse-strings to advertise for teachers in an incredibly long-winded job ad on tefl.com. You can read the desperation between the lines of this “War and Peace” length job ad as it lists a dozen reasons why TBI is great. This one appeared on October 14th. Then on October 21st they started advertising on Dave’s ESL Cafe, which truly shows how desperate they are, as TBI Bekasi teachers have discussed the death-threats, intimidation and lies which they were subjected to in the jobs forum on that site. In a further sign of desperation they have even dragged that degree-less of work-horse Colm O’Mahony out of retirement to pimp the school he himself dumped in June 2011 part way through his contract. Colm, posing as Jef Dam, has always been in the Luke and Matthew camp, and is a reliable goon by now.

So ESL teachers…. please, please, please work for TBI. People are getting sick of their VKU visa scam and want, well, a real KITAS. Their scam isn’t conning people the way it used to. Come and rescue this sinking ship!