Teacher job fair to be held next weekend

A job fair for teachers will be held in Shanghai next Sunday with about 500 educational authorities, schools and other institutions from the Yangtze River Delta region offering more than 10,000 vacancies.

The fair will be organized at Shanghai Everbright Convention and Exhibition Center from 9am.

According to Pan Guojian, vice director of the Shanghai Education Talent Exchange Center, organizer of the fair, about one fourth of the jobs will be from cities outside of Shanghai.

“Notably, neighboring Kunshan in Jiangsu Province will offer about 1,000 jobs,” he said. “It’s a good news for graduates from both Shanghai and the rest of the region. It’s close to Shanghai and the schools there offer good pay.”

There is a high demand for teachers in preschool education, music, art and PE as usual, according to Pan.

Teaching has become a popular profession in recent years. According to statistics by the Ministry of Education, over 5.9 million people sat the national professional qualification exam for teachers, a record high and a 32 percent increase from last year. In Shanghai, about 50,000 people took the exam.

The fair will also include simulation tests on teaching, direct interviews and policy statements from district education bureaus.

The job seekers can also be interviewed by three to five top headmasters to win recommendation letters from them.