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Traveling abroad to study Mandarin can be an expensive commitment. But, what if we told you that many employers help pay for the Mandarin course offered at Keats School?
While there’s no magic recipe for your bosses to agree to fund your tuition tab, taking into account these five steps will put the odds in your favour.
While you may want your company to fund your studies, you need to make sure it makes sense to ask. Since you’re looking to study Mandarin at Keats, consider how Mandarin would benefit your work.
But, if you were debating studying something that had zero on-the-job applicability, it’s probably not the smartest to seek employer funding.
Many larger companies already offer education-funding programs. Before you go and ask them to pay for your trip, be sure you know what’s already in the books and get all the details.
If you’re not sure where to start, contact the HR department or look on your company intranet.
Some companies will set caps or limitations, such as a fixed dollar amount per employee, course, or department. Amounts may fluctuate depending on seniority and education level.
If your workplace doesn’t have a program in place, you’re free to propose terms of your own.
This is one of the biggest tasks and the one that will take the longest. Put yourself in your manager’s shoes. If an employee came to you and asked for time off work to study and for the company to fund it, what would you want to be given?
We suggest you prepare a document explaining why you’re requesting the time off work, where you’re hoping to study, the cost, and how it will benefit the company.
In addition to the proposal, put together a clear, organized presentation to show your manager. This presentation will contain some of the same information as your proposal but with visuals as well. This will give your manager an understanding of why you want the company to pay for Mandarin schooling and how it will benefit the company.
Align your education goals with corporate objectives, and show direct, specific benefits. Some examples are better performance, sharing information and Mandarin lessons with other employees, communicating with Mandarin clients, and easy travel ability to Mandarin-speaking cities and countries.
If you feel comfortable, make a deal with your boss or HR department. If education is paid for, you can negotiate reimbursement levels, travel time, or stay with the company for a set number of years.
If your employer signs off on the proposal you offered, this is when your work starts.
You must determine exactly how funding will work, how much your employer will pay, and what academic standards you’re going to have to meet. Are they looking for you to gain full fluency in Mandarin while away studying?
Make sure to get an agreement signed on paper and have any questions and answers written down. Questions could include:
Find out why your employer didn’t agree to fund your language education. If your company cannot pay for your course because of the fee, suggest the course could be instead of another benefit, such as a promised raise.
Consider compromising. The timeframe may not have worked best with the company, which means you could request another length of time and travel departure date.
If you still receive a no, you may have to move on from it for now. Take advantage of your annual performance and bring up the possibility of studying abroad to learn Mandarin again.
Let’s say you’ve been approved and your employer is going to pay for your Mandarin lessons. Now it’s time to apply online to Keats School and pick your preferred language course. We have 8 different Chinese language courses, and each one has a customized start date and language study plan.
To get started, visit our website to apply.
I really enjoy this place because we have private Mandarin lessons. I took the 6-hour program, 4 hours in the morning, 2 in the afternoon. Even though it is quite a lot, the teaching is complimentary. This is very helpful because I could review what I did before and learn new things. My 2 teachers are fantastic. We live in the school, so it is convenient. It is interesting to me to meet people from all over the world.
I’ve had an amazing time at Keats. I am amazed at how much I’ve learned over the last 3 weeks and I will be really sad to go. We are already planning on our next trip of coming back because we had such a fantastic time here. They really tailor the Chinese language course to you and your individual needs.
So during my first week at Keats, I didn’t dare to speak any Chinese words. I found out that my Chinese level quickly improved since then. Although I have many options to study in China, for example, some other schools have homestay, I found I could immerse myself and fully focus on learning Chinese by staying at Keats.
The place is very cool. I am with a great group of people in my class, so coming to classes is very enjoyable. It is fun, we have a lot of discussions, games, activities. Our teachers are also very good, very supportive. Learning Chinese is intimidating at the start because you have so many questions. But I would advise coming to Keats because the atmosphere for learning is great. It is very relaxing. I would recommend the school.
One thing I really liked was that I was able to work with my teacher to make an individual plan of study. Another really nice thing is that you live at the school, you feel completely safe. You always have a group of people who are willing to do things with you on the weekends or in the evenings. They are serving you all the 3 meals a day, the food was excellent.
The teachers at Keats know how to read the students and how to help students learn Chinese language easily. They know the level of the students. I am a slow learner, but they managed to adapt to my learning. They made the class very fun, very exciting. I am pleased that not only I got to learn the culture and the language, but I also got to make amazing friends, really unbelievable, Chinese friends and European friends, American friends, from all over the world.
I found Keats School and I am so glad that I did. When you learn Chinese in China at Keats, you are fully being taken care of. My teacher is really great and we become lovely friends.
It has been notable because I have met a lot of people who I met first time last year like me to come back to Keats this year. The teaching has been fantastic. The teachers carefully prepare each lesson. I think this one-on-one approach is really a great way to rapidly increase your level of Chinese and increase your confidence and fluency with the language.