VIPKid vs Qkids: The Supreme Guide To Online Teaching Jobs

Introduction To Qkids vs. VIPKid Online Teaching

With remote work rising in popularity, it should be no surprise that more people are looking into online teaching jobs as a way to earn a paycheck. Two of the most popular online English teaching jobs are with QKids and VIPKid. 

These two platforms offer contracted employment teaching English to foreign language speakers over the internet. These companies are both highly rated and recommended. Should you work for VIPKid or Qkids?

This article will discuss the major differences between the two and some of the pros and cons of each. You will learn all that you need to know to make your employment decision easier. You will have all of the tools that you need to move forward with your new teaching career. 

Requirements For Landing Online Teaching Jobs

QKids and VIPKid English learning programs both have different requirements and qualifications for their contracted teachers.

1. Degree

To work for either company, you will need to possess a Bachelor’s degree in any field. Your degree must be from an accredited University.

2. Experience

To be considered for employment, every candidate is required to have experience working with children in some capacity. Experiences can include homeschooling, tutoring, camp counseling, coaching, or any other type of mentoring position.

3. Certificates

QKids and VIPKid require a TESOL or TEFL certificate. VIPKid grants their candidates a certificate training class. Qkids requires that applicants attain training on their own. 

4. Supplies and Internet Requirements

A high speed internet connection is absolutely important. To be hired, you must poses a reliable internet connection, a noise- cancelling headset, a quiet place to teach, and a background that is learning friendly.

5. Native English Speaker

To be considered for a contract by either company, you must be a native English speaker. 

Pay

Within the realm of online work, English online teaching jobs pay well in comparison to other at home work opportunities. QKids and VIPKid are similar in pay range with slight differences. 

1. Base Pay

VIPKid has a starting base rate of $7.50 per class. Each class is 25 minutes in length. This puts the hourly rate at $15 to start before bonuses. 

QKids has a starting base rate of $8 per class. Each class for QKids is 30 minutes in length. This puts the hourly rate at $16 per hour before bonuses. 

2. Bonuses

VIPKid

VIPKid offers short notice classes. A short notice class is one that is booked within 24 hours of its start time. You, as a teacher, receive a $2 bonus per 25 minutes, for each class taught in this manner. This allows you to reach up to $19 per hour. 

VIPKid offers premium pay for completing a certain amount of classes per month. These incentives allow you to earn up to an additional $3 per class depending on how many classes you teach. 

QKids

QKids offers $4 for each standby class. This allows teachers to earn a possible $8 per hour for simply standing by and remaining logged into the computer for a short time. A full class payment is earned if a lesson is taught.

Teachers can earn an additional $1 per class if they receive positive feedback from parents of the students. This can equal up to $18 per hour. 

With QKids, if you teach 15 or more classes per week, you will earn an additional $1 per class, taking your hourly wage to $20 per hour. 

An incentive that both companies offer is the $100 referral bonus. The referral bonus is paid when the qualified referral is hired and teaches a class.

Hours

How do the hours work at each company? Is there a minimum number of work hours per week that each company requires? Can you make a full time paycheck? 

1. Minimum

QKids

With QKids, you will need to be available for 6 hours per week. This is equal to teaching 12 classes. You need to be available for the minimum hours, you will not be penalized for teaching less during the week.

Taking personal days and vacations are allowed and encouraged. The teacher can contact the class coordination team and their coach to take time off without affecting future contracts. 

VIPKid

VIPKid does not have a minimum weekly work requirement. You, as the teacher, can schedule your class time slots, as you wish and as you are available. You may work as little or as much as you desire (during the available time slots).

2. Times

Most of the hours for teaching for both of these companies are based on Beijing, China hours. The majority of the students are in China. 

QKids has approximately 2.5 hours per day available for teaching time slots. The available hours are split up between morning and evening (China hours) for students to attend around their school schedules. 

QKids

Weekends have an additional 3 hours available per day. Summer and other vacation times have increased teaching opportunities. 

VIPKid

VIPKid has teaching time slots open all day and throughout the night. Be mindful that when you are opening class time slots, that classes are less likely to be booked during the children’s school hours.

Hiring Process

The hiring process to work as an English teacher for QKids and VIPKid are quite rigorous. It can be time intensive as well. There are many videos on YouTube with tutorials and tips that will assist in helping with the undertaking. Current teachers highly recommend that interested applicants do research before submitting an application. 

1. Application

VIPKid

The initial application is a simple form with your basic information. Fill out the online form with demographics, experience, and degree information. 

QKids

The initial application for QKids requires that you send in a resume, experience, availability and a short video. The video will consist of the applicant reading a children’s book to the camera. 

2. Demo or Mock Class

VIPKid

In this step you, as the applicant, will read some information on the platform and study how the classroom slides work. A short quiz is followed by teaching a slide or two of an English lesson.

QKids

During Demo 2, of the application process, you will be given information about the classroom and the applications used by Qkids. You will meet, virtually, with a coach, answer a few questions, and demonstrate that you understand the items within the virtual classroom.

3. Interview or Mock Class 2

VIPKid

After you have successfully passed the first demo class, you will be asked to teach a mock class to a mentor. The mentor will pretend to be a student (approximately aged 5). You will have the opportunity to display your teaching skills and knowledge of the slides and teaching platform.

Applicants are, on occasion, required to repeat the demo process after receiving notes.

QKids

If you have passed the first phase of the interview process for QKids, you will have a demo interview 2 with a coach. You will need to teach slides to the coach in this demo. Be sure to understand how all of the games and interactive slides work. It will be important at this stage. 

**QKids requires you to teach trial classes to actual students after passing Demo 2. After passing this stage of the application process, a contract will be offered.

Teaching English Online

What is it like to teach English online?

1. Classes

VIPKid

Classes with VIPKid are 25 minutes long. The classes are with one student and you, the teacher. There are approximately 10 slides with focus words and vocabulary. You will need to have props and be able to work with students on extension. 

There is a lot of freedom and creativity involved in teaching with VIPKid in comparison to QKids. The teacher will need to prepare and create unique reward systems to implement while in the virtual classroom. This gives you a bit more control over your lesson time. 

QKids

Classes with QKids are 30 minutes long with an additional expectation of a 3 minute introduction period. There are approximately 25 to 30 slides per class with this platform. 

Teachers should expect to teach 1 to 4 kids per class. The classes are very interactive and engaging. There are many games for the students to participate in. The games are learning based and easy for the teacher to master.  

2. Preparation

VIPKid

Some preparation is necessary before teaching the scheduled lessons with VIPKid. It imperative to look at the class slides prior to attending. It’s also important to gather educational props to assist the students with learning. 

Props for learning include a white board, rewards (stars etc), flash cards, virtual tools, puppets, and more. There are a ton of resources available to cut preparation time down and to keep organized. Facebook groups are abundant and assist in finding all needed resources. 

QKids

Little to no preparation is neccessary prior to teaching a class with Qkids. Everything required to complete and execute each lesson is available in the online classroom . You will follow the slides and use the online tools. In this way, QKids is a much easier platform to start with. 

Students

Most of the students for both of these platforms are children from China. The ages range anywhere from 3 to 14. 

Some students have little to no exposure to the English language when attending a class. Some have conversational skills. 

Both platforms evaluate the students for placement into the proper class level. You will start out by teaching certain levels. You can gain certification in more levels the longer you teach with the company. 

Scheduling and Booking

The biggest issue facing new contractors is scheduling enough classes to earn a decent paycheck. Can you work enough to pay your bills? 

VIPKid

With VIPKid, it may take a while to build credentials and reach new levels of certification. What certifications a teacher possesses, is important when parents choose a teacher for their child. The parents are responsible for booking the teachers of their choice, It is important to market yourself appropriately. Make sure that you teach quality lessons to gain recurring students. 

One way that teachers begin to get bookings from parents is to get certified as a trial teacher. Parents sign their child up for a trial class with VIPKid, if they like you, they will likely continue to book you for future lessons. 

The bonus here is that for every student that signs up, you receive an additional $5 for the trial class. 

It takes a while to build up a fully booked class schedule with this platform. It is completely doable with a little bit of elbow grease and some patience. 

QKids

QKids does their scheduling a bit differently. As a new teacher, it is a requirement to submit the hours you are available to teach. You may update your availability as regularly as you desire or need.

All classes are booked for you by the company. This means that you won’t likely have regular students. You will have a full schedule of classes once you prove that you are a reliable teacher. 

The longer you teach with QKids, the more they fill your requested schedule. QKids also encourages further training to begin teaching advanced lessons and other types of classes. 

After teaching for some time, your coach will invite you to teach new and alternative classes. The more lessons that you are certified to teach, the more likely you are to fill your schedule. 

Scheduling/ booking is one of the biggest differences between QKIds and VIPKid. 

Training and Advancement

Both QKids and VIPKId platforms offer many opportunities for teachers to advance their skills.

VIPKid

Other opportunities for advancement at VIPKid include becoming a mock class instructor or a mentor. If chosen for a promotion to these desired positions, you will earn a pay increase.

Cancellation Policies

QKids and VIPKid have very different class cancellation policies. It is important to know the policy of the company before cancelling or not attending one of your scheduled classes. 

VIPKid

Once a class is booked, you as the contractor, are expected to login and teach it. If you become ill, or experience an emergency, the company will request documentation. Failure to follow these stipulations will result in a monetary penalty.

Missed classes for any reason, other than the above mentioned reasons, will result in a “no show.” This will result in a fee on your next paycheck.

If a class is cancelled and there is not an appropriate reason, you will also be charged a fee. If you have too many incidents of missed classes and you will likely not be offered a consecutive contract.

QKids

QKids cancellation policy is much more forgiving. Cancellations can be made up to five hours prior to the start time without penalty. If you “no show” to one of your scheduled classes, are late, or miss the class for some reason, it will result in a bad mark on your record.

Too many missed, late, or no show classes will result in your contract not being renewed. 

It is also important to note that problems with your internet could result in a missed class. This is why it is super important to have a back up plan for internet and to always have reliable service available. 

Contracts For Online Teaching Jobs

If you are hired with either company, you will be offered a six month contract. After achieving a stellar teaching record with VIPKid or with QKids, you will continue to be offer contract renewals. 

You, as the teacher, have the right to end the contract at any time. Be sure to read the entire document. 

Conclusion

Remote work is on the rise. Employment that you can engage in right from your home is highly desirable. If you have the skills and educational requirements, QKids and VIPKid online teaching jobs may be perfect options for you. 

Now that you are aware of the existing differences between these two very popular online teaching jobs, you are ready to start the hiring process. 

Good luck and Happy Teaching!!