Baguio Seminar a Tremendous Success

Click on the picture below to read the newspaper story on EPR's seminar in Baguio City, Philippines in June 2008. This is taken from Baguio Midland Courier, one of the most widely read newspapers in the Cordilleras region.

USCIS and USPED Policy Change Affect Foreign Hiring

Every year the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) and USPED (United States Public Education Department) change policies to reflect new requirements needed when hiring foreign teachers and professionals to work in the United States. Every fiscal year, only 65,000 H-1B visas are granted for approval for the employment of teachers and other professionals. Agencies still has to compete with high-tech companies who most of the time seek H-1B visas for their high-skilled employees. Since Immigration Services begin their fiscal year in October, and with only 65,000 H-1B visas available, it is a normal occurrence that the visas are already exhausted six weeks before they are made available. Moreover, the early exhaustion of H-1B visas presents a problem for teachers as classes for most schools begin in August or September. Thus, unless the applicant fell into one of the exceptions, there were no H-1B visas available for the majority of the 2008-2009 school year. Since the next H-1B start date is October 1, 2009 employers may begin to apply for those numbers as early as six months before the intended start date, April 1, 2009.

The unique problem that the H-1B issue presents to teacher recruiters is that it is possible that they may not have all of their teachers recruited by April 1 in order to have a start date of October 1. Furthermore, since school begins in August or September, recruiters aim to have their classrooms staffed with full time teachers instead having to use long-term substitutes, if they can avoid it. Therefore, until Congress allocates more H-1B visa numbers, giving teacher recruiters a little more time to recruit foreign teachers before the visa numbers are exhausted, teacher recruiters may still find themselves in a bind.

The solution to solve this problem, is to require the school districts to provide an Affiliation with an Institution of Higher Education which exempt application of H-1B visa from the current limit of 65,000 allowing the hiring of teachers to proceed.

Since most of the schools we work with are affiliated to a local university, non-profit organizations, non-profit research organizations and or government research organizations, this gives us the unique opportunity to use this exception to the visa cap of 65,000 and avoid competing with other companies for limited visa or wait for the next fiscal year.

Schedule of Presentations at University of Cordilleras

Finally, we have a tentative schedule for the presentations at University of Cordilleras this June by EPR's consultants.

June 24, 2008– University of the Cordilleras
9:00 AM Welcome Speech by Cordilleras Regional Department of Education representative
9:15 AM Introduction of presenters by Ms. Maria Victoria Adaoag
9:30 AM Presentation by Dr. Geren Peten, Topic 1: FEDERAL AND STATE LAWS THAT GOVERN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
12:00 PM Break for lunch
1:00 PM Presentation by Dr. Geren Peten, Topic 2: EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS
3:30 PM 15 minutes break
3:45 PM Presentation by Ms. Lisa Owsley on classroom management
4:30 PM End of Day One presentations

June 25, 2008 – University of the Cordilleras
9:00 AM Introduction by Mr. Jian “Jeremy” Liu
9:15 AM Presentation by Dr. Douglas Householder on Special Education topic 1
12:00 PM Break for lunch
1:00 PM Presentation by Dr. Douglas Householder on Special Education topic 2
3:30 PM 15 minutes break
3:45 PM Presentation by Mr. Jian “Jeremy” Liu on transition from school to work
4:30 PM Conclusion; sign-up for EPR consultation services if interested.

Please email Ms. Adaoag at vadaoag@yahoo.com for more information regarding registration fee, venue, etc.

Announcing Upcoming Workshops in the Philippines

EPR is proud to announce that the company is co-sponsoring an academic exchange program in the Philippines this summer. A group of teachers, school administrators and scholars from the US will be visiting the beautiful Baguio City, Philippines in June 2008 to hold several workshops at some local universities. The topics of the presentations include US federal and state regulations that govern the education system (No Child Left Behind Act, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, etc.), education standards, special education, and classroom management approaches.

An EPR member will also be in Baguio City in June 2008 to provide orientations to teaching candidates, answer questions, and possibly conduct videotaped interviews for new applicants.

More information regarding the time, venue and admissions will be provided later.

Placement of International Teachers

EPR is proud to be serving the staffing needs of public school districts in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Nebraska. Here are a few of them:
Gallup-McKinley School District, New Mexico
Albuquerque Public Schools, New Mexico
Safford Unified School District, Arizona

(Click on photo for enlarged view)

EPR's teachers come from more than 10 different countries and regions, inlcuding:

Russia, China, India, Mexico, Philippines, Latvia, Estonia, Venezuela, Brazil, Canada and Australia.

Come join us. Make a difference!

Email contact@recruitteachers.org for information regarding our schools, requirements, application procedure and fees. You can also directly contact our office in Centennial, CO.