Economics Of Setting Up A Teacher Training School.

[observer]

A couple of questions for anyone with experience of running a business of any kind in Thailand.

There appears to be a lot of money to be made here.

English language schools in Thailand are around 75% cheaper on average than English language schools in England.

However, English teacher training schools in Thailand on average are only around 5-10% cheaper than English teacher training schools in England.

Both offer a locally produced service, and both have to pay locally supplied rent and staff costs as their main two expenses.

1) If their outgoings correlate, why don't their course prices?

2) Are huge profits being made off the backs of unsuspecting trainee teachers, in the same way that farang bars can charge much more to unsuspecting farang tourists?

Edited February 3, 2005 by observer

[tedkarma]

Don't forget that you need to develop content for the course - do you have a lot of experience in the field? Qualifications? Materials Development experience?

The competition in Thailand is intense - while wages for your trainers are not equal to back home you might find other operating expenses significant. Marketing costs no less than back home, real estate here - for good locations is almost as expensive as back home, government paperwork and "tea money" problemmatic.

You can also expect - as a non-name brand - that you will have several years of losses before people come to know and trust that you can deliver a quality product. And that during that time - you will be charging bottom of the barrel fees.

Otherwise, no problem.

As a former teacher trainer - I had no illusions about my employer's difficulties.