Agents
Agents are middlemen or women who connect teachers with individuals or groups who want teaching. Many of the customers of agents are regular schools whose teachers are sick, quit, or simply not hired yet. Some of these schools are legal schools, some of them are illegal; some of them are even major high schools, colleges, or universities. In the past, when I worked for agents, we would get people trying to set up schools by finding a classroom, advertizing for students, then calling up the agent to find a teacher. Such schools usually didn't last long.
Many of the ads in the China Post are placed by agents. Another way to find them is to call the Taipei Hostel
2395-2950 / 2951
http://www.taipeihostel.com/
and ask for the number of an agent.
Some of the agents have been around for a long time and have developed a reputation for reliability. Recently, a huge number of agents have popped up out of the streets. Some of them have really bad reputations. There are so many of them now that it's hard to keep up with the names. To find the names of some of the more infamous ones, check out Dave's ESL Job Discussion Board for Taiwan
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewforum.php?f=12
And IACC has responded to some of these
http://www.eslcafe.com/jobinfo/asia/sefer.cgi?display:1055932899-67720.txt
There is a lot of discussion of a Taichung-based agency, IACC, on Dave's Taiwan Job Information Journal
http://www.eslcafe.com/jobinfo/asia/sefer.cgi?Taiwan
Although they keep sending me notices about jobs, I have no personal experience with them.
My feeling is that a lot of the new agents don't know what they're doing. They end up creating trouble for teachers because they don't know how to properly manage customers and teachers needs. Some of them have taken to copying the methods of the more established agents, but can't quite get the technique right.
Agents generally don't pay as well as regular schools. The agents that find people regular jobs can be quite aggressive making sure that you get a job and stay there. Nevertheless, agents can serve a purpose. For someone looking for extra work that their employer can't fill or odd hours when there's no work, they can be very useful. If you're having trouble finding the kind of work you want, the more experienced ones often hear about things that you may not know how to find. For temporary, quick income, the more established agents can be a good source of information.
9:50:16 PM 
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