6 Recruiting Tips
Ask Questions
People love talking about their own interests, so ask questions first before diving into details. Once you know what they are interested in, tailor your answers based on what they say. People don't care about what you say unless they see its relevance in their life.
Easy Conversation Starters
Present these as a clean list of conversation starter questions:
- Have you heard about ELIC before?
- What's your major?
- Have you ever thought about living/serving/teaching overseas?
- What makes you interested in serving overseas?
- Have you traveled overseas before?
- What do you think about teaching? Did you know ELIC helps people become teachers? You don't have to have an education background.
- What holds you back from doing something like this?
You Don't Need to Know the Answers
You may think you need to know ALL the details about ALL the programs. But you don't! Few people can keep up with all that information. Get people excited about the bigger picture — that we use professional and quality English education as a strategic and sustainable ministry model to reach hard-to-access countries.
Always End with a Next Step
Always close with a clear next step:
- Taking brochures and free stuff
- Asking to get coffee or a meal another time to talk more
- Signing up for the Circle newsletter or supporting a teacher
Share Stories with a Purpose
Your personal stories are powerful! Talk about what made you decide to go overseas and the impact you've seen in students' lives.
Be Persistent
Recruiting is hard, and persistence is key. If you are asking permission to present in front of college classes or at a church, be bold and keep asking. People have busy lives, but you also have an important message to share.
Top 10 Most Common Recruiting Questions
ELIC is an international non-profit education company. We use the avenue of English education to build relationships and share our lives with students.
It stands for English Language Institute China, but we are in 14 different countries across Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia.
English teaching is an amazing platform to build relationships. As a foreign teacher, you have 30 new people ready to be your friend!
No! ELIC is committed to train, equip, and prepare people to be English teachers.
Our long-term program receives a graduate level TEFL Certification from Wheaton College. Every program has extensive training.
Other majors/skills are actually very valuable on the field — writing, videography, photography, journalism, science, art. Don't count yourself out if you haven't taught before!
All positions are support-raising positions. Everyone support-raises something, but not everyone support-raises everything due to salaries, stipends, and housing that many placements provide.
There is extensive training on how to support-raise, including a personal coach, curriculum, and video course. You are NOT alone!
- Engage short-term programs: $3,500–$6,500 depending on location and length.
- GAP: around $2,400–$2,900 per month.
- 1+ year: depends on country — your candidate advisor can share more.
ELIC doesn't use the classroom as a pulpit to preach. It is a relational/incarnational ministry where our lives and actions create trust in relationship with students, coworkers, and community members.
Through that trust, our friends may express curiosity and we come prepared to give answers.
Through discipleship relationships and networking, we connect local believers with each other and to the local church.
English teaching is very strategic and allows access to some of the most restricted countries in the world. By invitation, we enter as guests, building positive relationships with governments and school officials. We don't hide or falsify who we are — we are English teachers who desire to meet the English needs of the country. This is a very sustainable and strategic ministry.
No. It is not required to know the language before going, but it is encouraged to prepare the best one can. For those envisioning long-term service, a commitment to continued language learning is required.
Anywhere in the world can present risks. Our staff has gone through thorough analysis and efforts to mitigate risks in our locations. Safety is a high concern of ELIC. There are plans and procedures in place to maintain the highest amount of safety for our teachers as possible.
Our niche is teaching English, but we do have special opportunities that vary by location. Teachers have been asked to teach content-specific material (biology, dance, nursing, engineering, marketing, creative writing, math) in English. There are also occasionally openings for other team roles (leadership, member care, administrative, short-term program coordination).
Yes! We do send people who have student loans. We explore the best option and work to create a sustainable plan. The candidate advisors can work with you to see what would be best for your specific situation.
- We submit your information to our candidate advisor team. They will reach out to chat about opportunities.
- Complete an application with ELIC.
- Phone interview with your candidate advisor.
- If accepted and you commit to go, our candidate advisor team walks alongside you until departure.
- Orientation — ST and LT programs provide training and orientation in the summer.
- Get on the airplane!
That's okay! You do not need to know all the answers. Think big picture with the goal of generating excitement for the idea of going with ELIC. Trust the process with candidate advisors to share the details. As a recruiter, your job is to move people to the best next action step. Is it signing up for more information? Following ELIC on social media? Taking a brochure? Asking to get coffee together? Give personal examples — people love stories. Student stories, struggle stories, team stories. Be relatable and ask them lots of questions!
Top Fun Facts About ELIC
We've had only two presidents in our history. Ken Wendling was our founder and president from 1980 to 2003, and Tim Davis has been our president since 2003.
We have a history of expanding to new countries. We currently serve in:
- East Asia: China, Mongolia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand
- Middle East: Jordan, Turkey, Iraq
- North Africa: Tunisia, Morocco
- Central Asia: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan
Not only can you get a TEFL certificate with ELIC — you can also get a Master's degree while serving on the field. Partner colleges include: Wheaton College, Grand Canyon University, Cedarville University, Moody Bible Institute, and Colorado Christian University.
Over 50% of people who serve with ELIC come from a referral. BringOne is an initiative for every ELIC teacher to bring someone with them to enhance our already amazing teams!
ELIC has over 10,000 alumni who have served with us in some way. With all our alumni, we've served over 1 million students.
Central Asia is the region we're currently seeing the most expansion. Afghanistan and Kazakhstan are the most recent countries opened to long-term teachers.
Short-term success leads to long-term impact. Our short-term programs are always designed to support long-term workers, build strong partnerships, and explore new opportunities.
BONUS — Pinnacle transition: After creating a for-profit branch called Pinnacle Teaching Solutions in the MENA region, new NGO policies in China made it evident that we needed to transition to this name in China as well. The official change happened spring 2017. We are still formally known as ELIC in North America and continue to use this branding for recruiting efforts.