@Heliotrope

We disagree.

Unfortunately upper tier ISs comprise a very small minority compared to lower tier ISs. Theres far more third tier ISs than first tier ISs. Even at upper tier ISs the benefit has been eroding and continues to be. In the WE there are plenty of upper tier ISs that are very transparent about their inability to provide waivers/places for dependent children.

Its above 50% but well below 83% or even 70% now in actuality and I wont be surprised if in a few years that falls to below 50%.

No, in the few times there has been some form of faculty rep on an ownership board/council, its always been a 'seen and not heard' type of arrangement where at best the faculty rep gets one vote out of numerous voting members mostly parents. In others its been a token position with no real power or authority.

@Heliotrope

We disagree.

Ive often seen ISs who report a 1:1 waiver/place per employee only to find out later that the new or current policy is 1 waiver/place with a 50% discount on a second waiver/place regardless of the IS appointing a teaching couple to two positions. Its also becoming more common, though with increasing transparency, of an IS not offering full waivers/places or not offering any waivers/places at all.
The current trend is clarifying the policy post interview that waivers/places are contingent on availability and its easy for an IS to claim they are at capacity or that their allotment of waivers/places (which they arbitrarily establish) are exhausted and/or only discounts are available (usually 50%).

Savings potential is useless, though I understand why its a difficult topic for whoever is filling out the IS profile to get a grasp on, as savings is more about the individual rather than the comp.

Salary is only slightly better than useless, in terms of getting a sense of range for the region, but useless in specifics. There are ITs who have exactly a BA plus four years (or Masters plus 8 years) who to often are not offered the stipulated salary reported in the IS profile.

The only relevant numbers for me are:
1) Number of instructional hours (how long I have to teach, including ASPs that are more formal).
2) Number of contract hours (how long I have to be on campus/site).
3) How many of the contracted non-instructional hours are structured (meetings, etc.).
4) How much work the role requires of my off contract time (outside grading, preparation, etc.)

Leadership roles are defined by reports, peer deliverables, or resource budgeting and allocation.
There are 3 general avenues into leadership:
1) Grow In: You start at an IS as an IT, you work well with leadership, parents and ownership, and then when there is an opening you get the job because ownership trusts you and leadership and parents like you. This pathway is faster at lower tier ISs, where there is a lot of turnover and longevity often means your only one of the few staff to renew.
2) Work In: You get a M.Ed in Ed.Ld, you add a credential, you build some leadership or management experience and you work your way up into leadership. This may and often requires some work in DE. This is the pathway that accounts for the majority of leadership. Candidates were leadership in DE, and they were hired as leadership in IE.
3) Edge In: You make friends and build a network, maybe you marry into, but someone in ownership likes you and gives you the job, or someone in leadership helps you get into the job. This is the least common path into leadership.

It varies greatly what an IS is looking for, on one end you have the US requirements that you typically find requiring a leadership credential. Some of the such as the MA Superintendent (Executive leadership level) require a few years experience and a literacy exam. DC requires a Masters, a few years experience, including classroom experience and passing the SLLA exam. On the other side of the continuum you have the UK where there exist various national qualifications for leadership but the standard requirement is possessing QTS.
In IE the mode you often find as the defacto standard is a M.Ed (or other edu Masters) in Ed.Ld. Though you find ISs that want a doctorate and you also find leaders, including those in senior and executive leadership who only have a Bachelors/First degree. In IE the vast majority regardless of being profit or non-profit institutions are private/independent ISs/DSs that do not have to comply with the same regulations required for faculty and staff as those found in regulated edu (Public/Maintained) DSs/ISs. Ownership in many cases can appoint whoever they want regardless of qualifications and credentials. There are leaders who have non edu based degrees such as in business, though this is more commonly seen in ISs where leadership is divided between the operations and "back office" roles and duties suit a leadership more business orientated and the academic or "front office" leadership tasks are the purview of leadership with more edu focused background. The business focused leader is small but growing, with greater growth in decentralized chain ISs.
Meeting the JD requirements becomes more important the more external to the IS the leadership recruiting process is. If an IS is more internally focused on promoting from within than its less about resume qualifications and credentials. The more external the leadership search the greater the role of qualifications, credentials and experience in an attempt that those criteria can be extrapolated to the needs of the ISs ownership. It should be noted with grave significance that not every IS is looking for a generalist who can competently and proficiently manage the day to day operations and needs of an IS. A substantial number of ISs and ownership do look for leadership, often as part of a leadership (referred to as the SLT, or Senior Leadership team) with a specific or niche skill set. Leaders who are recruited to clean house or get an IS through an accreditation process or increase enrollment or who prioritize revenue, as opposed to keeping the day to day running smoothly.

Two insights. First, regardless of the pathway into leadership the greatest hurdle is the first one into senior or executive leadership. Once in and after a couple of years whether the leader performs well or with mediocrity its generally much easier to move into new leadership roles.
Second, first tier and elite tier ISs become very difficult to move into. There tends to be a revolving cycle of leadership in lower tier ISs but once they get the the top tier ISs, leadership tend to stay and wait for advancement internally rather than move to a lower tier IS with a better title and more responsibility, though it does happen.

@intltchr

Your CA credential doesnt mean anything from the POV of the HK MOE. You either are an exempt ET teaching ESOL, or youre a permitted teacher (PT) or registered teacher (RT).

No, the CA Preliminary (Entry grade) credential is not renewable. You cant freeze it, and you cant renew it. There is a grey area where a DT with really good cause and sponsorship from an LEA can get an extension but thats not really applicable in this scenario. If the Preliminary credential expires you will have to clear whatever deficiencies that were included with your Preliminary credential to obtain the CLEAR (Professional grade) credential. No amount of lapsed time would allow you reapply for another Preliminary credential. Nor can you apply for a different clearance pathway than the one you were given with your initial pathway.

CA is the gold standard in the US NC but you dont need the CA credential with QTS and the NJ CEAS. The disadvantage if any is rather technical but from a practical position probably amounts to a trivial difference if any at all.

Does it have to be an AD title? There are many more ISs that have an HOD for PHE as opposed to an AD. If you have to have that title than I would concur with @scooter93, youre better off finding an IS with an AD role, getting in and then one the job becomes available because the current AD leaves for whatever reasons, your in a better place to secure that appointment internally rather than as an external candidate.

Otherwise you dont mention it but obtaining a pro edu credential would be a strong next step such as QTS, etc. that appears to be missing.

@falconeer

Its not you.

Yes, but only on the 'soft side'. Leaders tend to have two faces the 'soft' side where in men means being one of the guys and your leader tries to be your colleague, your team member or their 'hard' side where its cold, detached, and hyper professional.
The 'soft' side of women in leadership tends to be maternal or just one big family where we all get along for the common and greater good compared to their 'hard' side which tends to over compete with their perceptions of their male counterparts. They have to be colder, more detached, and even more professional so that they an be seen as "capable" compared to male leaders.

@Thames Pirate

Thats not the trick. PE has about as much setup as any studio based course whether its science labs or art classes, or theater production or any class that isnt a seminar.

But yes some data even absent context in this regard is better than no data at all.

@Sid

My interpretation was that the trailing spouse had a remote/freelance/consultant type of career where their office is anywhere they can plug in a laptop and have strong WiFi.

@freetofly2022

Yeah, but you have to work and live in Kuwait.
None of that data on SA though is validated, its all self report. Sure there are ISs who are transparent but theres a greater pool of ISs that want to present as positive and beneficial image as they can. Its not until later they drop the current comp package and it doesnt include waivers for more than one child. Most of the SA IS profiles are little more than marketing and sales. Thats assuming the IS has actually updated their IS profile in this decade.

@Heliotrope

Those profiles are all unvalidated, self reports. There isnt even an indication that they are really current. Just because theres some scenario where an IS would provide more waivers/places doesnt mean that for any particular IT thats a guarantee part of the offer.

If ballpark suggestions are what you want, forget college or uni towns go for the cities with a high enough international presence that there are ISs in the local vicinity.

I have not personally but know a few ITs that have. Most of them did it though because they really couldnt afford to retire fully yet, or at least they felt like an opportunity for a couple more years might not come along later if they found out they really could have used more coin in their savings.

Your disgruntled friend isnt too far off. The modern Uni classroom isnt the same one of 30 or even 20 years ago. It depends what your teaching. If your teaching CSI/ICT, maths, science, engineering those are different students. They tend to be more problem resolution driven and focused on outcomes and results. Can you help them get to the right answers. There also tends to be less pop culture in those classes and fields. Even when discussing topics such as generative AI, those students can separate the ethics, and human approach to utility from the technical skills and aspects. Whereas humanities and social sciences tend to get more of the extremes in student beliefs and dispositions. You get a lot more push from students in those fields and if your not progressive enough in their mind set your more likely to face confrontation. Business tends to be in the middle. Its less about ideology though and more about how the business approach of times past was focused on finding and playing a role in a larger corporate entity. Get those skills, get the job, move up. Now its focused to a much greater degree on entrepreneurship. The difference between the two being that the old school thinking was specializing and filling a niche or role working for someone else, where the new school of though is the generalist who needs to know enough about everything to run their own business.

@intltchr

The HKCAAVQ is reporting you meet the professional/academic requirements for RT status (Professional grade) credential.

There are two agencies involved in the process. The HKCAAVQ which provides you the report you cited does not issue PT/RT status. This is made by the MOE (Education Bureau). You will now need to complete an application Form 8 and attach your documents. As part of the process you need to include a copy of your landing slip of entry into HK (thus you really need to be in HK when you apply).

Your qualifications are at the level of a PGDE. If you have an acceptable Diploma level TESOL certificate you would be eligible for appointment at category 1 or some other kind of acceptable certificate at less than Diploma level at category 2.

With RT status you can teach in HK for any IS/DS that will appoint you.

@Bears123

QTS is a permenant credential, it does not expire. It does not require PD to be maintained, does not require renewal, or validation. There is ongoing talk and has been for a while about attaching some form of ongoing PD expectation, but its a conversation thats been out there for a while. The current and very recent extension of induction by 1 to 2 years and the increased experience requirement for OTTs hopefully will quell those murmurs.

QTS is also not age, grade or subject specific. There is no primary or secondary or subject matter QTS. Your edu dossier contains three fields for the TCL/TRA to put your training subject fields. These are what a maintained (public) DS would use in part to determine your qualification for a particular assignment and post. A DS in England would have issues with the LEA or inspectorate if they appointed or assigned a DT to a subject and classroom without reasonable support that the edu is qualified in the appropriate subject level. Outside of that however, there isnt an inscribed part of your QTS certificate listing grades or ages and subjects a DT is authorized to teach. ISs will generally want to see successful classroom experience in the subject and/or some course work at the tertiary level. As well as some familiarity with the curriculum guide/syllabus. This depends and varies on the subject and grade level as well as the ISs need and availability.

@Bayesic

Yes, absolutely.
In 2020 the US DOE removed the designations of "Regional Accreditation" and "National Accreditation" and aggregated them to the category of "Institutional Accreditation" as opposed to the designation of "Program Accreditation" such as CAEP, MACTE, etc. That doesnt mean they dont exist any more and more importantly that there isnt a difference. Some of those differences are very narrow and specific, such as when applying for citizenship or PR in a country with a points system for open application. A regionally accredited US degree is likely to get those points where as a nationally accredited US degree is less likely to be accepted and award those application points. Some of those differences are very general and broad, an exclusively online Uni with only national accreditation is more likely to be seen as inferior or worse invalid compared to one that has regional accreditation even if its still an exclusively online Uni.
My point is that within the scope of IE and in the context of application marketability and salary band the differences between the exclusively online Unis of UPe and ACE if there is a difference its a trivial one.Two points to note:
1) UPe has a lot of foreign and international students and by extension many more working in IE than ACE does, youre more likely to meet a UPe alum than an ACE alum.
2) UPe is also undergoing the accreditation process for WASC accreditation. They have progressed to the candidacy stage having completed their 2nd accreditation visit with a 3rd scheduled for the Fall of 2024. Their list of deficiencies grows shorter and shorter. The majority of their deficiencies are in regard to documentation in collecting data and formalizing their structure, approach and policies (mainly that their policies are supported by data). They have one maybe two heavy tasks left (mostly dealing with curriculum and OER materials). They are at most a couple years away from receiving WASC accreditation.

First, It depends on the source of the policy or rule. An IS is more likely to require transcripts but a Ministry (for visa purposes) is more likely to be interested in the scroll rather than the transcript.
Second, Many Uni dont include a designation for online/distance courses and programs verses F2F/residence programs. Its not difficult though to discover that ACE (or UPe) are exclusively online Unis compared to the method of program delivery at a Uni. in residence.
Third, theres a higher degree of animosity towards exclusively online Unis that isnt present for online/distance programs offered at brick and mortar Unis.

Likely true. There are Unis that offer summer only degrees that are provided in residence. Its also possible to attend an extension campus of a Uni locally. Nottingham for example has some applicable edu degrees at their campus in Ningbo, Liverpool has a campus partnership in Suzhou, and Sunderland has a campus in Hong Kong as some examples.