Starting an IT training school in China

[simplyolaf]

Hi all,

I am going to move to china at the beginning of next year. I will be learning chinese for a year and then I might try to start a business...

My idea is to create a school that provides technical courses on software development with java and related technologies.

From what I could research on the internet there are very few companies doing the same. Of course I wouldn't be teaching in mandarin, but in English. The training courses would be geared towards international companies(based in Shanghai) or contractors from abroad who wanted to keep up to date with the latest technologies and at the same time visit a bit of china.

My questions are... has anyone living in Shanghai come across IT training consultancies(with java)?

Any one reading this forum who tried to do the same? Or someone who already tried to start a business in China?

Best Regards,

Olaf

[imron]

My idea is to create a school that provides technical courses on software development with java and related technologies.

From what I could research on the internet there are very few companies doing the same

Did you research in English or in Chinese? A google search for "java 培训" returns over 4 million results. A search for 上海java培训 returns over 400,000 results.

Granted not all of those results will be for Java training/consultancy companies, and amongst those that are, not all of them will offer training in English, but I think there are quite a few companies that do this sort of thing.

[Frankiris]

I'm in Beijing.There are at least hundreds of companies that offer IT training, and I believe that Shanghai has more than Beijing does.

[simplyolaf]

You are right there are loads of results for Java courses if searching with chinese. I only searched in english, that's why I missed all those results. Thanks for pointing that out.

The market I am trying to address is not really the chinese market, although I would never exclude it.

My idea came from looking at www.koenig-solutions.com, an indian company providing java related courses for international IT experts in combination with a holiday.

So I thought... if they are doing that and people are willing to spend some time in india just to take a training course... wouldn't they enjoy much more if they could do the same in a country like China?

To be honest I am not really trying to come up with this idea just to make money. All I want is to be able to live in China long term with my wife but I am not prepared to live on a chinese salary....btw. anyone knows the average salary as a software developer in china?

Any other suggestions please let me know

Best Regards,

Armindo

[DaTou]

It depends a lot on company, position, project, etc...

In Beijing, for chinese just graduated : 2000 per month (or less).

If senior for a big company 20.000 or more.

(All before taxes of course ;) )

That is why as a senior .NET specialist, I prefer to work in Europe, then spend some time here

One rule about china : guanxi. It doesn't matter what you know, it matters WHO you know.

[simplyolaf]

20000 rmb per month isn't bad at all... but in europe we can earn a lot more if working as a contractor.

Next year I will spend 12 months in china and after that I will switch between europe and china. 3 months in China and 9 months in europe.... at the same time i will start a business in china and see whether I can make almost as much earnings.

[cdn_in_bj]

Yes, you can live quite well on 20000 RMB even in the larger cities and in fact anything over 10000 RMB is considered "high-income" by the tax bureau. But of course in absolute dollar/euro terms it cannot compare with western salaries. However, if you are willing to give up certain luxuries and can adapt to the local way of living then you should be quite comfortable here.

Anyways, Good luck!

[DaTou]

Remember, the important is guanxi.

Personnally, I work in Europe some months, then remote from China for european/us clients. So I can keep a good income.

And yes, 20.000 is huge income for china. Can live like a king ;)

[simplyolaf]

how do you get your clients to let you work remotely from China? Do you offer a slightly lower rate if working from china?

[Prodigal Son]

A foreigner starting an IT training school in China sounds like as bad an idea as a foreigner opening a club. I live in Chengdu and there are ads for IT schools everywhere, competition in that market is fierce even in west China.

[DaTou]

To work remote from client is also matters of guanxi ;)

If they know you, you already had contract with them, they trust you, so they can accept working remote. If it is your first contact then it becomes more complicated, as most companies will be cautious about it.

Of course you have less choice of contracts, as some companies don't want remote at all. Nothing is free in life! But it is worth the little inconvenients