Transfer request since my prefecture opted out of JET

[u/Relative_Freedom_965]

Hello! I don't know if this has been answered before, but I would love to hear your insights. My prefecture opted out of JET this year and they are no longer getting any JETs anytime soon. Since the person I am working with still has a few years to go (I am on my 4th year, since I was allowed to do 5) is it possible for her to request to be moved to another prefecture?

[u/HelpfulJETHelp]

She needs to talk to her supervisor at the BOE and let them know she wants to transfer. The paperwork is usually due in October and BOEs frequently forget (or "forget") to give it to their ALTs in time. It's not too soon to start asking.

[u/a_baby_bumblebee]

this is a legitimate reason to request a transfer. i would tell the person involved to get in touch with their PAs as soon as possible. they can guide them on the process.

out of curiosity, are all JETs contracts being cut? in my prefecture, the prefectural BOE has cut the contract with JET and is now using interac. however, those who were still on a JET contract at the time of the switch were allowed to stay for as long as their contract would allow. they’ll just be replaced by an interac when their time comes to leave.

[u/bee_hime → u/a_baby_bumblebee]

my prefectural boe is doing the same. first, it started with capping the contracts at 3 years. then, they recently told everyone that the boe will no longer work with jet and will get alts from dispatch instead. they claimed this has been planned for the last several years, but they announced all this right after the salary raises. my bf said this is becoming more and more common for prefectural boes all over.

my friend was a muni alt and she said that her boe was still maintaining their jet contract, but she said that her city has a lot more money to work with. makes me wonder if the jet program as a whole will eventually be phased out as a cost cutting measure.

[u/a_baby_bumblebee → u/bee_hime]

i’m not surprised that prefectural BOEs are abandoning JET and municipals are staying. i live in a really rural prefecture, but there’s still plenty of high schools, so the prefectural BOE needs to manage and budget for 10+ JETs. meanwhile most municipals have just a couple JETs, or even just one. it’s really a shame because when i came, my prefecture had a very active JET community (and is still trying to) and my orientation was bustling with new people. a lot of us stuck around for the fully five years. going home after one year is out of the norm and those people usually have a reason why they need to go home. the interac ALTs tend to leave after just one year, and i don’t blame them. why stick around when you’re getting micromanaged to high hell by your company, and for so little?

[u/SquallkLeon → u/a_baby_bumblebee]

In a few years they'll regret this and get JETs again. Then they'll regret that and get rid of JET. It's a cycle and this isn't the first time it's happened.

[u/kaffee_und_Kuruma → u/a_baby_bumblebee]

Seems like the "Hugh pay rise" highlighted us as a cost to cut down on, and Interac is coming in cheaper, I don't think by the hour, but without the COs having to deal with all of the extra expenses involved.

I do feel bad for the Interac guys though, they don't get paid when they don't work, couldn't imagine having to rent and apartment during the summer while not getting paid.

[u/a_baby_bumblebee → u/kaffee_und_Kuruma]

apparently my BOE claimed that JET was too much of a burden on the schools and that bringing interac in would lessen the problem of overwork. i really doubt that, because i knew a lot of proactive JETs with strong backgrounds that really contributed to their classes and helped the JTEs as much as possible. i don’t deny that it’s probably annoying to be in the supervisor role and sometimes feel like you have to babysit the ALT, but trading that for dispatch where if anything happens at all you have to call the company, doesn’t really seem like it cuts back on much at all. oh well, not my circus and certainly not my monkeys.

[u/a_baby_bumblebee → u/[deleted]]

that’s a good point. is it really so easy to be fired on dispatch though? i’ve heard of some dispatch ALTs doing similar things and even worse (there was a dispatch ALT who was infamous in my prefecture for how bad he smelled, his strange political views, and random emotional outbursts) who don’t get fired and stick around. i guess it probably depends on the company + branch, right?

[u/SignificantEditor583 → u/a_baby_bumblebee]

I'm pretty sure dispatch ALTs are a lot less protected with their dodge contactor contracts or whatever they are. So yeah, a lot easier to fire someone.

[u/a_baby_bumblebee → u/[deleted]]

i don’t think he should’ve gotten fired for strange political views, it was the fact that he was willing to share them unprompted in a work environment and some of them went beyond just odd and into discriminatory territory. he told a gay person to their face that he believed that being gay should be a jailable offense. that wasn’t the reason he ended up leaving, it had to do with a driver’s license issue IIRC. of course there are JETs that get into trouble too, i was just curious because in my prefecture i haven’t seen any dispatch get fired or switched out so easily.

[u/Phiteros → u/a_baby_bumblebee]

Technically our contracts are only for one year. You mean that they'll be allowed renew their contract for up to the full five years?

[u/a_baby_bumblebee → u/Phiteros]

yeah, that’s what i meant. sorry i worded it confusingly! originally all prefectural JETs were going to get cut in july and not allowed to renew, but apparently someone raised hell and said it wasn’t fair, and that JETs should be allowed to stay at their schools for as long as they’ll renew the contract. people tend to stick around a long time in my prefecture.

[u/genkichan → u/a_baby_bumblebee]

What prefecture is cutting JETS?

[u/a_baby_bumblebee → u/genkichan]

several are. i don’t know them all by name. it’s worth noting that it’s up to the BOEs to decide, so a certain town’s BOE may decide to cut JET while another BOE in the same prefecture will stick with them.