GEPIK has had too many problems with hiring couples, so their unofficial policy now is to try not to hire married or unmarried couples. It creates extra work for the school, to find a couple-sized apartment, and 2 schools must work together on such things, which is something that doesn’t happen too smoothly in Korea.
With married or unmarried couples, or 2 close friends our best suggestion is to focus on applying to EPIK if you'd like a public school job. We also place a high number of couples/friends in reliable hogwans (that we have usually helped for many years).
Another great option for couples, is to consider the very exciting public school jobs, in key cities in China, such as Shenzhen (Hangzhou and Chengdu are also very popular with our network of teachers!). This world class city sits just across the Bay from Hong Kong and is an expats paradise.
The pay is excellent, at between 10-13,000 RMB/month
Free housing or a very fair housing allowance.
Flight allowance
Top-quality medical insurance
No-interest loan on arrival
Let us know if you'd like to email with some of our many happy teachers at public schools in China! With Korea plateauing several years ago, China is the most exciting ESL job market in the world at this time. Check out more at our sister company - Teach ESL China (www.teacheslchina.com)
For couples or friends who want to stick in Korea, but maybe EPIK doesn't work for you - the best approach is we find a job for one of the teachers/applicants, and the 2nd person will then focus all of their energy looking for jobs in that same city – even with multiple recruiters to help their chances. Worst case scenario, is the 2nd person can go to Korea at the same time, under a spousal visa, and find a job through networking with other foreign teachers on the ground in Korea.
For unmarried couples, we would focus on placing the male in a certain city first, and then it’s much easier for us to match the female to the same city or area.