This is a summary of the Spring 2013 Opinion Exchange Meeting between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC); the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA); the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT); the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR); and National AJET. The following is a summary of the discussion regarding the report, ‘Reappointment and Retention’. To access the full report, please click here.
Reappointment and Retention
Written by Amelia Hagen, Kevin McCoy, Alan Inkster, Melania Jusuf, Raygan Solotki and James Thomas
Presented and Interpreted by Kevin McCoy
In the discussion that followed the presentation of this report, AJET was able to confirm that JET participants will not be affected by the recent changes in the Revised Labour Contract Act because participants are local government employees and, under Article 20 of the Act, such employees are exempt from the Act.
It was also understood that, until recently, April arrivals were limited to cases in which Programme participants withdrew from their appointments early. In principle, the main intake for new participants will continue to be in summer; however, CLAIR will continue to respond to the needs of local government authorities as they arise, such as when a board of education wishes to employ a JET Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) if a non-JET ALT completes their contract and leaves the position in March or April.
Finally, the relative merits and demerits of both appointing new JET participants and reappointing current participants were discussed in detail. Appointing new participants provides more people with the chance to participate in the international exchange aspect of the Programme and share their knowledge of Japan in their home countries. Reappointing current participants may deepen the individual’s knowledge of Japan and bring more experience to work placements, which is also highly valuable. As such, the Ministries, CLAIR and AJET agreed that there were indeed merits of both.
[…] Reappointment and Retention This report examines how JET participants approach, weigh, and resolve the decision to accept or decline reappointment offers based on a survey conducted among current and former Programme participants. The report also aims to equip contracting organisations with the participants’ perspective regarding reappointment and retention. Additionally, this report presents recommendations for keeping effective participants employed on the JET Programme longer and recommendations for motivating JET participants to complete their terms of appointment. You can read the report here and the discussion summary here. […]