Usually, the real training many Asian teachers undergo occurs on the job after graduation from college. Graduates of teacher training programs are still considered novices who need guidance and support from their experienced colleagues. Unfortunately, this experience has never been considered a major prerequisite for teaching in Indonesia. Our teachers generally have fewer years of formal education because society does not expect teacher training to be a primary program in universities. People consider teacher training programs an incidental project rather than a serious course of study.

Competition for teaching jobs in Asia is far higher than in the United States. In Japan, about 200,000 people take the difficult prefectural certification exams each year, but only about one-fifth actually obtain teaching jobs. The desirability of the teaching profession in Japan is evident in the fact that candidates who fail their first attempt commonly make a second or third attempt to pass the exams. In the U.S., by contrast, certified teachers can almost certainly find a job if they are wiling to be relocated.