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Tomatis
Joined: 20 Jun 2012 Posts: 8
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 10:33 am Post subject: Kaplan International Colleges / Al rowdah academy |
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anyone got any experience they want to tell me about with either of these institutions? |
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nomad soul
Joined: 31 Jan 2010 Posts: 11454 Location: The real world
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 10:51 am Post subject: |
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Do a search on "Kaplan" and you'll find plenty of negative comments about them. |
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Tomatis
Joined: 20 Jun 2012 Posts: 8
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 9:45 pm Post subject: |
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done and appropriate conclusions drawn. thanks |
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kdredsea
Joined: 16 Jun 2010 Posts: 13
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Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 11:57 pm Post subject: scam. sham. |
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These people--and i say it with the intended consequence of making them otherwise--are unkind, unhelpful, and mercenary. I and three other people--all highly qualified ESL instructors--were let go by this company for manufactured reasons--before the end of probation--perhaps because we weren't brits, though i can't be sure. I may be unhappy about being let go by them--given the fact of all the time I put in to go there-- but I am not a disgruntled or bitter employee. They lied to all of us from day one--about the length of the commute, and the danger of it; the time to get into our own respective apartments, paid flights, etc. It's a sham of a company, though some I know have stayed on for the money. That will be what you get--they pay on time--but don't got there expecting anything else of wort. or help. or kindness. |
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lord dobbin
Joined: 26 Nov 2009 Posts: 11
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Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 8:06 pm Post subject: |
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were you, by any chance, posted to the 'stunning al gharbia campus'? |
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Gus Barkley
Joined: 26 Aug 2010 Posts: 78
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Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 9:37 pm Post subject: |
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I like the term "mercenary." Having worked for Kaplan in the US (and still have many friends struggling there) "mercenary" is an apt description. Any illusions of producing an educational service went out the window years ago. |
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kdredsea
Joined: 16 Jun 2010 Posts: 13
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Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 10:00 pm Post subject: |
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yes--al-gharbia--lovely, it was. only 1.5 hours each way from A. D. unlike the promised 30 minutes... |
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Geronimo
Joined: 11 Apr 2007 Posts: 498
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iggyb
Joined: 19 Aug 2012 Posts: 36
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lord dobbin
Joined: 26 Nov 2009 Posts: 11
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Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 7:37 pm Post subject: |
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A kaplan recruiter who had a patter like a timeshare salesman also tried to flog al gharbia to me - I was also told it was a thirty to forty minute drive each way and that I would have a private chauffeur (I think all this meant I wouldn't have to drive the bus myself). All my subsequent dealings with Kaplan had the stench of people on commissions saying anything to reach their recruitment targets and I ended up withdrawing my application after a few months of vagueness and apparent ineptitude on their part. The more tales I�ve read and heard, the luckier I feel I didn�t get tied into a three year contract with heavy severance penalties - I�m actually intrigued by the extent of the mismanagement. A former colleague who spent a year under the impression he had a job there and was going to be posted �anytime soon� only to receive a cursory circular email stating that recruitment had closed, has actually gone as far as consulting an employment lawyer about Kaplan�s putative malpractice. I can�t see it going anywhere as he didn�t even get the job in the end, but apparently there is an issue about Kaplan being a fit and proper organisation to be handling personal data and making misrepresentations to potential employees . I think they are registered with the British Council but I am not sure if this implies any standards about how they treat job candidates or even staff. It�s quite amazing how many people one organisation has managed to p*** off. |
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kdredsea
Joined: 16 Jun 2010 Posts: 13
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Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 10:56 pm Post subject: same topic, same school. |
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You'll note that Adveti and a whole host of other schools somehow fall under the Kaplan umbrella. The principal of the school, an ADVETI employee with no theoretical power over me, told me (and others who were technically IAT employees) that if we didn't keep our students in our rooms until the end of the period (like cattle) he would fire us forthwith. As an employee at the school in Al-Gharbia, you technically have four different bosses, from four different organizations. Manage that. It's the least-organized organization i have ever worked for, and that is being extremely kind. |
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kdredsea
Joined: 16 Jun 2010 Posts: 13
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Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 11:03 pm Post subject: |
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Because there is no suitable housing there within the accommodation allowance. If they tell you something different that is a flat-out lie, but they are good at that. |
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iggyb
Joined: 19 Aug 2012 Posts: 36
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Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2012 3:16 am Post subject: |
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Quote: |
Kaplan International Colleges has established an international college in partnership with the Institute of Applied Technology (IAT) and Abu Dhabi Vocational Education and Training Institutes (ADVETI) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). IAT and ADVETI offer career-based technical education at the secondary and tertiary levels to meet the industrial and technical challenges and requirements that will allow UAE national students to move on to pursue their careers in the higher technologies. |
http://m.jobs.guardian.co.uk/job/4490303/?FullDescription=True
www.actvet.ac.ae
So, is Kaplan involved with all these institutes? At the ACTVET site I see IAT and ADVETI but nothing about Kaplan.
Oh well. Like I wrote elsewhere, I made it through Korea in the late 1990s, during the devaluation of the Won and the crash of the Asian Tiger economies, a time when the hakwon industry was at its worst.
In short, I'm durable.
And I always keep enough money for a quick flight home is worse comes to worst...I've never had to use it, and I did go through an institute that went bankrupt three months after I arrived. Very unpleasant times...But I navigated through it and stayed on for 2 more years...
I wouldn't like being threatened with being fired, but I could hear a principle in a school back home warn about letting students out early. Even when it comes to added duties outside the classroom, if you teach back home, that is to be expected, at least in the US.
But, having been through Korea, the question is whether the place is run like a professional, real school or not. If it is highly mismanaged, as hakwons are, and you are not treated like a professional employee, then all those extra things add up in a hurry...
With this new position for me, time will tell, as always. No time left right now to look for something better... |
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iggyb
Joined: 19 Aug 2012 Posts: 36
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Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2012 4:10 am Post subject: |
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As long as my contract benefits are not being robbed, the key problem for me in Korea was the number of in-class hours.
The only time extra meetings or duties got to me was when I already had a 35-40+ hour schedule of actual classes.
Any tacked on time was a big pain if you were already exhausted with no energy for planning... |
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republocrat
Joined: 14 May 2010 Posts: 70 Location: Stuck in Traffic on Airport Road
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Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2012 8:01 pm Post subject: KRAPLAND again!! |
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Krapland do fully know that their reputation is as low as a rhino's ass, but they don't seem too bothered. They figure that there'll always be teachers desperate to work in the ME, so why try going for quality?
A Brit colleague of mine had a nice little anecdote to tell about Kraplan. A couple of years back he applied for a UAE teaching post via their UK recruiter, who duly called him and gave him a short but professional 'filter interview' just to make sure he wasn't a total fruitcake (he was interested in working for Kaplan, after all, which in itself is almost an admission of madness).
They promised that one of the UAE schools would soon contact him, and so they did - after more than a a month had gone by, and he had found a better post. He had also had time to do an internet search on them, and that was what made his decision for him.
When he informed the interviewer (who had called an hour later than arranged) that he was no longer interested in working for them, as he had read so much bad stuff about them on the web, the interviewer became quite annoyed. There then passed a period of about a month in which Krapland contacted him every other day, almost begging him to change his mind, and dismissing the bad news on the web as the work of a handful of malcontents. Even the UK recruiters got back in touch and tried to reassure him that Krapland are a serious employer.
Which, as everybody knows, is a long way from the truth.
No, I would avoid these bunch of cowboys. And if I ever meet somebody who actually works for them and has ONE good word to say, I'll eat that rhino. |
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