Job Discussion Forums

babydriver · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 4 Location: Bratislava, Slovakia

Does anyone know anything about Bell-Krakow, or Bell anywhere else? I'm looking for jobs in Europe, Poland or Portugal.

Thanks

Brooks · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1369 Location: Sagamihara

I have never worked at Bell in Krakow but I have a Polish friend who does.
I think it is fine except that they have weekly meetings on Fridays that start after 9:00 p.m. Confused

I guess they couldn`t find a better time to meet.

The pay is ok but she has more than one job. Many Poles work at least two jobs to pay their bills.

As for Bell in Warsaw, mixed. I have heard some bad things.

babydriver · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 4 Location: Bratislava, Slovakia

Thanks for the information.

Marion

babydriver · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 4 Location: Bratislava, Slovakia

Thanks for the information.

Marion

Selyer · Joined: 04 Feb 2003 Posts: 62 Location: Poland

Hi Brooks... I'm curious to know what "bad" things you've heard about Bell in Warsaw as I have a friend who's been offered a job there next year. I've generally heard OK things about them.

Brooks · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1369 Location: Sagamihara

I can`t exactly remember what it was but I remember hearing a lot of complaints in March of last year.
It was a couple of Australian women who got sick of working at Bell in Warsaw. One left and went to another school which is located in either the old or the new town of Warsaw.
The other decided to go to China to teach.
Bell got bigger and started Metropolitan college (which is just a school). I think it was Metropolitan they didn`t like.
What was it? maybe company classes early in the morning that were kind of far away,
or having to go back and forth between the two schools (plan at Metropolitan and teach at the other school , which is
near Plac Tziechy).
One teacher used to have to get up at 5:30 twice a week to teach company classes on site.
I don`t know if they got reimbursed for transportation. Maybe going between the schools was a pain due to their locations. Metropolitan is located near the subway stop Pole Mokutowska (the one after Politchnika).
But I know a British woman that worked at the original Bell school and I don`t recall her complaining so much.

As for Bell in Krakow, they have a relationship with my school in the US called Saint Michael`s College, and I think some teachers from Bell go there to get their MAs in TESOL.
At least one professor at St. Michael`s has taught at Bell-Krakow.
The salary at Bell is probably ok for single people, but not for those who are married.

Alex Shulgin · Joined: 20 Jul 2003 Posts: 553

Bell in Warsaw is nothing to do with Metropolitan. Metropolitan used to be called Universal English College. Then it became affiliated with Bell schools and adopted the name UEC-Bell. Things got so bad at UEC-Bell that Bell was forced to send a quality inspector to investigate. The inspector was so shocked with what he found that Bell immediately took away the Bell affiliation and name. So UEC-Bell became Universal English College - British English Language Learning, UEC-BELL for short. The two minor partners left and set up their own school, taking with them the DoS, ADoS and senior teachers. UEC-BELL had a 100% turnover of native speakers at the end of the year. I think about 3 of the Polish teachers stayed on.

Bell were not happy with UEC-BELL and so helped the Gdansk based Bell school group open a school in a great location almost next door to UEC-BELL. That took away a lot of UEC-BELL's business. Bell also started legal action against UEC-BELL. So UEC-BELL changed its name to Metropolitan and continued to maintain the same low standards that it has always had.

Don't confuse the Bell school that is in Warsaw with the Bell affiliated school which used to be in Warsaw.