Job Discussion Forums

scratchpiece27 · Joined: 11 Mar 2011 Posts: 44

I'll start by saying that I've heard all of the horror stories about this company. My plan is to treat it as a one-year prison sentence so that I can save some $. I have 4 years teaching experience, a TEFL and a bachelors. I am not a certified teacher. My offer is:

Monthly salary of 12,250
Accomodation: "An allowance of 25% of basic salary payable monthly"
Trasnsport: "An allowance of SR 1000 payable monthly"
Location: Riyadh
Paid Annual Vacation: 30 days
Net Salary: SAR 16,313

"The employee is assigned to work at King Saud Unviversity
teaching up to 25 hours weekly and no less than 20 hours weekly unless otherwise approved by the university; working a total of 40 hours weekly on- site. "

DLIguy

fledex · Joined: 05 Jun 2011 Posts: 342

At least with ICEAT you know your prison: no transfers to Bagram, Abu Ghraib, Qassim, Najran, or Gitmo. Just keep hoping they don't torture you with a roommate that plays Sesame Street or Andy Williams songs at night.

DLIguy · Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 3:04 am Post subject:

scratchpiece27 · Joined: 11 Mar 2011 Posts: 44

CANDLES · Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 8:14 am Post subject:

I've been told no sharing - own apartment!

With a salary package like that - better to be in prison???? than out of it!

plumpy nut · Joined: 12 Mar 2011 Posts: 1652

Why not flip burgers rather than work for them?

Sheik Yerbuti · Joined: 02 Dec 2012 Posts: 105 Location: the promised land

Take it, buy a Kindle fire, and think about improving your attitude about
where you will be living.

plumpy nut · Joined: 12 Mar 2011 Posts: 1652

I'm not sure of what your idea of a prison is. These companies are not all that pleasant, but right now money's a wasting. One year and you have the money and you can wash your hands of the situation and the company.

EnglishDoYouSpeakIt · Joined: 19 May 2009 Posts: 151 Location: Saudi Arabia

Just an FYI for most universities you get a lot more time off than just that 1 month paid during summer. For example this year we get 10 days for in October, a 4 day weekend in September (Saudi National Day), a week in January and a week in March.

This may vary from place to place and sometimes there are those terrible non teaching weeks where you go in and waste a week of your life with BS.

That salary looks decent enough.

Grendal · Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 11:40 am Post subject:

Contract is OK. Your call on taking it though. Teachers that have been with ICEAT for four years are getting just a little bit more than your offer. Don't expect a raise every year either.

Grendal

fledex · Joined: 05 Jun 2011 Posts: 342

Management is everything. While Edex and ICEAT might have the wasta necessary through their sales management side to make money, they are horribly lacking in service management. Look at the buffoons running the service departments. It isn't getting any better. Your only hope is for placement in a university that might have superior management that trumps management in these companies. You won't get that at KSU.

AJ88 · Joined: 05 Sep 2013 Posts: 99

DLIguy · Posted: Mon Sep 09, 2013 7:57 pm Post subject:

I need some info from someone currently at KSU working for ICEAT. If you're there, pls. PM me.

Marcus Darcy · Joined: 12 Mar 2014 Posts: 4

Hi,

New to the Forum. Been meaning to post about my experiences with ICEAT but just haven't got round to it. They are really lovely AT FIRST i.e. before all the lies and deceit beings to unravel with unsavory consequences for you a teacher. My cohort was lied to from the very beginning about visa allocations, with UK based recruitment agencies (M2R in our case) in on the whole scam. First, they offer you the job with the promise of an Iqaama visa (without which, life in KSA is simply intolerable, impractical and if the immigration police get hold of you with a lapsed visa visa, bloody well dangerous!) A few weeks before you are set to do your medical, you'll get a call to see if you wouldn't mind going out on a visit visa, as iqaama's are taking longer than expected to procure (always the fault of the Saudi embassy, never the fact they don't have iqaamas and have no way of getting them due to the size and structure of the company with respect to Saudisation laws - to be precise, they don't employ enough Saudis and therefore are ineligible for iqaama visas). They sell the whole visit visa thing by making it out to be a short holiday, all expenses paid, where you're only in Riyadh for a month to fill a teacher shortage, before they fly you back to the UK to undergo your medical. I naively believed them and thought it would be a good way to get the salary clock ticking, and get a free trip back to the UK in the mix - THIS IS EXACTLY HOW IT WAS SOLD - so I don't begrudge myself the naivety (this time). On arrival, it seemed like they would honour their word. Everything about the welcome was really tip top. The hotel we stayed in was classy. They even did some grocery shopping for us and left a nice little card in each of our rooms. We were taken out for a meal and met the MD. In short, we felt really valued but in hindsight it was all to mask the fact that no one was going home in October; no one was getting an iqaama. Once we started working at KSU, alarms were raised by veteran colleagues - some of whom had worked for ICEAT and explained how everything about what we were going through (delays in visit visa extensions which meant we were illegal immigrants for large periods of time and couldn't leave Riyadh for fear of arrest; constant lies and delays to when we would be sent home; the suggestion that we were not entitled to pay when we did return to the UK for our medicals; etc) - was all textbook ICEAT bullshit.
We're still in the Kingdom 6 months after we were supposed to be sent home to have our medical. We've spent more time here as illegals than as legal migrants. Most of us haven't left Riyadh for fear of being stopped by border guards. Some of our colleagues resigned and were told that if they leave the country the immigration police would intercept them and make them pay back flight charges etc. In short - avoid like the plague.

ED EX aren't much better, in fact in many areas they are much worse. ICEAT pay their employees on time, at least - ED EX staff sometimes have to wait 3-5 days after pay day to get paid. But, in part due to the scale of their corruption which even ICEAT can only aspire to, ED EX have no visa issues. If they say you'll come on an iqaama, you will.

It's really six of one and half a dozen of the other. Both treat their employees like expendables rather than valued and respected staff. Both companies treat promises, particularly verbal or even written communications (emails etc) as strategies for crowd control - nothing they say is binding. Honour is scarcer than water. My advice, get everything you have agreed signed in the blood of your contract well in advance of your travel to KSA. And bring a good pair of shoes. It didn't take long for the glue in my Topman pair to melt.