Job Discussion Forums

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

"some British colonial backwater"

How intriguing ? Do tell ! Belize, Ulster, Ascension Island ?

TeacherDude95 · Joined: 10 Jul 2015 Posts: 19

I heard it was Malta though he apparently struts around like a proper colonial 5 star general in the making.

desertfox · Joined: 14 Jun 2015 Posts: 120

Fascinating discussion on TTC

Does teacherDude95 have any further information on TTC for prospective teachers?
Particularly on the team leader structure that has been used there?
Desertfox

Lord T · Joined: 07 Jul 2015 Posts: 285

The word is that the team leaders known as ' The Actor', and 'The Fraud' have been relieved of their first-line management duties.

Whether or not this is the start of a long-overdue clear-out of the impostors remains to be seen, but it is certainly a good start.

It's nice to be able to post positive news about the TTC: new recruits (if there are to be any) should sleep a little more soundly tonight.

desertfox · Joined: 14 Jun 2015 Posts: 120

Yes, I understand that although "The Actor" and "The Fraud" have been relieved of management responsibilities, they have both been given other roles by the person in overall charge of the department.

"The Actor" now has the role of finding suitable accommodation for new teachers (if any appear). "The Fraud" apparently has taken the role of "mentoring" the uninitiated.

TeacherDude95 · Joined: 10 Jul 2015 Posts: 19

TeacherDude95 · Joined: 10 Jul 2015 Posts: 19

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

"How to be efficient and organised"

This is standard in most training roles in KSA. Locals have to be trained to turn up, on time and put in a day's work. Or at least to pretend. You think training Saudi "Shebab" to do that is easy ?

I detect a strong whiff of Germanophobia in the post.

Lord T · Joined: 07 Jul 2015 Posts: 285

It's a German company led by Germans.

The last year at the TTC has been a disgrace (Read all previous posts). All the events of the last year have now been fully documented and sent to senior management in Germany.

The college starts soon, so teachers should be returning this coming week.

In the next few weeks we should learn whether GIZ is serious or not about the education part of its business in KSA.

desertfox · Joined: 14 Jun 2015 Posts: 120

Just to echo Lord T's last post, the management performance at TTC became so poor that one began to wonder whether Giz's prime reason to be in the KSA was indeed to run the TTC?

As has been stated previously, Giz has limited experience in the education field. It is not really their thing. They have had training projects aborted before, these were raised in previous posts.

One (eccentric, but decent) teacher of long standing at TTC always contended that Giz had a presence in the KSA for reasons "other" than running the TTC. Namely, that they were there for wider political reasons. It is true that Giz have been involved in defence/security related activity on the Saudi/Iraq border. I used to think this particular teacher suffered from a certain paranoia, but I can now see his point.

It goes some way to account for the sheer incompetence, and lack of interest shown by the management in what should have been a thriving college.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Well what would you expect from that lot ? See what a mess they made of reconstructing Germany ! Their primitive economy still makes things instead of doing clever things with derivatives like the City of London !

babur · Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2015 7:26 am Post subject: derivative

clever?

http://www.silverdoctors.com/tag/derivatives-collapse/

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

I was employing that literary device known as "IRONY"

Finance Capital has destroyed the UK economy.

dragonpiwo · Joined: 04 Mar 2013 Posts: 1650 Location: Berlin

Training is often a sweetener for much bigger deals. Oil companies do it all the time. They win a contract and promise to train locals. It's a headache for them.However, it suits both parties. The multi-national wins the contract and the local government keeps loads of its wild youth occupied in places where they can't get up to any bother. These 'ization' programmes are politically driven. Managers are obsessed with bar charts and pie charts and NUMBERS, to hell with what is possible or the quality of the output. What they want is often impossible but EFL departments are the bottom on the food chain so our job is really to take the crap. Technical trainers will be the first to point out that the English department has failed. Often the English section can't succeed because of the mince grinder factor ie 100 beginners in, 4 weeks later, 100 out. Because they did 80 hours they MUST be elementary now. No reality about any of it, so take the money and let 'em get on with it till they pull the plug or you get fired for not achieving the impossible.

2buckets · Joined: 14 Dec 2010 Posts: 515 Location: Middle East

"Keep your mouth shut and put your money in the bank"

Advice from "Pappy Rawlins", quality control manager, Bell Helicopter International, Esfahan, Iran, 1977.

Advice that has served me well for decades.

I like to think of it all as the Great "Training" Robbery.