Job Discussion Forums

[Time4me]

I have been offered a position through a recruiter in Australia. The ad says "Saudi Academy" and "Saudi International Academy". It seems that they do secondary and tertiary teaching. Does anyone know anything that might enlighten me? Nothing came up through search of this site or google.

Other companies mentioned in the ad are ISRAC and JAM International.

Thanks in anticipation.

[Latteegirl1974]

I applied as well through Jam via seriousteachers.com. It's definately an Austrailian company. I'm sorry that I can't give you more info, but I just applied 2 days ago.
LG

[Latteegirl1974]

oops Australian is spelled like this-

[scot47]

I have not heard of this place. I thought that I knew about the EFL scene in KSA. Where did you see the ad ?

My advice is : "Proceed with caution."

[Time4me]

It was on Seek, in Australia, and also on seriousteachers. I am still waiting to talk to them.

[Van Norden]

This from the seek.com advert:

[scot47]

They have 5 campuses in Saudi Arabia ? Where ? I have not seen or heard of any of them ! Could they be the new rivals to Al-Falak ?

[Latteegirl1974]

Thank-you guys! I remember VS saying to stay away from new places due to start up problems.

[veiledsentiments]

Definitely try to avoid places with no history. Only for the brave or the desperate.

VS
(BTW Lattee... did you know that you can go back and edit your posts? There is a button on the top right of your message... great to be able to go back and fix those embarrassing typos... before Scot catches them...)

[Latteegirl1974]

Vs, I think Scot47 should change his screen name to Conan the Grammarian.....

[Robski]

What�s in a name?

We should all be suspicious of institutions in KSA with such grandiose names. University College Jubail (Jubail University College) has never been a college, a university or a university college. And the Industrial College is neither industrial nor industrious. I can�t believe any �academy' in the Magic Kingdom can be either a real academy or international, especially if no one has heard of it before.

[Van Norden]

Speaking of "academies" and "campuses", does anyone know anything about this "institute"?
http://www.pondssquad.com/splash.asp

It looks very slick and professional, and you get the feeling there's a lot of serious, scientific work going on there.

[Time4me]

Further to these jobs, they just realised I am a woman, so no go... Men only. One of the curses of having an unusual name.

Thanks for all the advice.

[Cleopatra]

What a pain....

I realise that for legal reasons, some employers are reluctant to disclose the fact that they can only take on men (less often women) for certain jobs in KSA. I too have had the experience of sending off an application to a hopeful sounding job, only to be told it was 'men only'. I really don't understand why they can't say that due to Saudi labour laws they can only employ people of (insert appropriate gender).

That way they would be making clear that it is not they who are doing the discriminating, but they are simply acting in accordance with the laws of the land in which they operate. And if advertising in such a manner that would be illegal in certain countries, couldn't you go a step further and say that only taking on people of one gender (and in private correspondence they usually openly admit that they do, as in the case described here) is also illegal, and that institutions that do this should not be allowed to advertise in Britain/the US/Australia/whereever at all?

[007]