Job Discussion Forums

[maniak]

I don't even know where to begin... a few positives if you work there but overall if you have any sense of decency, morality or even a shred of
humanity I'd avoid this school. Yes, you teach english, though the entire school does sort of function in its own little 'method' bubble, you get paid on time, money is ok, nothing special... lessons are preplanned and just require photocopying and thats about it, oh wait, you can pretty much go on vacation any time you want. But overall your job involves making up for the abomination that are the preplanned lessons (as well as students book/computer lessons), handling administrative tasks like calling students who dont show up, just finished a level, just started at the school or who just had a bowel movement, and pretty much bare minimum in terms of classroom materials, and minimal support, training or any kind of "perks" like water or a coffee machine.

I DO have an axe to grind with the school, as they should have been sued out of history or shut down by the govt , but I still work there (as depressing as it is), but once you learn the truly sinister inner-workings of the school, how they sign up students using lies and deception (imagine starting a class like usual to have a new student interrupt saying, "Wheres my 40 individual lessons that I was promised", or "I was promised groups of less than 5 and here are 10 people"... at least once a week), how they legally fine students for resigning, overall the entire setup of the school is pretty much a gigantic scam charging students exorbitant amounts of money for twenty one-hour lessons over 3 months. If you use google translate and type in "speak up" into google.pl you'll see for yourself what former students say about the school. Imo a system that HAD potential but got killed by greed.

And finally, avoid the consultants/director who work there and stick just to the DOS as they at least have an idea that of a "school" is, but if you ever wanted to meet the real life incarnation of that oily used car salesman, a hustler liar or cheat, you got it at speak-up. Most of consultants, and 100% the director, probably struggled to accept how unethical their job and what they do is, but the money quickly gets to them (10k+ a month), but most dont make it (including the receptionists) past 6 months due to the incredible amount of stress, pressure and deceit. Im talking about an 80-90% turnover rate over a period of months. Nice to have new faces every couple of weeks.

Anyway, if you need more info about the school just pm me, but seriously avoid it no matter how enticing their job offer might me, most of it was and still is a bunch of BS.

peace

[delphian-domine]

Worth pointing out that they're also owned by the same people that own Empik.

[maniak]

Yea, you actually dont work for "Speak Up", the school is a part of Learning Systems Poland, one big corporation which also own the Empik schools, together they have about 200 schools and 50,000 students. Basically the director of the school (not the DOS) is a paperpusher, cant make any decisions and everything gets routed to and done in Warsaw. LSP itself is owned by NFI Empik Media and Fashion Group, which run the Empik stores and a ton of other stuff. Speak Up is also in Ukraine. From what I heard the origins of LSP are pretty sordid, basically the Speak Up model (as a business and school) used to exist in Spain until they went bankrupt from scamming too many people the same way they do now, rebranded themselves here in PL and have been in operation for 5 years or so.

[Janek]

xxx

[wojbrian]

I worked for the Empik in Zielona Gora.

I never had any problems. Maybe it depends on what district or region you are in.

[Blasphemer]

I've heard some positive things about Empik, mainly salary related. As per Speak-up, I've read horror stories from students. Something about the contract being actually tied to a bank and not school, so what they're actually signing is a bank loan and it's absolutely impossible to break. Also I've seen people trying to sell their remaining hours online. Sounds like a really dodgy place. It used to be called Orange, but from what I understand, that was even worse. Either way, the amount of negative things that I was able to find just through a simple search... nah... there are few other schools here in Warsaw that I've had the "pleasure" of working for... ugh... seems like there are no good schools which work at a level which even try to resemble professionalism.

[Blasphemer]

The used car salesmen line could apply to pretty much 99% of schools here hahaha... that goes for "lektor" employment as well as the deals that they sign with their clients.
Last year I met a young fellow from the US who was hired on some silly basis of work exchange of some sort. He had absolutely no work experience, nor did he have any credentials to teach... he spoke English... that's pretty much it. His first day, he was sent to teach 5 year old kids at some private preschool, where they told the parents and the school owners that he was an amazingly talented teacher with loads of teaching experience. Needless to say, they then proceeded to let him loose in a classroom environment with 15 little unruly chimps brought with the "stress free" approach; you know, the - don't raise your voice or punish your child for anything way... that didn't last very long. Funny biz that we all got into.

[dynow]

blasphemer wrote:

[Master Shake]

My gf goes to Speak Up and seems to like it ok. One nice thing about the school is their 'flexible schedule' which lets you choose which lessons to attend. Her work schedule is always changing so she can't commit to a fixed weekly time slot.

But I've looked at some of Speak Up's materials and they're quite strange. Some of the answers to exercises are just plain wrong. I'll post some examples later.