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A Question About Footprintsrecruiting.com

 
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teachertomthailand



Joined: 31 Aug 2015
Posts: 31
Location: Eugene, OR, United States

PostPosted: Thu Oct 08, 2015 9:18 am    Post subject: A Question About Footprintsrecruiting.com Reply with quote

When I recently flew from Bangkok to Boston I had a short layover in Dubai. I started to wonder what it would be like to teach ESL there. I must admit that I have always been fascinated by the middle east and I love the food! I came across an ad on this site by footprintsrecruiting.com. They pay between $36,00 to 66,000 and they do not require a masters degree. Since I just read the book Fluent in Three Months I would not attempt to work in the midldle east without learning Arabic first. I am studying Spanish now and i feel that I could become fluent in Arabic by using the methods in this book.

Questions: Is the UAE a good place to work? Does anyone have any experience with this recruiting company? Do they really offer free housing? What is the hardest part of working in this country? Any help you could give me in answering my questions would be much appreciated. I want to know if this is a reasonable idea before I take the time to learn Arabic. A bit about me briefly: I have a TEFL and a CELTA as well as two years of experience teaching in China. I have a degree. I am now in Boston and will start teaching here in a few days.
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nomad soul



Joined: 31 Jan 2010
Posts: 11454
Location: The real world

PostPosted: Thu Oct 08, 2015 11:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

That ad states that a teaching license/certificate is required. For Americans, that would be a license issued by the teacher's state department of education. In addition, you'd need to have relevant teaching experience (usually gained in a public school in your home country) and a related degree. That's typical of k-12 jobs in the UAE. Unfortunately, a CELTA, unrelated BA, and two years of teaching in China won't cut it.

By the way, there's no need to learn Arabic; English is widely spoken as a second language in the UAE because of the country's extremely diverse population.
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Noelle



Joined: 26 Mar 2005
Posts: 361
Location: USA

PostPosted: Mon Nov 16, 2015 4:42 am    Post subject: Footprints Reply with quote

Hi OP

I'm quite familiar with Footprints. They are the "Korea Experts". Back when they were still a small Canadian recruiting agency, I used them to find a position in Korea and was very happy with them. They've grown substantially since then (this was more than 10 years ago). And yes- they recruit for UAE, but they require state or province certified K- 12 teachers.

These jobs in UAE are also quite competitive and Footprints gains a commission for each successful teacher they place in one of these positions, so they vet the applicants rigorously. In fact, they do that for all of their placements worldwide now because the supply has exceeded the demand in the EFL world.

Stay in the U.S. Get some more teaching experience and if you can, consider an MA TESOL or MA Linguistics if you're serious about this field. If you're just in it for the travel and 'free handouts' offered by so many overseas EFL contracts, then do us all a favor and stop.

Oh-- and if you are interested in K-12, international schools in the Gulf countries are much better options than anything Footprints or any other recruiter can get for you. You'll need the proper state/province issued teaching license for this though. Good luck...
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wailing_imam



Joined: 31 Mar 2006
Posts: 580
Location: Malaya

PostPosted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 9:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

What's "a TEFL and a CELTA"?

I know CELTA. It's a certificate, hence the C.

TEFL just means Teaching English as a Foreign Language. Can you have one of these???
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David S



Joined: 21 Apr 2016
Posts: 25
Location: Edinburgh

PostPosted: Wed Jun 01, 2016 10:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

What's a TEFL & CELTA?

Come on! You're joking.
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jmvkjmvk



Joined: 25 Mar 2014
Posts: 41

PostPosted: Wed Jun 01, 2016 10:41 pm    Post subject: Re: Footprints Reply with quote

Noelle wrote:



Oh-- and if you are interested in K-12, international schools in the Gulf countries are much better options than anything Footprints or any other recruiter can get for you. You'll need the proper state/province issued teaching license for this though. Good luck...


What is the best way to find and apply to these international schools? Through a recruiter? Or one of those TIE/ISS websites?
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inshala



Joined: 30 May 2016
Posts: 13

PostPosted: Wed Jun 01, 2016 10:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I just had an interview last week with an international school in the UAE and they were going to just match my UK current salary, which is just supply teaching. It wasn't worth it for a subject teacher. it seems typical of UAE IS to match home country salaries. She told me that teachers who had opted for their own apartments were strugging to pay their rents. Best to take company provided apartments then. I didn't get the job as it was out of my teaching age group. I wouldn't have taken it if they would have only matched my current salary. No point going all that way to earn the same amount of cash even if it is tax free, as you end up paying throught the nose for things there and renting cars which all adds up unless you just stay in your villa being bored.
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currentaffairs



Joined: 22 Aug 2012
Posts: 828

PostPosted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 12:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Footprints is a decent company with some good contacts. They tend to have a number of High School jobs on offer.. Other decent recruiters are Teach Away and Prime Teachers.
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nomad soul



Joined: 31 Jan 2010
Posts: 11454
Location: The real world

PostPosted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 3:25 am    Post subject: Re: Footprints Reply with quote

jmvkjmvk wrote:
What is the best way to find and apply to these international schools? Through a recruiter? Or one of those TIE/ISS websites?

Those sites as well as a simple Google search for american curriculum schools uae, which yields lists of schools you could apply directly to. Research, research, research.
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Gulezar



Joined: 19 Jun 2007
Posts: 483

PostPosted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 4:09 am    Post subject: Re: A Question About Footprintsrecruiting.com Reply with quote

teachertomthailand wrote:
Since I just read the book Fluent in Three Months I would not attempt to work in the midldle east without learning Arabic first.


You would be one of the few expats working in the UAE who is "fluent in Arabic", and I wonder if anybody would be able to understand your "Arabic". The Gulf Arabic is a stretch from "the fus hah", the Standard Arabic, which is generally taught. Most people do it the other way around. Once they are working in the Middle East, they attempt to learn some basic Arabic. However, very few people ever get beyond the basics.

Dubai would not be the best option for a place to try immersion learning of Arabic. The varieties of Arabic you would hear would be everything from the subcontinent pidgin to the classical, five times a day from the mosque.
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veiledsentiments



Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA

PostPosted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 2:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

inshala wrote:
...unless you just stay in your villa...

I wouldn't count on getting living quarters that would be called a "villa." Not unless they will force you to share it with 4 or 5 other teachers. Most teachers are in flats...

VS
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dmlandis



Joined: 15 May 2016
Posts: 2
Location: China

PostPosted: Wed Jun 15, 2016 3:32 am    Post subject: Footprints Reply with quote

A few years back I went through the Footprints recruiting and interviewing process for UAE/ADEC. Found it to be bit daunting - ending up flying on my own $ to Phoenix and found it to be a unsettling interview. 30 minutes - a bored Emirati asked me my religion and a UK principal asked me in great detail about my months/days/weeks of teaching experience. Plus I put down some medication I had taken and was asked in great detail about it.

I didn't get job - but not withstanding ended up teaching in China and will be teaching in another MidEast country in a few months.

I don't know what others think about the ADEC cattle call interview experience??
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