Job Discussion Forums

rollerblader · Joined: 01 Jul 2014 Posts: 20

Yay! B3H lost the contract for teaching the Saudi Airforce in Dhahran. The problem is that it is most likely another disreputable cheapie employer picked up the contract. They are known as MLsolutions or something to that effect. I followed up on their website and it does not look impressive at all. Danged if we get picked up by someone as bad as B3H!

Roller

pooroldedgar · Joined: 07 Oct 2010 Posts: 181

The only thing I know about B3H is that they regularly post headlines proclaiming TOTAL PACKAGE $90,000! only to scroll down and see a job that mysteriously has a salary of about 30k.

Anyone want to chance a guess as to why they lost the contract? If we were back on the states I'd naturally assume it's cause they weren't good enough at their performance and somebody else could do it better. But we aren't back in the States, are we?

bertonneau · Joined: 26 May 2009 Posts: 79 Location: Colorado USA

General Dynamics/Blue Force LLC and MLS apparently have jointly taken over the Air Base contract. As the the last two entities mentioned Ive never heard of I only hope that General Dynamics which is a very respectable company will reign in the clown show that B3H has been. One can hope.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

EFLing is just a little icing on the cake for these military contractors. They do not give a monkey's bazoomba about what happens in the English classroomn

westy · Joined: 27 May 2010 Posts: 37

Can't say I'm surprised. B3H is not reputable. That Site Director is a crowd-pleasing moron who was told by the HR director in Florida to start writing up people almost indiscriminately after he didn't do so for a long time. And we now have another idiot who has set up several YouTube videos regarding B3H and actually showed his write-ups in the video. He fed cadets in class (actually several teachers did this to get their students favor) and then whines about how he was "fired". You have Saudi military men who don't know a thing about education trying to run the show, and they are the biggest idiots of all. Men who have to have their way at all costs. One teacher did the best thing of all - stared down the colonel when he started screaming about showing a class-related video. To this stooge, any time someone is showing a "movie" it breaks down discipline, regardless of the subject matter.

yep · Joined: 24 Jun 2014 Posts: 33

I work on the Airbase for a different company and share a ride into work with a few other guys.

This morning we saw a new mini bus dropping teachers off at the B3H school. It had 'FIST Contracting' written on the side.

We all found it very amusing.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Best I saw was the brand-new van with this painted on the side :

"PAINT COMPANY LOGO IN ARABIC HERE"

RickBlaine · Joined: 26 Jun 2011 Posts: 26

Anyone have experience working for BlueForce? I saw an ad on their site looking for teachers to work at the air base in Dharan.

If BlueForce is moving in from scratch, it could be an ugly transition period. Still thinking about whether it would be wise to apply.

RB

CanukBook · Joined: 15 Apr 2014 Posts: 6 Location: Canada, ey?

I'm going to echo what many other blokes have already said in this Forum, in this and in a previous discussion: For your own physical and emotional health and well-being, you might want to think twice about coming here unless your pockets are so full of lint that you desperately need the money. A military-based program? And in KSA? Nobody here knows a whit about education or teaching or learning or administering a program or has any people skills, for that matter.

travelbug66 · Joined: 27 May 2015 Posts: 26

Having worked on the air base before, I can agree that teaching there is a very difficult job. You will have cadets who are chronically sleep deprived, and officers who will berate you for letting them sleep in class. However, it can be done, and there were colleagues who had worked in the TSI for years and years. The pay is around $4000 a month, above average. The accommodation is supposed to be 3 sharing in a villa - not ideal, but perhaps without the mold problem that B3H teachers had. Travel is provided to and from work, which is a bonus for all teachers who refuse to drive in Saudi Arabia.
The contract is for 3 years, so some job stability there as well for teachers who can hack it.
But you do need a very, and I mean very good sense of humour, and a lot of patience. As said before, do not expect an ideal teaching environment and be prepared to be mentally and physically drained after teaching 6 classes a day.
You will be surprised though, in most classes I had on the airbase, there were always 4-5 good students.

CanukBook · Joined: 15 Apr 2014 Posts: 6 Location: Canada, ey?

Out of curiouslty, I took a look at the advert on the BlueForce website last week. Although a bit vague, it implies that the job would require 6 classroom hours per day - that's 6 hours a day, trapped in a roomful of Saudi military brats, generally acknowledged to be among the worst students in the world, with only a 10-minute break between classes, followed by an hour lunch (my Yank friends have told me that the food in the Base mess hall is unvarying and barely edible), followed by an additional two hours of ??? in order to bring the workday to a total of 8 hours. Doing the math (6+1+2), that means that, should you decide to come here, you will be leaving your compound at 6 AM and not returning until almost 4 PM. That's almost an additional 3 hours over and above what the current staff is putting in.

laughingalltheway · Joined: 29 May 2015 Posts: 18 Location: KSA

I was wondering what was going on with this B3H outfit. I was talking to them earlier this summer and they were acting as if they were going to hire me, then nothing happened. They took up a lot of my time while they were just playing a game with me. They would talk about how to dress for work, the working hours, etc. then it was all for nothing. The 90,000 a year thing was strange. They said they pay nothing anywhere close to that. They seemed very dishonest and at one at one point downright rude.

travelbug66 · Joined: 27 May 2015 Posts: 26

I don't deny, I think the job would be very hard. But even the Saudi Uni jobs are exactly the same, clock in a 7-8 am and finish at 4. As a previous poster said, if you are desperate to save some cash, and think you can hack it for 1 year, then maybe it would be okay.
Personally, I curse the day I resigned from BAE, as the pay and benefits, and compound made up for the sheer drudgery of teaching.
I further curse entering TEFL in 1999, it has to be one of the worst jobs for career progression and benefits in the world.
Every year you have thousands of bright eyed, bushy tailed graduates willing to work for peanuts just to travel abroad, which makes life 10 times harder for old lags such as myself.
I was offered a job with ICEAT in Riyadh teaching at a uni for barely over £2000 a month ,minus £1000 for Saudi hardship, and I seriously consider/considered just giving up on TEFL completely and getting a job in a local supermarket.
But, my pockets are full of lint, and I do still have some romantic dream that I could work abroad and save £25,000 a year and be happy.
But, deep down I tend to agree with the previous poster, working 9-10 hours a day on the airbase, coming home to a shared villa with 2 other guys, having 16 week terms without a break or week off seriously can impact your mental health. And, I think my mental health couldn't handle it at the tender age of mid 40's.

currentaffairs · Joined: 22 Aug 2012 Posts: 828

4000 USD per month plus free accommodation?

The daily six contact hours would be a negative for me as well as having to share my accommodation..

Beast · Joined: 13 Nov 2005 Posts: 120

The six classes comes from the Air force. On the project with SSI at Sheppard Air Force base in Texas they say six hours and you come thinking six classes. NO! It's six clock hours which translates to seven 50 minute classes. then if you have your 45 minute "Extra Help" class you can have an 8 classes day. Six classes doesn't seem so bad. And you get NO Full Medical (You have to pay part) or Housing or transport. Same students though. Just Now, they have seen some of America, topless bars, alcohol, etc. Imagine the possibilities for mindless questions you would get.