Job Discussion Forums

[syntax51]

Any info on working for European Center in Saudi Arabia? Thoughts, concerns, raves, rants?
Many thanks!

[Rennenkampf]

Its actually quite civilised.

[robertinarabia]

The European Center has been around for many many years and has a proven track record of fair dealing with teachers. It is under British management. The EC for short is the last hold out against the gangsters who have now moved in on Jubail to pilfer and pillage. I have no hesitation in recommending the EC. In total honesty, I have never worked there personally, but I have met their teachers including senior teachers over the years and none have ever had anything bad to say about the place. Most of their work is with Jubail based companies like SABIC and other big names. Their head office is in Riyadh I believe.

[Stephen Jones]

[robertinarabia]

What provided the niche for the EC? Only the lack of quality of the governmental institutions in Saudi Arabia. The competence levels of JIC graduates is abysmal forcing, I repeat forcing, companies like SABIC to invest millions in retraining. If JIC and other places, like Hafr Al Batin Community College and even KFUPM had done it RIGHT FIRST TIME then there would be no need for outfits like the EC or Elite. Their whole business is essentially built on trying to correct the shoddy workmanship of others. Is their own work any better? On an institutional level- I don't know, suffice to say that JIC and KFUPM churn out graduates with an education that is not fit for purpose and is regarded by Saudi industry as a complete joke. Most graduates of the JIC English program can't even say their names properly. So long as this continues, institutes, like the EC, which you view with such contempt, will always make money retraining people JIC and others have already passed. Do you think that Betty Azar is going to fix the problem? You're right, Betty Azar at JIC, as you said in another post, originates with Aramco, which I know all about. The Aramco problem has essentially been third worldized now to bring it into line with the expectations of a caste of Palestinian administrators. It would not stand as fit for purpose in the real world and owes more to traditional Arab concepts of curriculum design than anything that comes out of the USA these days.

[AGATHA]

True.But don't forget that native speakers/Western teachers are now a small and hated minority at the Jubail Industrial College.

[Rennenkampf]

The managing director of the European Centre is a man of matchless aplomb and undimmed verve.He is a doyen of the new wave intelligentsia.In addition to being an authority on the literature of the 19th century he is also an unjustly neglected author in his own right.
The proprietor who is a member of a well known banking family leads a reclusive life in Riyadh.As befits a member of the Saudi gentry his main recreation is hunting.
The accommodation makes no concession to mere sensual luxury,being more conducive to plain living and high thinking.Indeed the company villas echo to the sparkle of ready wit and the glitter of scintillating repartee.The interior decor of these establishments possibly owes more to minimalism than baroque.
The existing staff are an aristocracy of talent embodying the rich gallimaufrey of English eccentricity.Some are very frugal,some are very reticent,some are very houseproud and some are bohemian.
In short I would certainly recommend the European Centre as basically the best place to work in Jubail.Salaries are always paid on time and there is no network of informers.All the staff are native speakers thus
promoting a high standard of discourse .
It is a rare pleasure to speak to the recruitment official at the European Centre who is a native English
speaker and a gentleman(in cotrast to other recruitment persons at nearby more industrial places) .Moreover, the culture of purges and dirges,the pattern of Joe Stalin advertising for the Gulag,is unknown at the European Centre.
Compared to many establishments it is the Elysian field of the Tefler.

[AGATHA]

QUOTE.''Moreover, the culture of purges and dirges,the pattern of Joe Stalin advertising for the Gulag,is unknown at the European Centre.''UNQUOTE
You know,I believe Joe Stalin was Georgian but the recruitment guy at the Jubail Industrial College is a little South African.

[robertinarabia]

I think you're right Renn. The EC has a good name overall. It's free of purges and spies unlike JIC and it carries on its work peacefully without the terrible headlines surrounding Jubail Industrial Academy- which from the very day of its inception crowed loudly that the EC was a spent force. If its such a spent force then how come it's still around, answer that JIA? The EC seems alive and kicking as for as I can see. Good. That means there is still some kind of hope that evil and brutality will not triumph. The EC is not going to go under. Enemies of the EC- stop dreaming that you are going to dominate Jubail in your New Order. It's not going to happen. The EC has held out and sane people all over pray that it will prevail. The Ansaris are going nowhere fast- except maybe on a one way ticket back to the UK and their ice cream van. Stop scamming the staff and PAY TEACHERS THEIR MONEY.

[robertinarabia]

Mr. Jones, though I respect your opinion very much, as you know, you have offered great advice concerning the debacle at JIA, but you seem much less convinced about the EC, having referred to it as Al Dodjhi on one occasion. To undermine the EC now is really like undermining Churchill in 1939. Are you going to go down the same road as Neville Chamberlin and appease the thugs and fascists now trying to take over Jubail? Isn't it enough that IH 'advisors' have now infiltrated SABIC and that JIA won't pay its teachers? IH is the Neo Soviet Totalitarian slave empire par excellence. JIA is just a cheap gig where you get scammed. The EC, in my possibly very misguided and foolish opinion, seems to be the last hold out of common decency. No thugs, no brainwashing, no dehumanziation through endless labor, free thought. The EC represents the old values of the 19th century. IH represents the very worst of the 20th. What do you prefer- the new nazi order of IH or just the petty bullying of the Ansaris? After what happened to ELITE then the staff at JIA there's not much need for me to care anymore, I am far away, I only wish those left at JIA where away from the mess too.

[mouse5]

[quote="Rennenkampf"]The managing director of the European Centre is a man of matchless aplomb and undimmed verve.He is a doyen of the new wave intelligentsia.In addition to being an authority on the literature of the 19th century he is also an unjustly neglected author in his own right.
The proprietor who is a member of a well known banking family leads a reclusive life in Riyadh.As befits a member of the Saudi gentry his main recreation is hunting.
The accommodation makes no concession to mere sensual luxury,being more conducive to plain living and high thinking.Indeed the company villas echo to the sparkle of ready wit and the glitter of scintillating repartee.The interior decor of these establishments possibly owes more to minimalism than baroque.
The existing staff are an aristocracy of talent embodying the rich gallimaufrey of English eccentricity.Some are very frugal,some are very reticent,some are very houseproud and some are bohemian.
In short I would certainly recommend the European Centre as basically the best place to work in Jubail.Salaries are always paid on time and there is no network of informers.All the staff are native speakers thus
promoting a high standard of discourse .
It is a rare pleasure to speak to the recruitment official at the European Centre who is a native Englishspeaker and a gentleman(in cotrast to other recruitment persons at nearby more industrial places) .Moreover, the culture of purges and dirges,the pattern of Joe Stalin


Gentle what? Not from what I've heard

[robertinarabia]

Yeah, what's all this Brit stuff about literature? Sounds like the ersatz bourgeouis values of the poor school kid who somehow got to go to university ( and never got over the experience):- And didn't do much after that. All this stuff about literature isn't what we need to know, the question is has EC got the ability to smack down JIA? This is what we need to be thinking about here. I will say one thing however, a friend of mine who I worked with in the Navy in Jubail ( and who shared an interest in astrophysics and planetary observation which is rare here ) and met up with later, always said the the manager of the EC was a gent. That really is all I know. So I maintain that the EC is a good call.

[robertinarabia]

So if you ask anyone really, like me, and everyone else, everyone approves and acknowedges the achievments and integrity of the EC and Renn is right, teachers have always been paid on time as far as we know. No reason to think otherwise. Veiled, Cleopatra, Cobra, Steven Jones, Van Norden- everyone who's anyone is dave's, yes, even Mr. Jones- the Gandalf of TEFL in Saudi Arabia and wonderful Cleopatra have all given the EC a great vote of confidence!
" The EC is just great", Cleopatra.
" I advise anyone considering a great career in TEFL to think seriously about going to the EC- the hallmark of quality in Saudi Arabia". Mr. Jones.

[dmb]

[Rennenkampf]