Job Discussion Forums

[ArtyCycle]

I am currently being recruited by an HR agent, so I have not dealt directly with HCT. I have just been made an offer for an EAP position. I was relieved to get an offer, but when I looked at the salary I wondered that it was just below the half way point of the advertised range. ( I have been assuming that everyone gets the same conditions otherwise.)

In my video interview, I was assured that a Dip TEFLA was regarded as equivalent to an MA, when I asked whether my not having an MA would affect my salary or the level of students I taught.

But when I put this to the agent and asked why my salary is only at or just below the midway point, he seemed to prevaricate. Perhaps I was too bold when I asked if there was a salary matrix. He said that the HCT did not make that available. I was assured that the offer I have is a good one.
Is it unreasonable to want to know how my salary level has been arrived at? Perhaps in the Middle East this kind of transparency is not seen to be appropriate.

I am wondering whether I will later regret taking this offer. The agent seemed to lose patience with my line of questions on the phone. Would any of you hazard to comment, especially someone who like me feels somewhat taken aback that there is no real way to assess the salary they have been offered? Of course it is true that the offer is well above what I would get in my own country. Does one just say Ok thank you very much and avoid asking too many questions?

I have said that I am good at teaching at all levels but that I would prefer to teach higher level students; I believe these are called dipoma and upper diploma students. Am I just too demanding? I have been writing and recording and refining prodedures about techniques and approach in the eap classroom in recent years and have been contemplating whether they could form the spine of an MA some day.

[QatarChic]

I *may* be wrong, but I think the fact that you were NOT hired directly by HCT could be the reason why you were given a lower salary. The same happened to me when I worked in Oman. The recruiters were given a sum of money (taken from your salary) and with this be responsible for our accomodation, etc.....that was a lesson for me NEVER to go through a recruiter again.

[Afra]

I've never hard of HCT using agents to recruit. Each college has an HR department and there is also Central Services in Abu Dhabi. Everyone has to go through HCT screening and then interview. After that, you will have an offer. I think you need to ask the agent when you will have direct contact with HCT.
Some time ago, most colleges went through an exercise in regulating qualifications, etc. and the end results was that an MA is needed to teach at Higher Diploma and Bachelor's level. In the time I've been in the UAE, there has been an on-going debate as to whether DELTA or equivalent, which is not a post-graduate qualification, is the same as an MA; I don't think there is a definite answer, as yet.

[Splitting Hairs]

As far as I know you cannot take a DELTA without a degree so therefore it must be post graduate. I have been in the UAE for a short while and I have found that those with a DELTA are better teachers than the MA only ones. Why do many institutions like HCT insist on an academic qualification like an MA and not a teaching qualification like the DELTA? HCT has just advertised on Daves and have offered posts where an MA is not necessary.

[veiledsentiments]

The question of which is better will not be answered in our lifetime. The reality is that most places will not consider it equal to an MA.

I too have never heard of HCT using agents... why put in a middle man? Apply directly. I doubt that you will have any negotiating ability once you are in this position.

VS

[saluki]

Agreed, apply directly.


The main difference between the MA and the DELTA is that in HCT you get more money for having an MA, but not for the DELTA. If you don't have an MA when you arrive, and subsequently acquire one, you will be placed on the next point on the scale on graduation.

[Afra]

[ArtyCycle]

Thanks for your input comrades. I take an unsurprising view of this question you will think. But at any case I have had a private post and it suggests that the offer is not an unreasonable one. What amazes me is that this agent should sound irritated by my questions and remonstrations about transparency.

( I now wonder whether I got her offside when I asked her to slow down and speak more slowly because I had trouble understanding her accent...! ) Is it possible that this might explain a sudden new tack that she took toward the end of my last conversation with her on my mobile.

She announced that one of my employers had informed her that I had / was suffering from a life threatening disease. At the time I did not know what to say. I could think of nothing that this might relate to, and as the conversation continued I wondered whether this might be some routine way of flushing out information.

She warned that the cost of medical treatment in the UAE would be prohibitive. I said that I had never been asked about my health and that I had assumed I would be answering a questionnaire at some point soon. She left me with the impression that a contract would be in the post within the coming week.

It was only in the hours following believe it or not, that I realised that this information from one of my referees ... related to a melanoma complaint I had some months before I left that employer. It shook me at the time and I informed my employer because I didn�t know at the time whether foreshadowed surgery would interfere with a high pressure EAP direct entry course. I was given other classes instead because any disruptions would have less ripple effects on student motivation and continuity.

Well it turned out at the time that the surgery was easy and done by a GP. Two excisions and biopsies indicated success and have done so since then. Such skin cancers are common in my country.

I am now wondering what to do. I am unhappy that such information was asked of my referee when I had not been asked first. I suppose the question of my previous employer might have been.. Has the candidate missed work commitments because of sickness etc etc. I suppose a valid question of a future employer given the costs involved and so on.

But why would such questions be asked of a referee when I myself had never been given a chance to talk of my own health. I feel quite compromised and suspect that this agent has now thrown my HCT application into limbo.

I had thought after all your inputs that I would make my own online application and sideline the agent. But all this stuff is all on record no doubt now.

I suppose what I have had IS a life threatening disease. But the impression I have gained is that if I keep up my regular checks there is no real problem, that checks indicate that this is water under the bridge.

Well, would anyone be able to shed some light here.
What should I do?
Have I been ditched?
Should I complain to this agent for the reasons I mention.
Does HCT not entertain someone who has had such a skin cancer removed.
I have a feeling that this is now the case. The post box is empty too but it�s only Tuesday.
What of the way she has treated me here?
Should I go ahead with an online application?

[helenl]

My first reaction on reading your message is "why the heck did your referee answer ANY questions regarding your health?"

Perhaps if your prospective employer asked if you had missed any time for health reasons, the referee would be ethically required to answer in the affirmative, but beyond that, he should have referred any specific questions to YOU.

I know one teacher who was diagnosed with cancer, left for an extended period for treatment and returned. However, that person was already employed with HCT when the diagnosis was made - I don't know if that makes a difference.

And to concur with a previous poster, HCT has never used 3rd parties for recruitment in the past and doesn't do so now to my knowledge. (But I'm not in HR)

[NadiaK]

Some (but not all) colleges are now using 3rd party recruitment agencies.

Arty, feel free to PM me if you would like to discuss salary levels etc. off list.

NK

[Moriarty]

Arty
The salary you are offered will depend to some extent on the director of the college making the offer (and some have shorter arms and deeper pockets than others), although HR officers have fairly consistent guidelines based on the usual criteria: length and relevance of experience, type of qualifications, etc. This means there should be no great difference in salary offered to similarly-qualified/experienced faculty taken on in the same period. I've not previously heard of agents acting for HCT although this could well be the case with some of the newer, smaller colleges, which will no doubt take time to build up their support staff.

I know of several people at different HCT sites in the past who had melanomas removed in the UAE, paid for by HCT's medical insurance scheme, with no subsequent hint of termination or non-renewal of contracts.

If you get the job, good luck - and keep out of the sun.

[Mark100]

HCT are very cagey when it comes to salaries.

A few years back I did an interview in Abu Dhabi with the HCT recruitment team and they were almost indignant when I tried to put them down to an approximate salary. The range is so wide yet they refused to reveal their criteria. They were also quite appalled when i mentioned that i was interested in working in Dubai and Abu Dhabi but not in the more remote locations.

I have never regretted not working for them.
I didnt like their atittude at all.

[Dedicated]

It would appear that HCT are in fact using private recruitment agencies, particularly in Australia and New Zealand, and are advertising here in the UK.

A colleague in NZ applied to <responserecruitment.com.au> and was being recruited for Abu Dhabi Colleges. He was offered 11,000 dirhams, and that is with an MA, PGCE, RSA Diploma and 20 years of experience.

He rejected the offer.

[Iamherebecause]

I wonder what would happen if people who feel they might be being short-changed because they began the HCT application process through an agency did a parallel application via that user-hostile form on the web-site? Just a thought.

[veiledsentiments]

I'd say that anyone reading these adverts, do NOT apply through them. Go to the HCT website and apply directly. Whatever the agent is paid has been deducted from YOUR salary!!

VS