Job Discussion Forums

saudimad · Joined: 30 Nov 2006 Posts: 19

Hi,

A friend of mine sent me the following:

ICEAT r a bunch of crooks. They shud be called ICHEAT. They make u pay for ur visa in ur home country, that's �160 in the UK per multiple entry visit visa which only lasts 3 months. Also, if a teacher arrives late due to ICHEAT's agent not getting the visa stamped on time they penalise the teacher deducting pay for the days missed due to their mistake. I can't believe we put up with this. Today they informed us that we must now go to the head office to collect our cheques. What crap!! they're too lazy to even bring the cheques to KSU. Even Edex don't do this and they're bad enough!!!

Cheers

Mysterious · Joined: 24 Sep 2011 Posts: 170

To be honest, I find that comment a bit over the top. They used to bring the cheques to the uni, but now you have to pick them up from the office, yes. However, is that even a thing to complain about? If driving down to an office to pick up a cheque is gonna be a problem considering they pay you on time.. sigh.. there will be no hope for some people. Yes, it's an inconvenience, but some people just can't handle change. We can't have everything handed to us on a plate. Main issue is the pay date and the amount, and in that sense I have to say compared to the other companies I've been reading about, at least they are paying on time! So who cares about driving a while to pick up a cheque? I think that's giving a company a bad name over a very minor issue. It's a once a month thing!

And yep... EdEx might not do that, BUT.. they do far worse things! Far worse! And have known to be a generally bad company (depending on where they are) It's all about priorities and perspective. For example, I'd rather have 40,000SR housing allowance than having a cheque delivered to the university just for convenience. From what I hear that housing allowance is one of the best in the kingdom for a company.

Biggest downfall of ICEAT is the employment visa issue that's happening at the moment. Aside from that, they are not cheaters. They've made mistakes and have paid people back. Teachers have also had to pay for their own flights back home when their visas expired and the company have reimbursed some people for that, too. And in regards to getting penalised for getting back late and having that come out of your pay, that's again not true. Teachers have been paid for the days they weren't there due to the agents fault. Sounds like your friend needs to be a bit more vocal about what he wants.

All I'm saying is please don't knock the company over such a minor issue. People come here to read about companies to work out which ones to work for and which ones not to. So what we say does have an impact on peoples' views, and it's not a light issue either. It's a huge life changing experience. If people aren't fortunate enough to get direct hire, they have to go through recruitment companies. And ICEAT is one of the best from what I can see. Like I said, it's that huge Iqama issue that's shadowing them though...

milliman · Joined: 12 Feb 2011 Posts: 23

Mysterious · Joined: 24 Sep 2011 Posts: 170

What an excellent message. I hope people reading about ICEAT who want to join them will see things a little clearer now.

I wish the lazy folk who moan and groan would just leave and give those jobs to more deserving people. This is why it's important to keep your mind open when reading comments about universities and companies. You'll always find those who make a mountain out of a molehill.

Makes me realise how lazy the modern world has made us. People in less developed countries are walking with pots down to their nearest river, sometimes taking them the majority of the day, just to fetch some water. And here people are.. complaining that they have to pick up a cheque from an office in a luxorious form... a car!

I won't lie, people have left iceat, but in all the cases I know of it was linked to the iqama issue. From what I hear a few people are talking about staying on with the company for at least another year if the iqama goes through okay. My family will probably be doing the same.

Just to add, all my comments are linked to the males side. I have no updates on the females side.

HystericalHoosier · Joined: 30 Sep 2011 Posts: 22

Two things are an issue with working at KSU for ICEAT. One is that many teachers are new and unfamiliar with what to expect. The lack of administrative support at ICEAT is only match by KSU. I have never experience anything like here. KSA is where Korea was 25 years ago in organizational competency. They are great at setting up systems that never work.

Another issue is many teachers arrive thinking they will be teaching in a higher education program. The preparatory year is a training program for people who are far too immature to partake in higher education. You will be expected to carry out their training program, not to teach.

Recently some issues have arisen as to whether ICEAT will honer their representation as to an end of contract bonus. Again we are not living in a country where the rule of law applies.

Mysterious · Joined: 24 Sep 2011 Posts: 170

Betrayer of Hope · Joined: 08 Aug 2011 Posts: 72 Location: in a dark place

As far as I know, ICEAT has brought a lot of new and inexperienced teachers. To make matters worse, ICEAT got these teachers to pay for their own flight and visa to the Kingdom. I heard from some of the new ICEAT teachers that the company won't reimburse them.

The senior ICEAT teachers who have been given Iqamas and are under the old contract have a much better package overall. They don't seem to be having any problems as of yet.

I think ICEAT realized that they can get any Joe-blow with a CELTA and a uni degree into their one and only project (KSU) for dirt cheap. They have taken advantage of desperate job seekers and shaved their salary package.

Mysterious · Joined: 24 Sep 2011 Posts: 170

Some of that is definitely true, some of it sounds like it's exaggerated.

I can't remember the requirements for working there, but I think it was something like a BA with 2 years (min) teaching experience. And people were being rejected if they didn't have 2 years (this was at the beginning of the teaching year in september of last year). Some had to even say things like "well I have an MA on top" and that was taken seriously before actually hiring the person (even with just a years experience). It wasn't a simple "yes, we'll give you a job" thing.

So I'm not sure about the whole taking on teachers who are inexperienced. I suspect that there may be a couple (at the MOST).. but it's definitely NOT the norm. Out of the large group of people my husband knows at ICEAT, none of them, as of yet, went in without any teaching experience (on average they probably have about 3years plus on them). But I'm not saying I don't believe you, 'cause it might be possible, especially since I've heard there are new teachers at the moment who have only been there for a month or so, so maybe they might be the ones you're referring to.

I've recently heard that ICEAT have overstaffed by mistake, so I can't see why they'd suddenly be offering jobs to people with no experience. Sounds strange to me. In terms of shaving their salary packages.. again, I'm not sure what you mean by this, but from my understanding people are getting 40,000 for housing allowance. I know salary for teaching will differ per person, but if they wanted to shave salaries so much, I suspect they'd take it off the housing allowance as well, especially since that is already very generous.

This year sounds like there have been some serious genuine problems within the company and the kingdom's new rules. There was a meeting a few days ago with the UK teachers, and the company apologised and expressed how much money has gone into the whole iqama issue since it started up, and they can't afford to send the teachers back home to sort it out, so teachers need to pay for their own flights back to the UK and Saudi again if they want the iqama. Or, they can wait until September when it will DEFINITELY be done internally (for free for the teachers) because most of the paperwork is sorted anyway, so they have enough time to make sure it all gets done).

A lot of this mess started up with the Saudi authorities saying that ICEAT needs to have a staff base of 35% arabs to get to a green light to have the iqamas done. This problem was not there last year when ICEAT had joined KSU with their one year trial period. ICEAT had to negotiate that down to 20% arabs, and then obviously had to find (and pay!) arab people to work within the company in the background and then reapply (which took a long time).

I'm confident that things will be okay once the iqamas will go through, 'cause the current teachers from that initial one year (last year) are doing okay as well, like you say. And I've yet to see anything bad from the company (other than anything that's linked to the iqama!).

Grendal · Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 10:43 pm Post subject:

Hi Everyone,

Been away for a while but now I'm back. Saudi Telecommunications (or the Saudi version of the CRTC) hath banished us but now we mayest enter again.

Grendal

Grendal · Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 4:48 pm Post subject:

Mmmm Mmmmmm Mmmmmmmmm

There is no particular reason to this entry other than trying to keep relevant posts together on the Saudi page.

Mmmmm M Mmmmm M Mmm

Grendal

milliman · Joined: 12 Feb 2011 Posts: 23

ICEAT as a whole is a lot better than most companies from what i have heard from teachers who work there. they are a new company but time will be their test as in most Saudi companies and change so much for the worse.

i asked my friend to fill me in who works on the male campus and this is what he said

hey
this is place has kind of gone to the grind now. couple days ago on Sunday i got a phone call from the ICEAT HR manager on campus telling me to go and get my supervisors to sign off the new holiday forms and come back so i went and did. i than handed it and as soon as i did i had to sign a piece of paper that basically said "if i dont return by the 31st i will loose the holiday pay and any day that i have missed" i and others have refused to sign. the so called project manager has not been seen because he knows that this will cause him a headache as teachers will be complaining.
ok lets get this straight all the HR team and other ICEAT staff who work there have all agreed that this is a load of crap, because it is not fair and punishing for teachers who are going to get their iqamah out of their own pocket. but nothing can be done.
yes ICEAT are changing and yes they are trying to milk KSU for money. but out of all the other companies such as EDEX a lot of the people there have said ICEAT is that much better.
but like all Saudi companies we shall see if they change for the good or bad

Grendal · Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 11:08 am Post subject:

Mmmmm Mmm Mmmmm Mm

G

Mysterious · Joined: 24 Sep 2011 Posts: 170

Yeah milliman, I hear this was the situation. Teachers have gone home now and some have returned back to saudi with the process for their iqama done and they are just waiting for it to go through now.

And wages were paid on time again this month. I really see this company being one of the better recruiters, as you say. My husband and some of his colleagues will be signing up for another year and have every intention of staying on (unless something better came along).

I still stand by what I say... once this iqama issue is sorted, I believe things will get better. However.. with KSU doing more direct hires for september, I suspect this might be a problem for ICEAT or EdEx, as I suspect the uni will eventually drop one of the recruiters. All guess work, of course. But if they did, I hope it's EdEx!!