Job Discussion Forums

[ai565ai565]

I just noticed that The EC is advertising yet again.

Anyone applying should be aware that the EC has a very high turnover of staff.

In the adverts they always add

"European Centre offers all its learners a Can-do competency
syllabus and testing system, with a strong accent placed on the
use of Powerpoint, Macromedia flash and Adobe format materials for
projector, lab and smartboard classes. European Centre is also
pioneering Tactile Learning, Simulator and Digital Data Projection
activities in the English Training process. Applications from
instructors with an interest in digital media production are
especially welcome."

Please note that as far as I know the centre has no interactive white boards. In fact it has no internet access for teachers, and no video projectors. Nor am i aware of any digital media production there. I have no idea what is meant by simulator activities. The story with tactile learning is similar.

Perhaps I am wrong about this. If so could someone please up load photographs of these facilities.

If you have an interview it might be a good idea to ask exactly what is meant by a "Can-do competency syllabus and testing system"-
[/i]

[bonhomme]

I cannot comment on what Jubail is now like. All I can say is the 'school' in Riyadh had two dried up marker pens, no whiteboard eraser, a worn out cassette player, a toilet that did not work, no running water and broken furniture.

[Markemark]

Can do competencies?
What's wrong exactly with that?
Their MD took the idea from ALTE, probably adapted it to Saudi industry and based training objectives upon that.
It's a step up from photocopies of Murphy's or what we used at JIC- 'Betty Azar's Focus on Grammar.'
Perhaps their MD knows pretty much what he's doing?
Just a thought.

[tannhauser]

Recruitment is not the strongest point. That's why the EC is, first and foremost, guilty of giving jobs to cranks. Somehow they can't cope and then run some petty fight on these boards to compensate for the lack of charisma and character they have.

Bone-homme's words are inaccurate because he never worked for the center in Riyadh. He's also a pathological liar and I can prove it, but if I DID [typo] the post would be removed.

ai565ai565 had small groups and wasn't able to cope with the Saudi culture. He resigned and was paid in full.

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]

Hmmm...methinks something foul is afoot...

NCTBA

[zero tolerance]

Saudi learners may be prone to laziness but they're most often shrewd judges of security versus insecurity in teachers. My experience at EC was largely positive because the syllabus I taught and the way testing was conducted was very localised. The Centre produced class magazines for my groups. When I did video lessons I showed them process oriented videos (ice factory, bread factory etc) which the EC had produced itself by filming at local factories. The testing was very stripped down and minimalist in the way it focused on certain can-do statements. Students responded well because they understood all the effort involved and they found the whole approach to be, how shall I say without being old fashioned: sincere. They felt secure with that. I was comfortable with the approach and my students were comfortable with me.

On the other hand there were at least two staff who were struggling when I left and who I now know from colleagues did not go the distance. Naming them will only cause this thread to be removed. One of them could not manage classes of more than four persons. He had a background in freelance tutoring at company level in Austria and had to do everything on his own controlled, selfish terms and had no idea how social patterns work in KSA whether inside or outside the classroom. The other teacher likewise had to do everything on his own terms, including changing student answers and registers and I won't mention here the links to this person that went up and were subsequently pulled on this forum. Sociopathic would be the best word to describe him.

Sure, you can get better jobs in KSA in terms of accommodation (sharing is a negative) and the salary ranges no doubt are higher on military projects and at most universities. But I have yet to find an employer that matches EC in terms of the effort it makes on the academic side of things. That's a plus for those who may be new to the profession or still interested in developing as teachers.

[realt]

Mr Tanhauser and Mr zero tolerence are the management of the European Centre, so anybody reading these posts should disregard their comments.
Can do competency:The above is an example of the can do competency training that I received at the European Center.
Mr Tannhauser(European Centre management) demonstrates this competency quite impressively also by being able to identify the user ai565ai565 with some remarkable skill.
Also the identity of Bonhomme and where he worked for the EC and other managenment information.
As for Mr zero tolerance, this is representative of the dual personality conflict that afflicts the management at EC.
Note to the MOD:
I appreciate you have a difficult job to do and I think you are doing it very well and helping to provide us teachers with a very important forum to allow us help each other with relevant and useful info, however I think that providing the management of poor schools with explicit instructions on how to have the negative postings about their schools removed from the forum was a mistake(see subject line). It is easily rectified in the current situation as European Center's management are highly experienced in dealing with negatives posts and have perfected the art of having them removed, so this oversight was of no benefit to them but could be to the management at other poorly mananged schools.

[tannhauser]

What a paranoid. Readers should disregard this person's comments.

ai565ai565 - if you GOOGLE it. There he is. From the data available you can tell who it is.

bonhomme - simple, he writes like he speaks. AND there's an awful lot more about him ONLINE courtesy of the Associated Foreign Press.

...and one more thing.

A little presumptuous of you to say 'Mr.' Tannhauser?

ps.
I teach.

[tannhauser]

MOD edit


Its a shame this has become so sleazy, but people should know the facts about the former staff who call this a high turnover place. There was a bad batch. They're gone with the exception of one soon to be fired Judas.