Job Discussion Forums

[the dakota kid]

Hello all,

has anyone ever visited Pavlodar, in northern Kazakhstan? I have been offered a contract through a company called Interteach. Anyone heard of them?

thanks,
tdk

[slaqdog]

Interteach is one of the biggest schools in Kazakhstan and so offers as much security as you can expect to get here. (its the international house franchise I think). Havent worked for them but havent heard anything negativa about then either
The city you ask about is right out in the sticks and could be alright if you enjoy being off the beaten track; also flying out of the country is stupidly expensive.
The pay is nowhere near enough.
I would recommend Kazakhstan as a place to visit but try and get a solid contract -do not rely on promises. In your contract have the amount paid in dollars at TODAYS exchange rate as the tenge is likely to be devalued again soon. (They will pay you in tenge anyway and you wont get a bank account there until they do your work permit which on my experience is never...or soon...maybe next month....we cant pay the bribe....etc....why are you always asking to be made legal?.....whats worong with being illegal in a country with no rights for workers or anyone for that matter?....)

[TOMMY-GUNN]

Just to add my six pennies worth; Interteach i believe are not, despite as the name would suggest, a teaching organisation but if my facts serve me correct, a medical assistance organisation. They use to be pretty 'big' a few years back as western medical facilities were sparse but haven't been heard of much since. Maybe, it could well be that one of you means Interpress which is indeed the Mc-Daddy of schools in terms of size in KZ (they work under the I-H umbrella/franchise) - never worked for them myself but know people (many who have); best to say that they have many advantages, if this is the organisaiton you mean but pay towards the lower end of the spectrum for native teachers.

A point on Pavlodar too - unfortunately, i've never been, so not facts from the horses mouth but is a city with a high HIV and heroin abuse problem but on the flip side, i've been told that has quite a vast amount of pretty Russian girls around, if that helps off-set anything!

Good luck!

[slaqdog]

Yes the school is Interpress (not interteach-when I passed their building and saw the ambulances I thought 'Wow what a great marketing ploy-emergency grammar lessons-vocabulary rescucitation-phonetic script read over the sirens as ther screech thru' the streets to answer an emergency call; but alas they merely try to save peoples lives...).
When you do meet those prettygirls (after you've weeded out the heroin/hiv/tb-since everyone spits in Kazakhstan and the vaccine is no longer efective your chances of coming away with a life threatening and debilitating illness which will then have you barred from working in a few countries are pretty high-dont tell them you are earning 1000US$ a month because they will not believe that any westerner could be paid so little-its just not possible. 3000p/m should be a mim for a DOS position.

[Mojoski]

Well, I HAVE applied to InterTeach (not Interpress), and there is no way it's an IH franchise because they pay way too much, unless the posting is a flat out lie. It does not say 'attractive local salary' like IH always does. In fact, the figure is so high, it's a bit suspect, but there is also another job that pays about the same that I have applied to, so I took a why not attitude and wrote. The acknowledged my application. We'll see what happens. I'll report any results.

[seaskyclay]

Yeah, Interteach and Interpress are distinctly different organizations. I worked for Interpress in Almaty for two years and remember seeing signs around town for Interteach. I was always under the impression it was an insurance company, but perhaps they have a teaching branch as well. It is a very enticing job ad indeed.

[slaqdog]

I'd put a big red flag on this one.
1/ The advert sates: 'help with visa': To work legally in Kazakhstan you need a work permit. You cannot apply for this yourself your employer needs to do the application. If you go with only have a visa it is probably a business visa which allows you to act as a consultant. It does not give you full rights and does not allow you to work as a teacher full time. Therefore you will be working illegally and any contract they offer is not worth the paper its written on. In fact you will not get a signed cantract before you go and will be told it doesn't matter when you arrive.
I worked in Kazakhstan for one year; the work permit never materialised because my company was not prepared to pay the bribe involved. This meant I was paid(when I was paid-delays were up to two months and I never received the full pay promised nor my last months pay nor the return flight, and it is very expensive to fly in and out of Kazakhstan. Being illegal means you cannot open a bank account and so are paid in cash-tenge-which is a safety issue and you have to pay to send it out of the country. Be careful; Kazakhstan is a rough place and muggings of expats take place).
2/ A normal teachers salary in schools in Kazakhstan is about 300US$ p/m. The advert states you will be teaching in local secondary schools and their is no way they will be paying you the salary promised.
Last year I was involved in negotiations with the local council to bring over teachers to work in secondary schools. The pay and conditions were similar. After six weeks of working with the council (we advertised and interviewed candidates and found suitable accomodation as well as testing students levels) they turned around one day and said 'there is no money for the project'. Kazakhstan is like that.
When I was recruiting teachers in Kazakhstan a couple of applicants were from people who had been employed to teach in secondary schools in the region where Pavlador is. Their story was this:
The pay promised never materialised.
They were on a business visa which they had to pay for in their country of residence. So they were working illegally
They were sent to the schools to teach and when the salary was not paid the schools told them that is wasn't the schools responsibility and that they were working as volunteers.

3/ Interteach is NOT a language school or agency; it is a medical insurance company. Do a google search and you come up with this:
http://www.learn4good.com/jobs/language/english/search/job/64295/
They have never been involved in TEFL. Go figure.
4/ Any advert for a school or agency that gives you a gmail address raises a small warning flag. Yes I know not all schools have their own mail accounts but it is a small but telling point.
By all means go for it but have some money saved which can get you out of the country when your salary doesn't arrive.

[TOMMY-GUNN]

So i was just wondering if we reached any conclusion on this posting. I know it was a while since it was up for discussion but i've noticed somewhere that the same job has been advertised. Was/is it legitimate? I'd be especially interested to get comments form you Majoski as to how you felt the application stage went.

Cheers!

[Mojoski]

[TOMMY-GUNN]

Thanks for your reply Mojoski.


Good-luck out there in Oman too. Cheers