Desert rose

Hi,

You might be interested in this thread - http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...highlight=ADEC. I have heard other horrible stories about the schools here as well. Most of the teachers I know are fed up and frustrated.

Personally I wonder why they bother to employ people to come here in order to benefit from their knowledge and experience only to resent you and not listen to or value your input when you get here. Just for show I suspect. Don't expect to be welcomed with open arms and smiley faces. The other benefits of coming here need to be really important to you to make the potential frustrations of the job worth while. Hard to judge until you get here, I know. Considering the situation for teachers in the UK it's probably worth a try if you do not have high expectations, are level-headed and can bite your lip!

I should point out that I'm not a teacher but I do work for the AD government so I know the general mentality and attitudes of people in the public sector towards foreigners. Others may disagree though of course.

Al Ain however isn't as bad as people make out. The rent is much cheaper and you have the option of going to AD or Dubai if you need a bit more excitement (only an hour and a half's drive). It's more family-orientated but even young singles can have a good time . It is green and landscaped and very well maintained, though of course you don't have the beach.

Its not as materialistic and superficial as Dubai which I personally hate. It is more traditional and has the highest percentage of Emiratis to expats (which could be a good or a bad thing depending on how you look at it ).

People have traditionally come to Al Ain in the summer for it's dry climate which is far better than the horrible humidity of AD and Dubai, in my opinion. Plus you don't get the fog. With the less traffic and more sedate driving it's far more safer on the roads as well. Everything's within a short drive so you'll have much more spare time. Plus if you're family are not happy here you can always commute from AD - many people do (not Dubai because the AD government will only pay you your housing allowance if you live in AD - a new rule from next year).

I'm not sure about the salary - it depends whether it includes the housing allowance? I'm single and earn 20k and spend 45k on rent. I save a bit but not as much as I thought I would, and I live quite modestly.

Also bear in mind that rent here is payable in advance - either 1 year or 6 months (you will have to give a post-dated cheque for the second installment). You can get some rents with 4 cheques but not for more expensive (ie family) houses. So you need to check that ADEC will pay your housing allowance in advance so you can pay your rent (advance payments have been stopped where I work recently). If not you need at least 6 months rent in your pocket.

Plus you will also have to fully equip a house as they all come totally empty. That along with additional costs means you will get through quite a lot of money when you first arrive and it may be 6 months or even a year before you can actually start accumulating. I didnt really save anything in the first year after furniture, car, fees etc.

I'm not sure it will be as easy as they make out for your wife to get a job in the schools with her not being a teacher. Teaching assistants or helpers are generally Filipino and poorly paid from what I understand. She might struggle to get a job.

But these are just words of caution so you know what you might encounter. Your current situation doesn't sound great and at least here you can rely on the sun Properly considered and planned I would give it a try - I'm sure your kids would find it an adventure.

mathematist

But have they started recently? There are advisors already who've beeen with Adec for over but the new recruits of advisors like the OP may have a long wait, around 2 months or more.

scrubbedexpat141

No idea, it's the wife of a guy I know. He said that she was Head of English I think for ADEC. Not sure how long she's been doing it.

mathematist

Yeah, it's a blurry line between the roles but for the advisory, a long wait. I have several friends who have been waiting since March, having interviewed back then, specifically for the advisor roles and only now have some started to arrive.

eire

I read this post as I'm in the same position as you are. I have three kids under 7 and i think it would be a good move for the family to experience life in another culture. I was offered the post 14months ago but had to withdraw my offer and I am now considering going out in Aug next year. Have you made a decision?

Papa Leon

I had one year of Hell working for ADEC - the recruitment agency teachanyhow.con misled me with all their propaganda. ADEC are appalling and very disorganised. The school was a daily hightmare Cycle three rich, spoilt juveniles who were delinquent in their behaviour, vandals, furniture throwing layabouts, rude, arrogant, unlikeable and totally disinterested in learning. They cheated in every exam & we massaged all the results each term to accord with ADEC's expectations. I was stalked by a student who had chosen to dislike me for my first term until I threatened to leave. I had a laptop stolen and had to have two major eye operations after a student assaulted me with a laser pen several times in class for which he received no punishment. I was also put in a disgusting apartment that smelt of sewage one day and rotting vegetation the next. They would not move me until the end of the academic year. I was intestinally ill several times with weekly migraines and was absolutely at the end of my tether by the end of first year. I did not go back. Thank God I did not. It is a disgusting place to work and ADEC should be prosecuted under the trades descriptions act.
Hundreds of teachers have walked out and they did the right thing to do that - so you have been warned. keep well away from ADEC and the UAE.

NKL

OMG lasered in the eyes! That is a truly horrific experience, very sorry to hear that. It puts everybody else's moans and groans in to perspective.

Thanks for sharing it with us all. Sobering stuff....................

lullabelle

It's not more expensive in the UK. Certainly where I am it isn't. South east, commute to London etc. Mortgage is way cheaper, food is cheaper, a night out is vastly cheaper, free schools and healthcare. Petrol is hidous, true but I have access to fabulous public transport and I walk a lot more - around shops and markets, mostly.

Plus the atmosphere is dark in some areas but not in others. In my industry it is vibrant and peppy and it a breeze compared with what I had to endure in
Dubai.

Any teachers I met in Dubai and Abu dhabi who re teaching in internatnal schools had a great time. Probably some of the happiest people there. I knew an advisor who had several local schools to "advise" and it was a challenging role, mainly because they didn't want to do anything she suggested and it made her life very difficult. She's still there though, (very sticky end of first year but it righted itself in the end ) so it can't be too bad.

I did meet two very unhappy teachers in local schools. They absolutely hated their jobs and were faced with very similar situations that teachers in struggling uk comps would face - rude, violent and dismissive kids, continuing lateness and absence. And some that weren't the same - having to pass kids who were academically challenged because they were "told" to, having to mark kid's as attending who hadn't etc etc. It can be tough.

If you can make it work financially and you have researched the company thoroughly then it's a great experience. Keep the rosy glasses off though and be prepared for a whole new set of challenges.

NKL

Hi Lulabelle

I am afraid we will have to agree to disagree on this one. I don't recognise the country you live in from my experience.

Taxes permeate the system throughout here so it is difficult to make the UAE be more expensive than UK.

Education & Health - not free - you pay through the tax system . The NHS is unremittingly poor in my experience. Not only do you have to wait for appointments to see specialists but they never seem to "fix" your problems here. In a private healthcare system if you're not happy you move on to someone who can fix your problem. Here to do that you have to "pay" twice, once for the crap NHS and then again to go private.

Cost of heating homes - electricity, gas, oil is high in the UK.

I never paid "council tax" in UAE.

Going out? Can't afford it here - plus you can't smoke so I boycott it anyway, until such time as they create a more flexible entertainment industry, but this will only happen once most of the pubs have gone bust. But that is coming..........

As you say petrol is horrendous here - about 8x the price, and if you live in the country you feel it.

Cars are cheaper in the UAE - spec for spec.......so are repair and maintenance costs.........

Hiring anybody to do anything here? Plumber, electrician.........no comparison........

As for what price you put on sunshine.........???

Once the kids have finished school I will definitely be out of here. Can't think of many worse countries on the planet..........sorry

busybee2

council tax = housing tax in dubai

lullabelle

Well I'm only going in the difference between living in the uk now and leaving Dubai in Feb. My shopping is much cheaper. My Dewa bill was ridiculous and when they charged me for air con when I wasn't even in the apartment for five weeks there was zip I could do about it. £250 lost because computer says no. There are all sorts of hidden taxes in the UAE. I spent way more every month than I do now. Fact. It may be different from your experience, but it is certainly mine.

I'd rather pay taxes for the fab school my kids now go to where they are catching up (there were holes in their education from the couple of years in the UAE... Might be the 3 1/2 hours of week when they did Arabic instead of their curriculum in science/maths etc where the total hours were down. I'm not complaining - I'm glad they had the experience. But the schools aren't as good as they think they are)

Plus my NHS experiences have been excellent. My son had a stroke and apart from the initial a&e experience everything has been brilliant. Still is. I am eternally grateful for the care he receives from what is widely considered the best children's hospital in the world. I have ongoing kidney issues and care is excellent. Dad had cancer - again care fab. I can't complain. I've never had to go private. Lottery postcode? Maybe, but this is the truth.

I can only speak for my experience and my situation, but the gulf was no shangri la. It was a fun place to live for a while but it wasn't home, and it
never can be really. The sunshine was sunshine - yes in the winter the weather is fab but it's too hot to go out for half the year anyway. If sunshine is your defining factor there are nicer places to go for that.

Yes the UK is bad for some people - the austerity measures have hit some areas and some demographics extremely badly, usually the ones who can least afford it. I have done a lot of corporate work recently and there's plenty of money in some quarters, believe me. Yet I don't recognise the broken Britain portrayed in the daily mail and I'm thoroughly enjoying being home. It too a while as you can feel so dislocated. But honestly, for me, this is a better place for my family to grow up and for me to carve a career with some sanity.

I went out to the gulf for work and that's what nailed it for me... The work was shite. I love my work and it was so bad out there that I considered giving it up entirely when I got home. That was my experience. It can happen to other people too. Or they can absolutely love it. Best to be forewarned and prepared. It's not like you're moving to France or Australia. There are definite issues...

mathematist

Have to agree with what you said lullabelle. Just out if interest, how long were you out there fir in dxb?

NKL

Housing taxes in Dubai? New one to me. I never paid a dirham for housing in 14 years in Abu Dhabi.

I suppose it is a bit difficult to generalise, given such varying personal experiences.

As for "broken Britain" - large parts of the UK have been broken/bust for years - this has just got worse in the last few years. Large parts of the Midlands/North/Scotland that lost jobs over the last 30 to 40 years in many older industries have simply not seen any significant replacement of these jobs. Many towns are little more than ghost towns.

But London has been hit too. Over 30% of all jobs in the financial services industry have gone but these people don't show up in unemployment statistics. It is misery behind net curtains. This is simply a middle class version of retrenchment in the steel/coal mining industries, etc of yester year.

London has been held up by foreign money buying property. But all booms come to an end as Dubai well knows. When this happens in London it will have very wide repercussions for everyone in the UK. The UK will also suffer heavily when the Euro currency system inevitably implodes - as it must - the necessary adjustments to avoid this are simply too large and take too long. The history of all fixed exchange rate systems is failure.

In order to make adjustments to sustainable public finances in the UK, taxes are likely to have to rise significantly over the long term unless some magical economic growth appears from somewhere. As the baby boomers move in to retirement those that have financial independence to move overseas are likely to do so to avoid the increasing tax grab putting even further pressure on the reducing number of tax payers that remain in the UK.

NKL

Latest cost of living index for 780 places around the world (list towards bottom of page)

http://www.xpatulator.com/cost-of-li...r-2012_385.cfm

ghekoman

Well, my offer letter has finally dropped onto my doormat.

I interviewed early october for a January start, received a "nod" in mid October and final confirmation today.

Problem is that I am tied into my current UK contract until Easter.

ADEC will consider my case and hopefully they will start me at Easter or August.

Seems a bit odd that they expect you to drop everything and move across in a little over a fortnight!

I have a lot of soul searching to do over the next couple of days......the contract is for 1 year with the possibility of renewal by either party. I was told that the role would probably convert to head of faculty after a year but nothing in writing.

My UK contract is permanent although my school is under threat to amalgamate with others and academise. I know there will be some big changes after christmas and this might be the tipping point.

Have quite a few loose ends to tie up in the UK and need quite a bit of information about the schools in Al Ain for my own kids.

I would be interested if any others are in a similar position.

Interesting times ahead.

By the way, I have just received the UK governments proposals on teachers future pay......we stand to lose any accumulated pay levels when we change jobs and, the schools will be able to decide if we warrant a cost of living increase which, at the moment is in the 3rd year of a pay freeze.

Pensions are already being eroded.

This sort of thing does tend to make one look at jumping ship.

Comments as always are appreciated.

Cheers, a very merry xmas and a happy new year to you all!