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I saw an ad offering over 4k USD monthly, plus airfare, housing, health insurance, and paid vacations for teaching positions. Is this the norm over there? Because if it is, it's a well kept secret; South Korea isn't even offering packages like that and they're getting all the coverage. Does anyone know any teachers over there and what their general package is like? Similar to what's listed? I'm assuming there must be a huge catch.

How is teaching there in general, is the curriculum strict and predeveloped? Are teachers given good support and a strong curriculum to work with?

Hi there

First of all welcome to dubai forums.

Teaching generally is not good as there is no practical exposure.
Only book reading is done.

By the way where are you from?

I'm from the States and I'm currently in them. I just saw this ad today. Not as good in comparison to...? Western Europe? I know the classroom won't ever be as good for language learning as total immersion, but it's better than nothing at all. Do they have phonics exercises? Pronunciation tests?

Thought someone had started a thread about me when I first saw this....

What car do you drive?

Four wheels... One steering wheel...

wasabi wrote:I saw an ad offering over 4k USD monthly, plus airfare, housing, health insurance, and paid vacations for teaching positions. Is this the norm over there? Because if it is, it's a well kept secret; South Korea isn't even offering packages like that and they're getting all the coverage. Does anyone know any teachers over there and what their general package is like? Similar to what's listed? I'm assuming there must be a huge catch.

How is teaching there in general, is the curriculum strict and predeveloped? Are teachers given good support and a strong curriculum to work with?

I'm pretty new to the forum, but to me this looks like a normal package, or probably on the lower side depending on the specifics. 4K USD is about 14,400 AED, which may or may not be enough (depending on your lifestyle) if you are living in Dubai. Also, a lot of these perks like vacation, airfare for one trip for your family, insurance are mandatory, i.e., your employer should provide those by law.

I would also suggest that you check what kind of housing they're talking about. Are they talking about a housing allowance, or campus accomodation? If they're talking about a housing allowance, how much would it be? A decent 1 BR apartment in Dubai can cost anywhere between 6 - 9000 AED per month.

Last but not the least, search this forum. A lot of would-be teaching expats have already posted similar questions and all the answers you're looking for might already have been posted!

Good luck with your job hunt!

Sorry, DP!!

Can anyone already there tell me how, with free housing, anyone could not make enough on over 4 grand a month? Do food and transportation cost an arm and a leg or are there hidden expenses I've read nothing about? What are the hidden costs? Because at that pay even if you bought a new laptop every month you should still be able to make ends meet.

I'm not a big spender and I've got no dependents, I'd only go over with the intention of saving. It's sponsored by the government. If that means that the pay is lower but guaranteed to be paid out on the date that it's due and all other terms of the contract are kept, I'd take that over a higher package any day.

I have searched the forums and saw a similar question. The person who responded said it did look high, others are saying it's normal, maybe not enough. There was a transportation and food allowance. I've worked in Seoul and I don't know if UAE is just hell bent on paying teachers what they're worth or if Korea is just cheap. Probably the latter .

wasabi wrote:I saw an ad offering over 4k USD monthly, plus airfare, housing, health insurance, and paid vacations for teaching positions.

Sounds like the packages offered by Global Recruiters. They advertise positions for places no one has ever heard of, like...

Deira Homeland School
Atika Language School
Zafira Language Institute

$4k per month for a teacher is possible but at the higher end of the scale (some get over $5k plus all benefits you described). Schools paying that much usually advertise in the TES, the TIE, or go to recruitment fairs. They rarely use job agencies or advertise online, and have no shortage of applicants.

ESL jobs in crappy schools will pay half that or less, and have few benefits. Here's more about teaching in Dubai.

The ad was posted by the Ministry of Labor. The materials emailed to me are not from a recruiter. Is that apt to lead to a real school?

I just want to start teaching again in March and if they have a better job in a country with higher pay and more expats, I'll take it in a second.

Neeeeevermind. It is a waste of time, found out on another site. For anyone else doing a future search, they are neat enough to use a different website:

The real MOL:
http://www.mol.gov.ae/index.php

The fake one:
WWW.UAEMINISTRYOFLABOUR.TK

It's a recruiting company looking for cash and passport numbers. Somebody should shut that website down quick.

wasabi wrote:The fake one:
UAEMINISTRYOFLABOUR.TK

Ha ha, I think that's a Global Recruiters effort. All they've done is get a free domain name from Tokelau Islands (.tk) and frame the real MOL website.

It's either the same as, or similar to, a trick I saw them use a while ago.

That sucks, I really hope they get into huge trouble with an actual government someday. Even if the pay were the same, I'd rather try out working in the middle east over Korea. Probably not this year.

They responded to my email on a Friday, too... a government agency in a Muslim country open on Friday...

good luck