Does anyone work for Al Khaleej Training and Education???

Mmmm, They should get back to you. They always need teachers.
Hang in there.

KevinLJ wrote:

Mmmm, They should get back to you. They always need teachers.
Hang in there.

I'll be at an elementary school that starts in Aug, so I was hoping to have all of the paperwork resolved by now. When I emailed the contact I speak to, she seemed surprised I haven't received the contract and poa so hopefully she checks and gets back to me. Now that Ramadan is in, it slows down the process for sure. How do you like teaching with them and any tips for making the move?

I like it. I had to adjust to the Saudi way of doing things. That is I had to understand that it is in not America, and things move much slower.

Tips... Down load books, TV shows, movies, and music. Open a checking account in your country with a major bank, One with a SWIFT code, if you plane on sending money home. You will have lots of free time, you might want to use it learn Arabic, or study for you masters.

Do you know where you might be sent?

I've already started to make a list of all the shows I want to download and dvds I want to take with me. I haven't thought about books. I'm being placed in Dammam.

Has anybody been hired while living in Saudi? My husband is a Saudi National and I already have an iqama through him. Al Khaleej wanted me to cancel that iqama and get a visa to get a new iqama under them after arriving to KSA. I decided not to cancel my iqama and I would like to know if there is a way to get hired locally.

I am in the same boat. But I think the end of Ramadan and Eid might have slowed the process down a little bit.

You do not want to work for Al Khaleej unless you absolutely have no other choice.  You will not like it.  They are dishonest and dangerous, and at times you end up paying to work for them.

Yes, I am writing after a bad experience with Al Khaleej, but I was far from the only one to be ill-treated and stolen from (read on for others' tales of loss at the hands of these 'people').

The ripping-off could well start with the visa processing if you are recruited while in Saudi Arabia.  Saudi Labour Law states the following: "Article (40): (1) An employer shall incur the fees pertaining to recruitment of non-Saudi workers, the fees of the residence permit (Iqama) and work permit ... , exit and re-entry visas and return tickets to the worker‟s home country at the end of the relation between the two parties."  Al Khaleej ignore this and other clauses simply because - like many employers in Saudi Arabia - they can.

Al Khaleej evade paying visa and flight costs very easily when recruiting non-Saudis from inside Saudi Arabia, as I was.  They let you buy the ticket, pay the medical expenses, and then reimburse only $200 / £134 (in my case, under 10 per cent of the £1,400 I paid).  You learn of this way of doing business about four months into your contract.

Around that time, you may also discover that unlike most teachers in Saudi, you have to pay rent to your employer.  Al Khaleej pull this trick on you like this: precisely three months after you start work (i.e., after the end of your probation, during which time you or they can wash their hands of the contract without penalty; after that it's too late), they start charging rent and back-dating it to cover the first three months.  The wording on housing allowance in the employment contract is deliberately deceptive.  They fooled me by not charging rent for three months, then charging it back-dated.  My salary fell from SAR 15,000 to 9,000 for two months, then was 12,000.  This trick wrecked my plans for completing my MA in 2015/16.

Health insurance provision is another scam.  Here I quote from my email to Al Khaleej manager Saleh Rababaah / Rababaa / Rababah (Al Khaleej employees use different spellings, presumably to try to confuse search engines) after I resigned finally and without giving notice from Al Khaleej:

"Last and on the same note, this wouldn't be a complete account if I did not also refer here to the kiddy idiocies and viciousness of your sidekick Bahat / Bahaa.  He is plainly a lazy individual (I have several times found him asleep on the floor of his office - and, I mean, just look at the filthy state of his car).  Like many useless people in workplaces he spends his time attacking others to make himself look bigger and better than he really is, which in a way he has to because he can 'advance' himself no other way than by pulling others back.

"He's one of the most unpleasant people I have met. Entirely in character for him was the black comedy this month of my hospital visit, where the stupid rudeness of your 'man' included speaking with my doctor about me without my being present, to telling me without even an apology that no bill at another hospital - Qassim National's emergency beds were full - could be paid (that'll be because Al Khaleej have not insured us: telling me that I can claim back 100 per cent of a bill that I pay at any hospital other than Qassim National is not anyone's idea of health insurance, showing your employment contract again to be fraudulent.  And claim money back from Al Khaleej?  You don't pay for months, or you don't pay bills at all), and then driving me with my temperature at above 39° at speed at night with all four windows blasting cold air into the car and him complaining loudly in his hilarious, pants-crapping panic that my mask wasn't covering my face."

Other employees found that their families' health was not insured, again illegally and despite a 2014 change in the law making this mandatory.  At least one colleague was forced to leave because Al Khaleej's failure to pay his wife's hospital bills left him broke after working for Al Khaleej for four years.  And when it comes to paying end-of-contract bonuses, these slimy shits get extremely slippery indeed.  The same guy, an extremely peaceable bloke, was driven almost to violence over the way Al Khaleej handled the end of his contract.

Al Khaleej translates as 'the Gulf'.  Presumably this refers to the region, but it could as easily refer to the size of the gap between what they say and what they do.

Please read this very carefully.

I should have replied to this post practically a year ago... My hopes and prayers are that no one will ever take the risk of working for Al Khaleej... Although, there are some people that are able to tell fairy tale stories where they actually get to teach in a bigger and more westernized city, you are not guaranteed anything. I was promised to teach in either Riyadh or Dammam, but after three days of no contact, I was shipped to a city called Buraidah. If you know nothing of the city, it is (according to natives) arguably the most conservative and dangerous cities for an American in KSA.

I also quickly learned that I was sent under an improper visa, the branch manager at the Buraidah branch tried to coerce me into signing an ill-equipped contract that did not consist of anything in the original contract I signed. I managed to escape after 26 days which was 4 days before my visa was going to expire. I understand that I have made mistakes on my end, but I am trying to save anyone from their own excitement and adrenaline.

Do not ever even consider working for this company or involve yourself with Skyline. They do not care about your well-being and unless you are confident that you can finesse yourself out of a threatening situation, it is not worth the risk. Trust me. Trust someone who has had a horrifying experience because you are never guaranteed the fairy tale one, especially with this company. 

Please, I don't know who you are or where you are from, you must not work for this company... Please take my word for this. I have not even shared a glimpse of what I experienced, but here are nights where I still cannot sleep because of what I was put through.

Please.

I found it strange when I received contact information to a Travel Agency in Quebec by a Skyline representative who told me Al Khaleej will send me an offer.  I tried googling the institution but nothing matched to the information I received.  I was unable to match the people on the contract to the institution.  When I called the agency in Quebec, they knew nothing of me (I was assured by the person from Skyline he was going to send the information to the agency).  As a woman reading the above posts I am happy I followed my instincts.

Lol at conservative cities being dangerous. Horryfing experience ?/ which was what? You didn't get dammam u got buraydah... I'm shivering

lol, seriously. lots of flair for the dramatic on this thread.

I have been here now for almost a year and a half.
I work in a catch 22 environment. I have to follow a set of rules. If I don't I am punished. If I follow the rules and the students complain, I'm told that I am too strict, and I'm punished. It's a perfect Catch 22. I was told by the head of the department to mark students absent for being on their phones in class, or being disruptive. When I do the students leave class and complain about me. I am then told to mark the student present. Every day it's a struggle to find a balance; to keep myself motivated to do just enough to stay out of trouble.
The students can be violent and unpredictable. The department heads who are local or from the west, will not support you. Teach anywhere but here.

A cautionary tale,

I have been offered a job via Al Khaleej (after a referral froma  recruitment company 'On The Mark'.

NOT a PYP programme, but in one of their Direct Learining centres.

$3066 salary
$  533 accom. allowance
$  133 transportation allowance.

Mentioned Jeddah, Riyadh and Khobar (at the start he reeled off other locations like Abha Buraydah- so could be anywhere).

No compounds, so we have to get our own accommodation.

This puts me off greatly, as I know the compounds for PYP teachers are fairly ok.

Said it would be via a 6-month working visa (so not Iqama or even a business visa'.
Mobilisation within 2 weeks and I wouldn;t have to return to the UK, it could be done via the nearest Saudi embassy.

I realize that this post is old, but in case anyone new comes along...

I'm working for Al Khaleej in a small town called Bisha. I went through skyline recruiters. They told me I would be in Riyadh, Jeddah, or Khobar, but that wasn't the case. I didnt find out until 6am the first morning being there that I was being transferred to Bisha. People are conservative and there's not much to do if you're used to big-city life. As a woman, you must cover everything except your eyes and hands. If you're looking for the best experience, don't let them transfer you to Bisha. Half of the teachers quit by the end of the first semester and a few others were fired. One was fired for doing exactly what he was asked to do. The company, as is a reflection of the country, is full of empty promises. The only way you can get what you want is to nag, which puts you at the risk of looking like a greedy woman (or [insert nationality here]), which also puts you at the risk of either being transferred or fired.

It took a month or so for them to get back to me about the job offer and two months to get the paperwork done that they wanted, which costed money they weren't willing to contribute to. They had even said they'd pay for part of the visa but later never ended up doing so. I spent $2,000 in the process and the first month of being in Saudi, before being paid. One of my colleagues wasn't paid until 2 months after working here, yet another colleague who arrived later than her was paid right away once she complained.

I suppose the company is more reasonable in other cities, but here they were calling and texting (not emailing! #professional) us at 9:00pm, even 11:30pm to do work to be done by the following morning. We don't even have internet at our university, so we wouldn't have been able to do such work there.

Speaking of the university, I don't have a computer in my office (which is in the classroom), so I cant enter marks until I get home. They didn't give us blackboard (the website to officially enter those marks) until the end of the first semester. The training was in Arabic. And don't get me started on the issue with setting up and transferring money to your home bank account... If you have loans, dont use Al Rajhi especially if you're American; they "dont transfer to the states."

The toilets at the uni are disgusting, there is a family of cats living in the classroom/office, and no heating in either the uni nor the apartment. We had to beg for heating until they gave us a space heater which is only good for a few feet in front of it.

The only good parts of teaching in Bisha, KSA are 1) it's cheap in comparison to the US and 2) the students; even they can make you want to quit at times with all of their nagging (which you have to do as a woman here). e.g. "teacherrrr, no teacher, no quiz please, noooo" and "teacher why not full marks?" while they're sitting there texting and talking in Arabic. On the positive side, they're sweet and warm up to you quickly.
If you're Muslim, there are the perks of having plenty of mosques and many of the teachers are Muslim too.

Oh I also had a few incidents of stares, creeps trying to flirt because they think westerners are easy, cat-calling, and even a guy touching me at the bus station. Despite being legal, It's not safe to travel alone.

P.s.s. I've seen tanks go through and the sound of artillery at night. Missiles have had to be intercepted. That's actually the least of my concern here. I'm too stressed about work to even care about all that.

Hope that wasn't too much information.
Good luck!

@KevinLJ
I have the same issue. "Why did you give them such good marks? You're fired" (a coworker of mine) and in the end they curve those students to pass anyway. Nobody communicates with each other and will make you do work you've already done numerous times. Anyway, preaching to the choir. I hope you're doing better now in 2018.