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Teaching with dependents!!! UAE

Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2015 3:17 pm
by Yasserezz
Hello,

I am overwhelmed of searching all day to get new information before we take this step. I have a couple of question I really want an answer for them. First one, my wife is very interested of teaching a broad the benefits are very good. We are looking to go to UAE (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain). How we are going to pay for the our kids school. I have searched some and these schools are extremely expensive. So how ppl with dependents do it?

My second one is for whoever traveled with family, does the school or whoever hired you helped your husband/wife to find a job or you just need to find one on your own? I am a Data Manger here in the US working at the school system and also speaks Arabic fluent. Just scared to leave and work as a handyman or a driver after I had my own office :) I spent over 60k to get my B.S and just don't want to lose everything.

Any personal experience will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Re: Teaching with dependents!!! UAE

Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2015 4:57 pm
by National
I don't have personal experience in the UAE, but can give a quick answer to the dependents question. If you are hired as an overseas hire, your children's tuition is covered by the school. One issue you might have is that some schools will only cover one child per working teacher, so with two dependents but only one teacher, you might only have one child covered. Many schools will cover two kids regardless, so this might not be a problem.

As for the school helping spouses find work -- this doesn't happen. You are on your own to find work.

Re: Teaching with dependents!!! UAE

Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 1:41 pm
by vandsmith
from what i've seen (my wife and i work at a school in abu dhabi) most schools will cover one dependent per teacher. some only do 50%.

as for a job for you, i haven't heard of too many trailing spouses getting jobs. some do substitute teaching - is that something you would be interested in doing? you might be able to get into an admin-type job at a school or something - speaking arabic will help you immensely in finding a position over here.

v.

Re: Teaching with dependents!!! UAE

Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2015 10:19 am
by Micky
You will want to be careful when selecting a school as the UAE is one of a few countries where a considerable amount of schools will only cover partial tuition for kids. I am sure there are some there that cover a 100% but it is definitely not a given as is usually the case in other places. I also know that in certain ME countries visas are problematic (not sure about UAE) if the lady of the household is the one that is sponsoring her spouse. Lastly, ADEC (if this is a place your wife is considering) hires a lot of western teachers and they do not offer tuition for dependents and dependents cannot be placed in ADEC schools either.

Re: Teaching with dependents!!! UAE

Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2015 8:55 am
by ShakHak
Hi! Government schools are free to locals only & Arab expats must pay tuition. The children of Western expats aren't allowed to attend government schools. They are allowed to attend private schools & if either of you teaches at the school, there may be some tuition reimbursement available. If you don't teach at the school then no, tuition is NOT covered. Trouble is, many Western expats feel that the majority of currently available private schools aren't particularly rigorous. Many expats with kids home-school.

Unfortunately, no, the recruiting agency is only responsible for hiring the licensed teacher who applied & if the spouse isn't a teacher, they are sponsored on the working spouses' visa. Neither the school, the agency, or anyone will help the sponsored spouse find or obtain work. Having said that, the non teaching spouse is free to look for work once they arrive. If they find it, they'll no longer be covered under the teaching spouse & will lose all benefits so it's important to make sure that if you find work, it's worth it. Most non teaching spouses find it extremely difficulty to find work though.

Many do independent work on the side, start up small (informal) businesses catering to other expats, etc. Since you're fluent in Arabic you may be able to create your own work by offering language lessons to Western expats who want to learn Arabic or to non Westerners who want to learn English. You may also want to look into tutoring.

Good luck!
ShakHak https://coursecraft.net/courses/z9Pk8