Jobs

[Marilyn]

Thanks Expatmich
My hubby will be taking employment there so I thoguht that I would find it useful to have employment as well. Since I love teaching and children that would be a great place to start.
Are you saying that after we land there it is hard to get work? Also what are your comments on the schooling system there as compared to a typical North American/Canadian system?
Thanks
MArilyn

[expatmich]

Hi Marilyn,

It's not that tough to find jobs. There's even a few pre-schools in town that take on teachers/assistants. You mentioned before that you have been in business for the last few years. Have you thought about teaching at the Women's College here and putting your business skills to use in combination with teaching? There might be some more opportunities for you there.

Re: the schools, the curriculum at our school is 100 percent American curriculum, standards and benchmarks. The British School is 100 percent British curriculum; AISA and AIS I'm not really sure, but they purport to be American/International schools so there is some cross over content but they aren't the best schools ever, but might be fine to work at. The one school I have heard from other teachers that is horrible to teach at is the Choueifat school. It does not let parents be involved in the school at all, even so far as conversing or contacting the teacher. There is no communication allowed between parent and teacher, and that is just plain weird to me. We have friends that work at the Sheikh Zayed school for girls but they were hired as expatriates out of Ontario directly. The school looks like a pumped up shopping mall, it's gorgeous but the education, though Canadian curriculum is delivered to little Emirati princesses, and you have to bow to their whims and expectations. I know some things are really getting up my friend's nose these days, but it's a paycheck and she is able to continue in her profession with doing the Ontario curriculum, while having the advantage of living abroad, so it fits her needs.

Hope some of this is helpful. Look up the Higher Colleges of Technology in Abu Dhabi (Women's school) and see if you might consider looking there for work when you get here. And there's no harm in applying for jobs now either because inevitably, things open up in the summer when people find out in August that their husband's contract haven't been renewed and they have to go home in a hurry!

Cheers,
Mich