When Speak Up hit the market in Kiev it looked like the best learning system around, with 79 schools in Poland they were certainly the largest to open in Ukraine. Within 12 months they have quickly opened a total of 6 schools in Kiev and 1 in Odessa.
While Odessa is a smaller school, the Kiev schools have an average enrollment of 100 new students per week, mostly on finance contracts with local banks and credit agencies. How much is it? I haven't got a clue. Even when I asked (and I worked there) I got a convoluted answer. It depends on how many levels, time of day, etc, etc, etc.
The quickly drew in the best Native English Teachers in Kiev which has resulted in a shortage of Native Teachers in the rest of the Kiev schools. Many promises were made by the Director of Teachers, with the full knowledge and consent of the Country Director.
Monthly salaries offered were $1200. USD per month, payable in UAH. Teachers were offered $1000 per month during a 90 day probationary period and a promised raise to $1200 per month after probation. In Kiev there was a $300 USD per month housing allowance, and in Odessa a $250 USD per month housing allowance. Teachers were also promised that if they did more than 26 teaching hours per week they would be paid at a rate of $12 USD per hour. All quoted salaries were NET of taxes, quoted in dollars and payable in UAH.
Teachers were promised a 3 year business visa, with all expenses paid for the trip to get it, as well as work permits and health insurance.
Now for the truth....They quickly
sucked in the best Native English teachers with their promises which they refused to fulfill. The Director of Teachers eventually quit in support of the teachers, and since then the teachers have been organizing a strike action in Kiev.
1) The monthly housing allowance in Odessa was never paid.
2) The salaries are paid based only on the probationary salary. No raises after 90 days probation.
3) Probation does not start on the first day of work, it starts on the first of the month after you were hired. So, if you started 18 July, you 90 probation period does not start until 1 August.
3) None of the teachers (Native English or Ukrainian) in the company were paid for extra teaching hours. I know of one Native English Teacher in Kiev that did an EXTRA 36 hours in one week and never got a dime for it.
4) The salaries are being based upon a 3 month old exchange rate and they refuse to base it upon the National Bank of Ukraine official USD exchange rate.
5) A meeting was scheduled with the teachers representative and the Country Director to discuss the issues. At the last minute the Country Director canceled, saying she was ill. Meanwhile, she was holed up with the HR Director writing contracts for all the teachers.
6) In an effort to cut off the threatened strike action by the teachers the contracts were issued today. None of them are even as good as the previous agreements. In other words, lower pay, lower benefits, etc.. When this was pointed out we were told that the Director of Teachers, who hired all of us, is no longer employed there, so none of the agreements he signed are valid.
7) The offered contract makes very general and sweeping comments regarding work done in compliance with company rules and regulations. Nobody seem to know what these are. They are not written down, and seem to be at the whim of the Country Director, or any other boss you may have in the company. "Well... we're not going to pay you this month because I don't like your hairstyle."
I know it's an extreme example, but very possible, and if your Head of Studies doesn't like you, very probable.
Some of the Kiev teachers did get their 3 year visas. However, only some got their travel expenses paid for. There was no logic or reason behind the decisions, just some people got it, and some were refused.
9) By the time they got around to sending the visa paperwork to Odessa the regulations had changed. They didn't bother to check this and I made a wasted trip to Kishinev and was refused by the Ukraine Embassy there because of bad paperwork. Then, when I returned to Odessa, without a visa, it somehow became my fault that I didn't get a visa and that it was MY responsibility to know what paperwork was necessary. My response was that it was HR's responsibility and that maybe they should do some work 'other' than sending out birthday greetings to the employees every day. That was 2 weeks ago, and they never sent new paperwork.
10) 'Consultants' are paid according to a convoluted formula based upon corporate sales and individual sales. If they do not meet their quota in both areas, they do not get ANY commissions. In Kiev it's possible to meet their quotas because of al the corporate head offices. In Odessa it's impossible because there are no head offices here, and any call you make refers you to Kiev. Of course, Odessa 'Consultants' can't sell in Kiev, so in the end a Kiev 'Consultant' gets the commission. The top selling 'Consultant' in Odessa quit after he was not paid any commissions, while a Kiev 'Consultant' get his commissions on a corporate contract he had put together.
11) I've just been told that I will not receive my October salary, so I guess I worked 5 weeks for free.
While the program itself could be excellent and could be the best, it is frequently done in a half-assed fashion. Incomplete books, missing documents, missing listening materials, etc.. Each books is FULL of errors and in 1 year of operation in Ukraine, nothing has been done to address the errors. They originated in Poland and the materials for Ukraine are only translations of the Polish documents, sometimes bad translations, and some of the books still contain Polish. All of the so called "Club activities" contain Polish, and all the Level Review Tests contain Polish. Although they are the most expensive school around, on a scale of 1 to 5 I would have to give their program a 3, maybe 3.5.
Speak Up is Exactly the same as Wall Street Institute. Their priority is to sell contracts through financing to get their money upfront. Teaching English becomes secondary. If a student enrolled, using financing, and for some reason has to drop out, they still pay the full amount to the finance company, because the finance company has already paid Speak Up, and Speak Up doesn't give refunds.
