Nemanja DordevicDubai, UAE
Arriving in Dubai already ready for the classroom
- Based in
- Dubai, UAE
- Programme
- PgCTL
- Aim
- A teaching job in the UAE and a wider professional network
He wanted to teach in the UAE but had no clear sense of what schools there actually looked for in an application. PgCTL rebuilt his portfolio and CV around that market and taught him the classroom technology Dubai schools ask about, so he arrived teaching ready.
A network first.
Nemanja Dordevic is plain about why he joined PgCTL. He wanted to extend his professional network, “in hopes of getting a job in UAE”. Improving his teaching came with it. “This was my motivation for joining,” he says, “expand my professional network, obtain the job, but also improve my teaching skills at the same time.”
Along the way, he says, he learnt quite a lot about teaching there, from networking with other professionals and from the course itself. In particular he learnt about the expectations a teacher has to fulfil when coming to teach in Dubai. “You know exactly what’s expected from you,” he says.
A CV that fits the market.
On applications, he points to two things Suraasa does: preparing a teacher’s portfolio, and making sure the CV matches the requirements schools are looking for. Experience in certain curricula and certain schools, he says, does not settle that on its own.
He attended many webinars and noticed that a lot of schools, “especially here”, want technology integrated into the classroom. “I learnt the crucial tools that I need to actually enter the current market,” he says. Once those are highlighted on his CV, he expects his application “will be seen much more because it’s actually adapted to this particular market”.
Throughout Suraasa, there’s a lot of modules where teachers actually get to practise usage of different techniques, different electronic devices.
