Hi all, considering teaching English in Spain next year, total beginner to all this though. Couple of questions:
- How does it work with contracts and so on? Does one usually have to commit for staying the whole academic year or are there opportunities for a shorter stay?
- Is it possible to find a job teaching in Spain just with the TEFL qualification you can get in a weekend back here in the UK?
IMHO, the TEFL cert you get in a weekend is junk, but it might prove to be better than nothing. That being said there are quite a few decently qualified (fully TEFL cert’d) teachers here ie. more than nothing and often with experience. The TEFL cert program (full one, 4 weeks) gives you a pretty big edge on the competition, lots of networking opportunities and prepares you for the reality of teaching both kids and adults.
Your best bet is to arrive in August/Sept and start looking for jobs for the fall when it’s hiring crunch time for the academies. Also you might want to consider teaching at a summer camp, which might be more plausible without any experience or TEFL and increase your odds for opportunities for the fall.
Regarding your questions specifically about the contracted time, there’s nothing preventing you from signing a year long contract (or 10 months really) then ditching when you need to… except your ethics.
Right been thinking about that, and I don’t actually have time to take the full month-long course UNTIL september! Therefore october/november before trying to actually find a job. Anyone got any experience of finding an English teaching posituion around that time, ie not right at the start of the academic year?
Sometimes you can get lucky and catch an academy at crunch time in Oct. If they don’t have their positions filled by that point then they might have to start re-arranging classes.
You might also consider applying for jobs in August and early Sept, making it clear that you won’t be available until xx October when you finish your TEFL.
There are also online TEFL courses you might want to consider. See our Teaching in Spain ToDo list, and I believe on the right hand side there’s a banner for an online TEFL course “i to i” or similar. If you do go that route then let me know how it goes, I’d appreciate the first-hand insight.
On the topic of TEFL courses . . . I was hoping to get a job in a summer camp teaching english, but I don’t have a TEFL qualification and won’t have time to do a full 4 week course before the summer arrives. I do have a good bit of experience with working with children, but will that be enough or is a TEFL qualification essential?
Ok, so say i’ve completed my full month-long CELTA qualification, just a couple more questions to help me decide if it’s worth doing…
-How much can I expect to get paid (first time teacher, no previous experience etc)?
- Do most or all of the English schools provide accommodation for teaching staff?
Oh and also, anyone have experience of this programme:
Hello andy,
You can expect anything from between around 1000 Euro a month to around 2000, depending on how far your classes are from each other( you get paid per teaching hour in most places.) I have not heard of anywhere providing housing and most people usually rent a room in Madrid for around 300 Euro a month. Plenty of work in Madrid as long as you are an EU member.
Hello Andy,
My name is Rachel and I am looking at doing the same thing you are doing. I have applied for the CELTA school and am hping for a response soon. Anyway, I was looking around on the web, and there is a website http://www.tefl.com that has alot of info if you want to look at real job offers and real salaries and conditions. It looked to me as though the average salary is around 800 euro for 25-ish class hours per week. Most TEFL job postings Ive seen for Spain also involve alot of children. Hope this helps! Good luck in your deliberations!
Hello Andy and Rachel,
I have been teaching in Madrid for almost three years now so if uou have any questions just contact me. It all may seem a bit daunting at first but if you are an EU member there is a lot of work here.
Hi Rachel,
There’s a TON of posts on the forum about this. There’s no simple answer, but for a non-EU citizen with a closed mind - yes - there’s almost no chance.
On the other hand if you’re willing to work under the table, push your luck on overstaying your 90 days and/or start your own company (self-employed), then the answer is no - there’s lots of opportunity.
Speaking of which, if you’re registered as autonomo, could you contract out to the the major academies, or would you be pretty much stuck trying to set up private classes? (Though the latter definitely has it’s own appeal….)
I know of an American here who works at an academy ( legally) here in Madrid and advertises for private lessons on the notice board there and gets paid about 20 Euro per hour cash in hand teaching parents kids
