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Due to numerous factors me, the wife and the little'un are thinking of moving to Spain.
I currently work in the wine trade so obviously long term I'd love to get a job over there doing that but until I get my Spanish speaking level up to business competency we've been thinking what sort of work I could do out there. Teaching English seems like a safe bet. I spent a year in South Korea in my 20s teaching English to high school kids and pre-wine industry job I did quite a bit of teaching / tutoring at a university back home while doing a PhD (which I packed in and never finished).
Has anyone on the forum had any good / bad experiences teaching over on Spain? What sort of qualifications are required i.e. PGCE / TEFL certificate etc? Would be interested in hearing experiences!
my bro runs a tefl/tesol company, so will have all the info youd need. i believe the minimum qualification seems to be a course of at least 100 hours required for most employers. he does both online and in-class courses. i did one of them a while back with a view to doing the same but never got round to it due to getting a better job.
his company website is....
https://www.teflcourse.net/
the in-class courses are more expensive obviously but he seems to do a few in spain. just looked, hes got courses in barcelona and seville, with malaga and granada being set up for next year i believe.
https://www.teflcourse.net/tefl-courses-locations/spain/
happy to answer any more questions, and may even be able to get you a cheeky discount if you wanted to take one, singletrack brothers and all that 😉
I did it for a couple of years, other friends longer. big cities have more students, but more teachers competing for jobs. It’s pretty poorly paid and hard work until you get experience last the first year, then it can be a great job. Small town Spain is where I would do it, you often are ‘The Teacher’ in town and become a part of the community. I did a CELTA course. Cert. Eng. Lang. to adults, took a year part time.
PM me if you need more info
I’m not sure about Spain but a lot of EU countries the schools employ you as self employed so you have to look after your own tax and health insurance. I also met a lot of EFL teachers when I started out teaching in London who had to come back to the UK for work in the summer months as in Spain all the schools over the Summer. Not sure if that is still the case.
I guess it depends where you want to live...
We live next to the main town (pop. 6000) in a fairly wild & empty part of Catalunya, and Mrs_RedRockTrails has to turn down quite a lot of business because she simply doesn't have the time. She hasn't got any TEFL qualifications, but most people just want to have a chance to practise their English - or to give their kids a chance to practise theirs. Our kids go to the local school, that definitely helped with making the initial contacts.
With your experience, I don't think you'd have any issues getting private customers,at least if you're in an area without too many other Brits - working in a state school is another kettle of fish, and may soon be virtually impossible (only EU citizens can do Oposiciones - the qualifications for State Functionaries)
Employed back when the Berlin wall came down in Barcelona. I had PGCE which included TESOL so no training needed (Madame had university teaching experience in addition). A 20h contract for 10 months, they paid a salery which was good by local standards to the point of renting a nice flat on the beach in Sitges and commuting in on the train.
A friend lives in Barcelona and earns about double what he would get for the same job in valencia. Most things in Barca are c London type costs as salaries are higher. Join the various fb expat groups they all talk about teaching, and look up false autonomo. If the school dictate your hours you cannot be autonomo.
Give it a go, you can always go back.
You might find bits here of interest: http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/