Job Discussion Forums

[Moore]

My two cents as of May 2012: things are fine for teachers here in Madrid.

Nobody I have talked to has has any trouble finding work. As Jonniboy mentioned for Valencia, perhaps in-company classes have fallen off a touch, but private classes are as healthy, if not healthier than ever.

Things seem to have stabilised for academies too after the initial slump a couple of years ago, and many are already recruiting for September.

The economy here is not quite as bad as it's made out to be in the media, certainly not ideal, but definitely not Greece, especially in Madrid where there seems to be a bit more cash floating about.






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[Perilla]

Interesting - and good news as I'll hopefully be back in Madrid for a few days in late July.

Not really relevant to the TEFL scene in Spain, but I know for a fact that a lot of Brits in Andalusia involved in work other than TEFL have returned to the UK this last year as they could no longer make ends meet. This includes people working in food and beverage, looking after holiday homes and odd-jobbers. Whether they'll fare any better in the UK is a moot point.

[pr455]

I have to agree with Moore on this one. Although I no longer work for academies and am now getting more into teacher training and working with publishing companies, I still see many job adverts for English teachers in Madrid. Not sure what it will be like in the fall, but for right now, things look to be pretty stable at the moment.

Shawn

[broonie30]

Thought It would be interesting to see if anybody has noticed any kind of change in the demand for teachers, both at academies and in private lessons since the last post on this thread.

Obviously there was the small matter of a bank bailout a couple of weeks ago, and the uncertainty surrounding the future of the economy and the possibility of a full bailout being needed. I'm curious to know how all this is affecting the ESL industry there and if demand for teachers is dropping off.

I hear that a lot of businesses are continuing to cut English lessons and others on here have already said that private lessons in that area have dried up. To me that would suggest increased competition between teachers for any other existing private lessons that are out there. Is this the case?

I was hoping to come over this year but my cautious side is telling me that naybe I should wait to see how the next year plays out. Interested to hear any thoughts.

[pr455]

[Perilla]

Just back from our regular summer trip to Madrid and the Sierra Nevada (Andalusia). The centre of Madrid looked pretty much the same as last year - no really obvious signs of la crisis. Perhaps it's worse in the suburbs.

However, up in our village in the mountains of Andalusia all the locals are moaning about it. Tourist numbers are down (both Spanish and overseas visitors) and much of the local employment, which is mostly related either to tourism or the construction trade, has dried up, putting a huge strain on families. Apparently many of the local youngsters now expect to have to go overseas to find work - just like us TEFLers in fact!

[Grimace420]

I find the main problem to be the general uncertainty regarding almost all facets of living here, but not so much the availability of work for native English teachers. So it turns out the government was overspending on almost everything . . . okay, so what's the realistic situation like? Even if there was a lot of wasted spending on inefficient and unnecessary things, you can't cut thousands of millions of euros without having a significant effect on social services. A while ago the Spanish attitude was, "yeah, we might earn 1,000 euros a month, but it's not everywhere in the western world that access to quality free healthcare and free education is as open to everyone as here." Now that's in serious jeopardy as more and more cutbacks are made. It seems like the various governments are slowly but surely springing all kinds of surprises on us with their bare bones spending approach to the debt and credit problems.

As an example, my girlfriend is an "interina" English teacher in the Madrid public secondary school system. She's spent the better part of 10 years working part time for shit wages waiting and hoping for a full-time job and fixed position. If she's lucky, maybe they'll let her continue working 12 hours a week this year, but it's in the back of my mind that with these cutbacks even with her relatively high number ranking come September they'll just say "sorry, we're increasing class sizes and weekly working hours again for those with fixed positions and getting rid of the part-timers." And there'll be nothing you can do about it, cos she'll just be one of millions looking for work outside the public sector after years of jumping through their hoops to try to get in. Just one of many sob stories in this country unfortunately, though by far not the worst.

[jonniboy]

I think the public private split is a serious problem, as are the many simply stupid laws relating to the labour market there. It's just insane that companies there have to pay people 45 days for every year they've worked if they lay them off. Like no one there thinks that has a detrimental effect on their economy.... really?

Overall, sorry I do think people there are lazy in general. They want northern European style living standards but are unwilling to make the personal and lifestyle sacrifices to make that happen. Cutting the over the top number of holidays and puentes would help increase productivity as would, you know, actually working the whole year. Yet people won't hear of it. When I was in Valencia half the companies were closed for their generous August break, which they excuse by saying that "it's too hot to work" yet other hotter parts of the world seem to manage.

Central and local governments still squander money on lavish festivals. The Fallas in Valencia this year still went ahead on the same extravagant scale, with expensive figures built and then burnt. The largest one cost 400,000 euros. Okay, it was mostly privately funded but that's nearly half a million euro which could have been used for economic improvement and was instead, quite literally, money burnt. At the same time, there's no money to even provide heating in some of the local schools or complete their half built new metro line.

In Latvia when the crisis hit, people responded by investing in themselves, there was a spike in demand for English and other training courses. In Spain if anything the opposite seems to have happened, with demand for private classes dropping off or people only prepared to pay silly prices like 8-10 euro for 60 minutes. People prefer to sit around complaining and blaming the government and banks than actually do anything for themselves. It's really frustrating but that's Spain for ya.

[Perilla]

We haven't been back to our village in Andalusia since last summer - and won't be returning until this August, inchallah, but feedback from friends suggests the village is under strain, with local construction work and tourist numbers down (especially Spanish tourists). How's it looking elsewhere these days?

[DosEquisX]

Unemployment is up to 27% in Spain.

Has to be near impossible to find a teaching job now, right?

[Grimace420]

If by teaching job you mean for Spaniards who want to enter the education sector, then yeah, they've got a snowball's chance in hell. Those that are in the system are tenaciously clinging to their positions, but even so far too many teachers in "bilingual" schools still can't be arsed learning English properly.

For native English speakers who are in areas of the country with a decent amount of demand for English classes, there's still plenty of opportunity. That's just my perspective from Madrid where I see advertisement after advertisement for native teachers all year round. The belated obsession with English marches on.

[RoisinDubh]

[DosEquisX]

How interesting.

I'm certainly upbeat about the responses I've received

[Perilla]

Update: Just back from summer hols - again in Madrid and a village in the Sierra Nevada. Central Madrid seems to be holding up OK on the face of it, though there are more beggars on the streets than last year.

Down south in the mountains the local folk are certainly struggling and there a fewer expats, though again there's the sense that the majority are pulling through. Having said that, tales of local youngsters heading overseas to find work are common.

But on the whole I'd say Spain seems to be weathering La Crisis better than the UK (for example) would if it had the same percentage of people out of work.