Job Discussion Forums

lindsay316 · Joined: 14 Oct 2012 Posts: 5

Does anyone know what the situation is for EFL teaching in universities in Spain? I've tried searching the internet, and I've come up with absolutely nothing.

I have a master's degree and only university-level teaching experience, and I would really like to find something at a university in Spain. Any advice?

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

On the France forum, you noted that you are American. This limits your legal options.
You also noted that you've got experience in Korea; this won't give you a huge leg up in Europe (students and etc are quite different).

In any case, university positions are fairly rare and you'd be very unlikely to find anything on the internet.

Perilla · Joined: 09 Jul 2010 Posts: 792 Location: Hong Kong

lindsay316 · Joined: 14 Oct 2012 Posts: 5

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

I've worked on an off in a European university for over a decade, and we have partner universities in most EU countries, so I have contacts in the systems all over.

University positions are extremely competitive. The last position we advertised attracted more than 30 applications from people with related MA+.

As Perilla points out, most of the relatively rare openings go to people with local reputation and contacts. This is even truer in the case of a non-EU national, because the university in question has to make a case that 'you' have qualifications that no EU candidate for the job can match (or that there were no EU candidates; highly unlikely).

Without local contacts, your chances are slim - the TA program in France is one of the few loopholes to this.

Grimace420 · Joined: 24 Sep 2011 Posts: 88 Location: Madriz

It's kind of crap that the teaching assistant grant is still 780 euros a month in France. It was that much when I applied for the program like 6 years ago. Imagine ending up in Paris on that kind of "salary" Surprised

even if you can supplement it with private classes.

Why bother bending over backwards trying to get into a university for between 1000-2000 euros a month anyway? There's a language assistant program in Madrid open to North Americans that pays 1,000 euros net per month for 16 hours a week to work in "bilingual" schools (assuming the country remains afloat). The preparation and stress are minimal, perhaps even too low for some types.