Job Discussion Forums

[sebailey]

I am a 24 year old student from the USA who is, upon graduation from University in May, hoping to move to Spain and work teaching ESL. I am so inundated with course after course offered guaranteeing the most widely accepted TEFL certification in the world that I don't know where to go, or even if any certification is worth the $1000-$3000 I would spend on it. I have been informed by some that even International House certs are bogus and a rip off, as jobs are just as hard for Americans to find with or without it. I have also been told by a friend who teaches ESL in the US that CELTA is the best cert to have. If any of you have success or failure stories about teaching (or not teaching) in Spain without a certification, or can tell me what employers over there typically ask for, I would really really appreciate it!
Thanks,
Sarah

[Meg4]

I took a CELTA course in Madrid 2 years ago, and haven't had any problems finding work. I think, in general, the more reputable academies want techers with experience and some certification. Many schools don't specify which TEFL certification it has to be, but when they do specify it's usually CELTA.

I'm not saying that you can't find work without certifcation; since there are some academies that will pretty much hire anyone with a pulse, but you may not want to work for a place like that. If you don't hava any teaching experience I suggest you do the certification. First of all, because you will get some experience during the TEFL class, and second of all if you come to Spain with no visa, no experience, and no certification you're making things a lot harder on yourself because there are already many teachers here who have all 3 of these things.

[sebailey]

Thanks, Meg, I had pretty much decided that, but I just wanted to hear from a few other people that it wasn't a gyp. You say you found work easily; are you an EU passport holder or a US or Canadian citizen? How did you go about looking for jobs-- line one up before you got to Spain or just go and find one? I appreciate your help and would love to hear from anyone else!
Saludos,
Sarah

[Meg4]

Sarah, I'm from the US so I don't have an EU passport or anything, but even so I haven't had any problems working. It's almost impossible to line up a job before you come to Spain because you'll need to be in Spain to interview. As far as looking for jobs--I found mine in the newspaper classifieds (there's a section for language teaching). There are tons of language academies here (Madrid), so you can always just try sending your CV to as many as possible. As an American, there are some places that won't hire you, but there are also many that will. It mainly depends on what time of year you are looking for work. It's easiest to find work in September or October since this is when the school year starts here, and it's most difficult to find a job in the Summer.

[sebailey]

Thanks so much-- I feel a lot better about my prospects.