Job Discussion Forums

Conquense54 · Joined: 13 Jun 2010 Posts: 22 Location: Spain

Teacher in Rome is quite right, having worked so hard through the winter months and then to have to find work to maintain us for the summer is not right. I'm flying to UK tomorrow for first time in two years to work in a UK summer school, which I am not looking forward to at all. As has been pointed out, here in Spain you have to have worked 12 months minimum paying social security to qualify for dole money, which, if you have built up some years contributing, currently stands at around 400 euros a month, maximum of 6 months if you have enough years behind you. Well, that might just pay the rent in some places, but if you have no work you will find it very difficult. Yes, as in Italy, there will be a few (unwilling and not very bright) students for recuperaci�n, ie, they've failed the course and must resit in September or repeat the year. But where I am it gets so hot most people clear off to the beaches, and the town is deserted, and I want to join them, but who's going to pay my bills??!!

jonniboy · Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 9:27 pm Post subject:

jonniboy · Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 9:54 pm Post subject:

Teacher in Rome · Joined: 09 Jul 2003 Posts: 1286

Sorry Jonniboy - didn't mean to force you into justifying your choices! I was just picking up on something you wrote (i.e. the hours you have through the summer months) which made me think you were working all year round - and comparing it to what that would mean in Italy.

If you're thinking of heading to the south Med (I can only really talk about Italy but sounds like it's also relevant to Spain) working life as a TEFL teacher might go something like this:

- busy Oct through to June. Probably with a variety of courses / students / schools unless you had a contract with one place, in which come June, you'd be on your own anyway.

- Either nothing from June to Oct, or "summer school" either in Italy or elsewhere, or recupero lessons. State schools are closed, and businesses are reluctant to have corporate training, as this is the time most people take off on holiday. Most companies will have skeleton staff running through the summer months, and August is completely dead.

Teaching is only part of what I do. I earn enough from it to live on year round (whether or not I teach in summer, which I choose not to do) but have other income sources for boring things like mortgage and taxes. (Which are a far greater outgoing than household bills, I can tell you!)

mozzar · Joined: 16 May 2009 Posts: 339 Location: France

I think with a little bit of planning and foresight most people can make a good go of it in Spain as a teacher. Especially as 90% of the people who come here to teach leave after two years for different pastures. From the amount of privates alone I could probably go autonomo and earn enough but I actually prefer to work for an academy so I don�t have to do the whole tax and bureacracy.

jonniboy · Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 7:48 am Post subject:

It's okay Teacher in Rome, I understood what you were saying. I've done the Med thing and am still thinking of doing it again, if only for a year, mostly for climate/lifestyle reasons - the winters here are getting me down a bit and I fancy a change. I guess what I was saying was, in Spain I didn't really make enough during the teaching year to survive over the summer and therefore had to mess around going back to UK, here at least I have the option to work part time to support myself if necessary as the summers aren't quite so hot.

Latvian course times are also a bit more flexible. Some places do run the traditional September through June courses but many don't. The place I work runs 5 month courses which can start any time of the year. Inevitably there is less work in the Summer but there's something.

pr455 · Joined: 08 May 2011 Posts: 135 Location: MADRID, SPAIN

I am doing just fine in Spain. Where I work, I get paid between 25� - 64� an hour, but I work at a university, do teacher and language assistant training and do some work on my own, all with a student visa.

Now, before someone chops my head off by saying that I am quoting high amounts, that's because I have been doing language teaching for 18 years and I have aligned myself in the field of bilingual teacher training. Much better than working for an academy.

As far as summer go, well, I do the same thing that I do every year which is a three week teacher training course in July at a university in Madrid and that takes care of my summer and that's more than enough to live on.

The work is out there if one wants it.

Shawn