Job Discussion Forums

[jonniboy]

Salaries, well it's tricky for you because you're coming middle of the school year. I get 1630 net for 25 hours but the offers varied when I was looking around and many of them were around 1150 euros net for 22 hours. Generally you should try and get 15 euro net with 12 or 13 euro a standard offer from many places.

Commuting, I don't do that. The two academies I work for are 20 minutes walk from my flat and the city centre is 35 minutes away on foot. There's also a shared public bicycle system (www.valenbisi.com) which costs 18 euro a year. For the metro I usually get a 10 journey ticket for �7.55 and use that whenever I'm too lazy to walk into town. It's a compact city and it never snows here and rain is rare (average 44 days) so it's a good place to walk or cycle round.

The nightlife and cultural life here is great. It has what is probably one of Spain's three biggest festivals, Las Fallas and as a student city there's a lot of bars, clubs and discos.

Geez I should work for Valencia tourist board!

[RoisinDubh]

Yes, you make it sound very appealing! Do you think I'd get work easily enough coming in Jan/Feb? If rent is only 150-200, I'd be happy with 1100-1200 initially. That still leaves me with far more spending money than I have now. What's the work situation like in the summer? What's the going rate for private classes (one-to-ones etc)? Do you have to work split shifts?

My main concern is sorting out tax and national insurance numbers and all that. Do schools generally sort out tax or do you have to work freelance? Is it a huge hassle to get the correct bits and pieces you need to work there? Do you have to register at the city hall and all that? What's Valencia like safety-wise?

Sorry for the many questions, but I want to be as informed as possible before I make a decision about where to go. Thanks for your help!

[jonniboy]

You'll get work but whether it's full time or not is another matter, more likely bits and pieces, though you may very well take over the hours of another teacher who bailed out at Xmas. In the summer it's a wash out with little or no work around. That means you either need savings, to do a summer camp or have alternative means of income (temping in the UK for example.)

Split shifts are a fact of life here unless you only want to work 12-14 hours for correspondingly less money. As an example my timetable is

Monday 1030-1330 (inc 30 min break) ; 1730-2000
Tuesday 0945-1345 (inc 60 min break) ; 1730-2030
Wednesday 1230-1330 ; 1530-2000 (inc 30 min break)
Thursday 1245-1445 ; 1730-2030
Friday 1030-1330 (inc 30 min break) ; 1730-1900

The afternoon break I usually use for having a large lunch, an occasional siesta and preparing classes / making copies.

Schools will usually sort out the tax and NI numbers for you but there is another number you need, the NIE, basically a foreigner registration number which you get from the relevant office of the local council. It's a simple procedure.

Valencia is a really safe city and the Spanish in general aren't known for going to bed early so there's usually lots of people around late.

[RoisinDubh]

Those hours aren't too bad at all. Neither early morning starts nor late night finishes. Are you particularly lucky with your timetable or are such hours the norm? Is it common to get all your hours with one school? Do schools generally support you and provide decent resources/copying? Or is it a case of turning up to the academy/business, doing your class and going home, without mingling with other teachers?

So obtaining a 'foreigner number' is the only paperwork you have to do when you arrive? How much tax do you pay? Is it automatically deducted from your paycheck each month like in the UK?

What do you generally do in the summers if there's no work? Sorry for all the questions but this info is really helpful!

[jonniboy]

Sorry for the late reply but I haven't been on here lately. I'm probably just lucky with the hours as 9 to 9 is quite common.

The Summers. That's the $64,000 question and is one thing that still makes me doubt that I'll be here longer than a couple of years. I only returned here in September after 6 years in Latvia. Up there it was fine. Work available all year round so I usually eased off a bit from late May and then had 5 weeks hols around August.

Last time round in Spain 2003-2005 I just went back to the UK for a bit of monotonous office temping for 2 and a half months. I stayed at my grans rent free, just paid the bills and usually saved at least 2000 euro every summer which was a handy luxury fund for the next year. That's all no longer a viable option. My gran passed away and I've no other relatives that have free space for that length of time and I now have a long term partner whereas then I was single. Worse the economic climate has changed totally. Less temp jobs around in the UK and they pay less than 2005 even though costs have gone up since then. Also 100 quid then bought you 145/150 euro. Now it'll buy you 115 euro due to the weak pound.

I've an offer to spend July at a Summer camp. Never done it and will probably turn it down as the idea of chasing spoilt kids around rain soaked Ireland doesn't appeal but I suppose that's the option for a lot of people. Most likely I'll just head back to Latvia. We still own a flat there and I can just chill out, dip into savings and maybe do a couple of intensive summer courses with language centres I worked with before but yeah the lack of Summer work is a pretty serious negative about coming here.

[pr455]

jonniboy,

Summer can be a killer here, as you already know. I am already looking for summer work as we speak. People do have to be prepared NOW for summer work.

Shawn