Job Discussion Forums

[lombrozo]

I'm in Spain as we speak, near Barcelona on holiday. I am British, have a CELTA and have 1 month experience teaching at a summer school in the UK in July this year. I am considering staying on in Barcelona for a week or so to look for teaching jobs, maybe traveling to Zaragoza/Valencia/Oviedo to further look as I realise Barcelona is pretty expensive for a teacher to work and survive in.

I have some questions if anyone would be so kind to answer:

1) should I be looking for jobs solely at English Language Schools (like the one I worked at in the UK) or do normal kids schools (primary/secondary) have English teaching jobs I can apply for?

2) how do I go about applying? Should I simply turn up at a school and ask to speak to a relevant person, drop off my CV?

3) am I giving myself enough time to go round the schools and get interviews? Am I too early to expect people to be recruiting yet?

Thanks, Simon.

[jonniboy]

For full time work in state schools in Barca, you'll need a teaching degree, Spanish citizenship and fluent Spanish AND Catalan. If you don't have all those don't waste your time applying to them.

You may however end up doing the odd class in a state school, I've done it, but then you're classed as "a language assistant" and generally you'll be employed by a language centre which has a long time connection with the school in question and will go there for a couple of hours a week for an on site class.

About applying, a lot of Spain shuts down in August and jobs there generally aren't found from abroad, especially when you're a newbie. The best thing you can do is start gathering telephone and e-mail addresses now and then start applying in earnest early September. Be warned that language centres in Spain are very lax when it comes to answering e-mails so a direct approach is probably better.

[Czexpat]

Can you share any information on teaching at language schools? The last time I was in Barcelona (two years ago), I met a guy who said work was quite easy to find if you were qualified. He hadn't had any previous experience.

However, when I've seen adverts, they usually seem to require Spanish or Catalan. My wife and I have talked about working there some time but don't speak those languages. We would try to learn, of course, but would be a bit nervous about getting to an appropriate level before we got there.

We are both CELTA-qualified with teaching experience.

[Enrico Palazo]

Does anyone know if trying to go through Search Associates or some kind of placement company produces any good results? I'm thinking of booking a ticket out to the East Coast to go to one, but nobody talks about them on this site.