How To Teach English In SpainOne of the easiest ways for people to move abroad is to teach English abroad, and one of the simple ways to do so is through the Auxiliares de Conversación program. The Auxiliares de Conversación program is a program sponsored by the Spanish government, in which they seek out native English speakers to teach English in Spain through the role of English teaching assistants. They pay you a monthly stipend which is enough to live off of, and provide you with health insurance to use while you're in Spain. So, if this sounds enticing thus far stick around and check out the rest of this post to learn about how YOU can make the big move to Spain and teach English abroad! Auxiliares de Conversación Program Duties As mentioned above, your role as an auxiliar is to serve as an English teaching assistant in schools, which may include primary schools, high schools, technical schools and in some cases even universities. You typically work 12-16 hours a week depending on which region you're placed in, in some cases certain regions offer up the opportunity to work more hours which is great just in case you want to earn some extra cash. So, you're given a schedule and work alongside of Spanish teachers who teach English. Your role may vary depending on how the school chooses to utilize you. You may be asked to prepare presentations on whatever holidays you celebrate in your home country (for example I presented on Easter, Halloween, Christmas, 4th of July etc.), prepare review games/activities for whatever the students are learning in English class at the moment, or you might work with the students in small groups as opposed to co-teaching with your teacher. It all depends on the school you work at. You can always of course suggest different ways the schools can incorporate you, and in most cases they are excited to work with whatever you want to bring to the classroom. It's important to remember you are an English teaching assistant, emphasis on assistant. You are not to serve as lead teacher or ever be ALONE with your students. Teachers might negate this, but if they do, just show them the manual. Unfortunately, some English teaching assistants are taken advantage of and made to do more than than role calls for, and if this ever happens please alert your coordinator. Stipend and Health Insurance Your stipend depends on which region in Spain you're assigned to work in. Typically you earn 700 euros as an English teaching assistant and you are paid once a month. This stipend will be transferred to you via direct deposit to your Spanish bank account. Yes you'll need to open a Spanish bank account. This stipend may sound like nothing, but you have to remember that Spain is very affordable and pretty cheap to live in, so this is more than enough to live comfortably, and of course you can always teach private English classes, work online or at English academys to earn supplemental income. Being paid once a month may sound surprising to some people but this is quite common in Europe. You're usually paid at some point within the first week on the month. So, yes don't expect to be paid for your first month of work until that month ends. This being said, most of the regions you are paid 700 euros, but in the bigger regions such as Madrid you earn 1,000 euros a month which makes sense as it reflects how much more expensive the located you're placed to teach at is. I've also heard that they have upped the stipend for the regions of Extremadura and the Basque country, so you can expect to earn more money there too. It's almost important to know that some regions have a better payment reputation than others, for example if you work in Andalucia or Valencia expect to be paid late EVERY MONTH. Valencia and Andalucia are known for not paying their English teaching assistants until 4 or 6 months into the program. They are paid eventually, but for whatever reason their payment is delayed. It's been like this for years and hasn't gotten any better. This is important to know if you were hoping to work and live in Andalucia or Valencia. The health insurance you're given depends on what region you're placed in, and covers most primary health care, surgery and long term treatment. Everyone is pretty happy with their health insurance here, especially when compared to the health insurance we have back home in the US. Program Requirements All native English teachers are welcome to apply! This means Americans, Canadians, Australians, the British, the Scottish, the Irish, New Zealanders etc.. This program is also open to people from India and the Philippines so long as they are fluent in English, they have a much more rigorous application process. You also need to have a bachelor's degree in any subject to apply, it doesn't necessarily need to be related to education. Although, I have friends who just hold an associate's degree and they were able to join the program, and I had a friend who told me she dropped out of her four year program after sophomore year and she was also accepted into the program. So long as you are a native speaker and have a bachelor's degree you will be accepted. Nearly everyone who applies is accepted so long as there's a placement for them. Where In Spain Will I Teach? When you apply to the program (which I will explain more about down below) you are given the chance to voice your top three regional choices. It's not as simple as it sounds though because the regions are all placed in groups of A, B and C. So what you do is think about what regions are top three choices, and then list what order of preference you have. In this example down below you'll see there three A, B and C columns. This person has chosen group B as their number 1 region, and has chosen Galicia as their preferred region in this list. Then they chose group C as their number 2 choice, which Castilla León as their selected choice in this group and lastly they chose group A as their last choice with Asturias as their choice region. There's no way to choose two regions in any group, you must only select one in each and then order the groups based on your preference. So choose carefully, because once this is submitted you can't change it. Also! Depending on the year some regions may choose not to participate in the program. Cataluña and Cantabria for example are known for not participating in the program some years, so don't be surprised if you don't see them on the list depending on whatever year you apply. Where To Apply and Necessary Documents You apply to the program on a site called Profex, which can be found here: www.educacion.gob.es/profex/jsp/login/login.do?identificadoEnLaAplicacion=no You must make an account and enter in your information and upload all the necessary documents. It's important to note that this site is ALL in Spanish, and it might be confusing to navigate at first because it's a site that looks like it's stuck in 1998. Documents you'll need to upload to the site are:
Application Period
The application period runs around the same date and ends around the same date each year, this year it opened on January 30 and ran until April 15, 2020. The program works on a first come first serve process, so the earlier you apply the better your chances are to work in whatever region your first choice is. You'll be given your application number after you submit your application and that can give you a good indication as to how likely you are to get your first choice. Waiting Game After you submit your application on Profex, you'll get an email to confirm that you application has been submitted. Then after all your documents are reviewed you'll received an email to state that you have been admitted to the program. You'll then have to wait until around May to be given your regional placement. At this point you will NOT be given a SPECIFIC city, village, town or area, just a region, and you have three days to confirm or decline the placement. You accept or decline by logging into Profex. So let's say, your first choice was Galicia, but you were given Madrid as your regional placement you have three days to accept or decline the placement on Profex. If you accept, then in a few weeks you get your specific school placement, there's no way to get your school placement before accepting the regional placement. Also, keep in mind you might be given Madrid as a regional placement, but this doesn't mean you'll have a school in the CENTER CITY of Madrid, you may be in a small town or village outside of the city of Madrid but in the region of Madrid. Most people don't realize this and then complain when they have a school outside of a main city. It happens and there's no way to change schools. While waiting to get regional placements and school placements a lot of people like to gather up all the documents you'll need to apply for your Spanish student visa. It's smart to plan early as the visa process can be a tedious and long one, so why not get a head start on this while waiting for your placement to come through. You can't apply for your visa until you have your school placement letter which is needed for the visa application process. There's an official Profex manual that you can look at if you have more questions about the application site platform, and you can access that here. It may seem super confusing trying to navigate the application process, but I hope this blog post helps! Feel free to message me if you have any more questions about the program and Profex site! Con amor, Nelli <3
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