Do you want to teach English abroad in Spain? I spent 5 years teaching English in Spain with four different programs. In this post I’ll share what it’s like to teach English abroad in Spain.
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Teach English Abroad and Earn a Master’s Degree: Instituto Franklin and UCETAM
To begin, I moved to Madrid, Spain in 2011. I did a Master’s degree in Bilingual and Multicultural Education through the Instituto Franklin at the University of Alcala. As part of this program, I worked as an English language assistant at a bilingual school in the Vallecas neighborhood of Madrid with UCETAM. This program is also known as “Teach & Learn.”
Requirements for Instituto Franklin Master’s degree program:
You must be a native speaker from specific countries including Australia, the US, Canada, and more. A bachelor’s degree in any subject is required. You don’t need a teaching certificate. If accepted, you will need to apply for a student visa.
The school I taught as is part of UCETAM. This is one of the English assistant programs in the Madrid region. Read this post to find out the advantages and disadvantages of the UCETAM program.
While working on my Master’s degree, about half of my English teaching stipend went toward paying for my degree. For an American, this was a fantastic deal. I received enough money to cover the majority of my expenses. I didn’t end up with any debt after my degree.
I was paid around 1400 euros a month, but only got about 780 euros per month after paying for the Master’s.
There are now more options for paying for the Instituto Frankin Master’s program. To find out more information, check out the video below.
What it was like to teach English with UCETAM
Firstly, I taught primary students for 26 teaching hours per week. While this doesn’t sound like a lot, I was at school from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm nearly every day. The 26 teaching hours only included one hour of planning time per week. All other prep work was unpaid. Also, we had a massive unpaid lunch period in the middle of the day.
Occasionally, on Friday afternoons we left early to attend lectures for the Master’s program in Alcala.
My teaching duties for UCETAM included:
- Preparing English, Art, and Science lessons – this could be creating games and activities, PowerPoints, or just following a book.
- Teaching students in grades 1-6 – classes had around 25-30 students and with multiple sections of each grade. There were lots of names to learn! In total I had around 200 students.
- Collaborating with Spanish teachers – sometimes I worked closely with teachers to plan lessons and other times I was alone in the classroom (which wasn’t supposed to happen).
- Sharing my American cultural traditions – Around holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, I prepared lessons that shared my traditions with the Spanish students.
- Preparing students for the Cambridge Exams – I prepped students for the PET and KET exams (and later FCE for Schools during my second year. This exam was for the high school students.)
Continuing to Teach with UCETAM
After finishing my Master’s degree in 2012, I decided to renew my position with UCETAM. This meant that my salary essentially doubled to around 1,500€ now that I wasn’t doing the Master’s program. I was able to save quite a bit.
Since I taught with UCETAM in 2012-2013, the stipend has actually gone down to around 1,300€ for 26 hours of work per week. (There is also an option to teach 18 hours per week for less money.) You don’t need to pay any tax because the money is a grant.
It isn’t necessary to do the Master’s program to teach with UCETAM. You can apply for a position directly through the Cooperative Bilingual School’s website.
Teach English Abroad with the Auxiliares de Conversacion Program
From 2013-2014, I taught English abroad with the Spanish Government program (Ministerio de Educación) known as “Auxiliares de Conversación” or Language Assistants. For American and Canadian assistants the program is called North American Language and Cultural Assistants Program.
Requirements to work as a language assistant:
You must be a native speaker from specific countries including Australia, the US, Canada, and more. A bachelor’s degree is required. You don’t need a teaching certificate. If accepted, you will need to apply for a student visa.
This program has positions in every Spanish region. Placements are can be in big cities like Madrid and Barcelona or small villages in regions like Andalucía or Galicia. You teach between 12-16 teaching hours per week at public schools and receive 700-1,000€ per month. You don’t need to pay tax because the payment is a grant.
With this program, you get one day off per week (usually Monday or Friday). This makes it a great option for teachers who want to explore Spain and Europe during three-day weekends.
As part of the application, you select your preferred regions (not cities). You are assigned a school (or schools) at random. The Ministry of Education placed me at a primary school in Móstoles.
My teaching duties for the Ministry program included:
- Preparing students for the Cambridge exams – I was responsible for preparing students for the Movers and Flyers speaking exams.
- Preparing English and Art lessons – this could be creating games and activities, or just following a book.
- Teaching students in grades 1-6 – this school was much smaller than the UCETAM school, but still had around 20-25 students per class. Sometimes the language assistants spoke with students one-on-one to review for exams or go over vocabulary flashcards.
- Collaborating with Spanish teachers – sometimes I worked closely with teachers to plan lessons. Other times I was alone in the classroom (which wasn’t supposed to happen). I even had to substitute teach for a teacher who went on vacation for two weeks. She didn’t leave me any lesson plans to follow.
- Sharing my American cultural traditions – Around holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, I prepared lessons that shared my traditions with the Spanish students.
At this school, the kids had better behavior than the students at the UCETAM school, but it’s really luck of the draw. Like the charter school, the Spanish teachers were hit or miss. Some were very easy to work with and excellent teachers, while others took advantage of the language assistants.
Applications for the Spanish Government program open in mid-January. Placements are given on a first come, first served basis. Make sure to prepare your materials ahead of time in November. If you need help, I offer 1 on 1 coaching to help you prepare for this program.
Teach English Abroad at an International School in Spain
For my final two years in Spain, I worked as a Kindergarten and 1st-grade teacher at an International School in Madrid.
Requirements to work in an International School:
You must be a certified teacher. You must have a bachelor’s degree and a teaching certificate. If accepted, you will need to apply for a work visa. Your school will help you with the visa paperwork.
If you are already a certified teacher, one of the best options to teach English abroad is to work for an International School.
There are career fairs each year that place teachers in schools abroad through agencies like ISS & Search Associates. However, I found out about the position from a friend who was already working as a teacher at that school. You can also apply directly to some international schools. In some cases, these schools only hire through agencies.
Unlike the previous two programs, you are the actual teacher and are responsible for all lesson planning, grading, parent communication, and teaching. You also have only one class and therefore get to know the students well. You may be required to speak some Spanish.
My teaching duties at an International School included:
- Teaching Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, Math, and Religion classes – there was a curriculum to follow for Math and English, but we had to create the rest.
- Collaborating with another teacher in your grade and sometimes an assistant – I worked closely to teach the same material as the other 1st-grade teacher, for example. I had an assistant who helped students with reading and math skills a few times a week.
- Staying in contact with parents – I created weekly newsletters, emailed parents, and wrote notes in students’ agendas. While all communication was supposed to be in English, I often had to speak Spanish to students’ parents.
- Classroom discipline – unlike the UCETAM and Ministerio programs, you are responsible for the classroom discipline.
- Creating and grading assignments – you are the teacher so you have to make activities, worksheets, projects, and tests and grade them.
- Helping students with special needs – some students required extra work in collaboration with the guidance counselor.
As you can see, working at an International school is much more demanding than working as a language assistant. I earned around 24,000€ per school year but was required to pay taxes.
Teach English Abroad at a Summer Camp
For two summers, I worked as an English immersion camp counselor at a summer camp called Granja Escuela Atalaya in Albacete, Spain.
Requirements to work at a summer camp:
You must have a good level of English or be a native speaker. If accepted, you will need to apply for a work visa. Depending on the camp, you may need a teaching degree or TEFL.
At this summer camp, students participate in activities like dancing, pottery, gardening, animal care, scary story telling, movie nights, basket making, theatre, and more. There aren’t any “English” classes, but campers can choose the English immersion or Spanish version of the summer camp.
Working at this camp is a bit tricky if you don’t have European residency or working rights. I was able to get a work permit for the camp thanks to my work visa from the American school, but I was the only American at the camp. Other English speaking counselors were British or Spanish. Now, Brexit has made it difficult for British citizens to work in Spain.
Like all summer camps, the hours were long and the pay wasn’t great, but the experience was amazing. This camp has been in the same family for years and many of the counselors were campers when they were younger.
Final Thoughts
If you really want to teach English abroad in Spain, it’s possible but will require some research. Nowadays, there are so many programs to choose from. My advice is to make sure you are eligible for the program, it’s available in a place you’d like to live, and make sure the pay fits into your budget.
Want to learn more about teaching in Spain? Enroll in my Teach in Spain Workshop.
Check out these other posts on teaching English abroad:
How to Teach English in France: American Village Review
Teach English in Australia on a Work Holiday Visa
10 Things They DON’T Tell You About Teaching Abroad
Subscribe to my YouTube channel for videos on teaching abroad and online.
