Teaching Jobs in Spain

Teaching Placement Overview

Placement locations

Teachers on the education visa will have a visa connected to a language school in Barcelona.

Due to the weekly language school attendance policy under the education visa, our teaching positions are in the Barcelona area and surrounding towns.

Teachers may also work in online positions. Online placements may be anywhere in the world. Teachers may be fully in-person, fully online, or work a combination of both.

Whilst we will try to assist teachers with finding placements at their preferred school type, teachers must be open to both online and in-person positions.

Hourly pay is between 10-18 Euros per hour and monthly pay is between 700 Euros and 1,100 Euros per month.

Placements Types

There are three main types of placements in Spain:

• Local academies: private language schools.
• Online Placements: Teaching remotely for an online school, which may involve teaching students in Spain online, in Asia or in Central America.
• Private tutoring

Demographics

In Spain, there is demand for English language learning from both adults and young learners.

Young learners: All students in Spain learn English as school, however the level of English amongst most Spanish students is low and students often struggle to advance when relying on learning English at their regular school. Many parents choose to invest in additional English language lessons for their children and send their children to local language academies.

Professionals: There are many professionals in their 20s, 30s and 40s that are looking to learn English to benefit them in their jobs. These may be people in corporate positions, or in technical fields such as engineers or medical professionals. They are often learning English to gain an extra skill to help them progress in their careers.

Young adults: Some learners have left high school, but haven’t gone on to university. They are people that are looking for a skill that will help them gain employment in key sectors such as tourism.

Local Academies

Local academies in Spain are private language schools where students sign up to take English language courses.

For young learners this will typically be late afternoons after they have finished school.

Adult classes tend to be in the evenings after they have finished work, occasionally there may be some morning classes.

Class Size

Teachers will work with small groups of students, typically between 4 to 10 students.

Working hours

Evening teaching is most common, shortly followed by morning classes.

Teachers will typically work 15 – 20 hours per week.

Most teachers working at academies will start off with part time hours before moving up to full time hours.

Pay is hourly, usually from 10 to 18 Euros per hour.

Online Positions

Online positions include working for schools teaching both adults and children.

Participants will generally be assigned the age groups they will teach after the interview. If they have experience teaching children, they’re more likely to be placed with children. The hours teachers work will be irregular.

Class times will vary depending on the area of the world that the students come from. The table below explains further:

Work is largely hourly for online teaching and the range is from 9 to 15 Euros per hour depending on the region of students.

International Schools

These positions are much less common but sometimes obtained by qualified teachers.

Placements Throughout the Year

We have scheduled courses throughout the year. Academies generally hire throughout the year based on how many new students they have signing up.

The highest demand for teachers and peak hiring time is in September and January.

How The Placement Process Works

• Prior to arrival, we will collect a teacher profile from each participant and begin marketing to potential academies.
• Once in country, a presentation is given in orientation week with a full overview of what to expect with different school types.
• After that, participants will each have weekly one-on-one meetings with their placement coordinator.
• If online teaching is an option at that time, it will also be offered as an additional or even alternative to in-person teaching.
• Placements will be largely part time teaching across more than one school.
• Interviews may be arranged before, before, during and following the TESOL course.
• We can’t guarantee specific placement types and age groups so candidates must remain flexible.
• After the placements are offered by schools, we help answer any questions and clarify any concerns.
• We then guide on travel and housing plans.

Definition of Placement Guarantee.

Full placement facilitation means that we will work with the participant on every aspect of their job placement process, including:

• Supporting and preparing application documents
• Identifying and vetting placement opportunities
• Arranging interviews with schools
• Interview preparation, including mock interviews
• Following up with schools
• Meeting and coaching regularly with the teacher throughout the placement process
• Providing lifetime placement support

We will secure the vast majority of teachers a teaching position through this process, however, teachers must be able to pass interviews to secure the positions.

In order to maximize the chances of obtaining a placement, teachers should be fully open to all positions in the job search and not be selective over age group, location, or school type (including online versus in class).

There is no guarantee on exactly how many hours an initial placement will include, as most placements start with a smaller number of weekly hours and then grow from there based on schools’ assessments of teaching quality.

A typical rule of thumb is about 8-10 hours per week to start at a single school and then grow from there within the same school.

The placement team will then regularly and continually inform teachers about further part-time placement opportunities.

Those teachers who want more teaching hours can respond to the placement team, and they will facilitate interviews.

The table below provides an example of ramping-up hours from month 1-3 (following initial placement start date). Please note teachers are typically taxed 15% of their salary.

Holidays

There are 14 public holidays each year in Spain. These are typically days off for teachers.

Schools may provide additional paid leave days but this is not 100% guaranteed, particularly for contracts less than one year.

As most placements are part-time, there will likely be no paid public holidays.

Participants normally get two weeks off at Christmas, a week at Easter.

During the month of August, most schools and many other businesses in Spain close for summer break. Spain’s biggest festive celebration is on 6th January – King’s Day.

Classes usually start back from the Christmas break after that time.

A typical working week when teaching English abroad in Spain at an academy would be from 4pm to 10pm Monday to Thursday and 4pm to 8pm on Fridays.

Leave for Local Language Academy Positions

Paid Annual leave
Paid leave is generally provided on public holidays if the teacher usually has scheduled classes on that date.

Unpaid leave
Generally schools will close over the Christmas and Easter breaks for one week. Teachers typically take unpaid leave during this time.

Sick Leave
Some schools will pay sick leave for the times they were due to work but others will not. Teachers are paid hourly without guaranteed hours so sometimes schools won’t pay for hours not worked.

Leave for Online Teaching Positions

Paid Annual leave
Each school has their own policy. Teachers can generally request time off in advance and as long as they can still work a minimum number of hours in the month (sometimes around 16hrs/month).

Unpaid leave
If teachers make an effort to get their shifts up for pickup, they are usually pretty understanding and most of the time the shifts get picked up.

Sick Leave
There is no sick leave. If they have a class, they can put it on a pickup board, however if nobody takes it, they are liable for it. Whenever they miss a class/shift, they have to submit a form explaining what happened.

The following costs make up the program fee and are payable to TravelBud before you head over to Teach English in Spain.

Get Started

Expert guidance and support

Our experts will explain the program and answer all your questions.