Living Asturias

Whether it’s a dream career or just a way to get some money together whilst looking for another job, many Anglophones who come to Asturias will end up teaching English at some point. Because of the global financial crisis, many Spanish are upping their skill set by taking English courses. That means that you will have many possibilities to find a job as an English teacher in Asturias.

If you want to teach English in Asturias, type in ‘Teach English Jobs‘ on a search engine and you will find tons of websites advising you to take the TESOL (Teach English to Speaker of Other Language) or TEFL (Teach English as a Foreign Language) or CELTA, as that is the key to a teaching English job not just in Asturias but everywhere else in the world where English is hardly spoken.

• Get qualified: CELTA, TESOL, TEFL or equivalent courses: When considering training options for teaching abroad, many people are undecided about whether a TEFL or a CELTA course is the better choice for them. While it’s possible to find work as an unqualified English teacher in Spain – such is the current demand – the best (and highest paying) schools tend only to take on teachers who have completed CELTA, TESOL or TEFL. CELTA is an intensive teaching course for people who are certain they want to pursue a teaching career. The cost of the course can vary between 3.000 and 5.000€. TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) is one of the most popular entry level teaching certifications that will allow you to teach English in non-native speaking countries. The cost of this course can vary between 150 and 2.000€.

• Look for job opportunities in Asturias: Jobs are harder to come by in the big cities, like Madrid or Barcelona, as they continue to be favourite destinations for prospective teachers. When planning your job hunt, remember that peak hiring times are the months of January and September/October. Schools and academies generally start at the beginning of October and end during the last half of June, with most students having the summer off. If you have decided to be a teacher in Asturias, you can start by searching in Google “clases de inglés Asturias”, “cursos de inglés Asturias”, “escuela de inglés Asturias” or  “academia de inglés Asturias” and send your CV to all of them with a nice cover letter. Don’t forget to introduce yourself as “Profesor nativo de inglés” (native English teacher). We also recommend you to join the Facebook groups “English teachers Asturias“, “Expats in Asturias“or ‘Auxiliares de conversación en Asturias‘ where other expats usually share useful info about job offers they know.

• Private teaching: Whether you’re planning to teach English or offer legal private tutoring of any kind to either children or adults, you must register yourself for self-employed taxation ( autónomo) and social security. There are quite a lot of opportunities for those offering private teaching in Asturias. In the big cities -Gijón and Oviedo- university notice boards are a good place for advertisements, as well as local newspapers. Private language lessons are often popular with adults that are already working, preparing official English exams (Cambridge, TOEFL) or thinking about moving abroad.

• Auxiliares de conversación Programme in Asturias: Every year the Spanish Ministry of Education receives applications from thousands of native speakers of English (primarily from the U.S., but also from Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand) and places them in elementary and high schools for 8-9 months. Being a language assistant (auxiliar de conversación) isn’t the same as being a full-fledged teacher; instead, we’re placed in English-language classrooms to assist the native Spanish teacher with their job. Auxiliares receive a monthly grant of 700 euros per month and you work 12 hours a week from the Spanish Ministry of Education. You can access the online application here.

• What salary can you expect?:  Hourly wages vary hugely for English teachers in Asturias. Around 12 to 16 euros per hour is the average, but rates can vary from around 10 euros an hour to 25, depending on the experience required, the level of preparation for each class you’re expected to do and luck. At the rate of 14 euros per hour, this would leave you with around 1,100€ per month, which is enough to get by on in any city of Asturias.

Do you have other tips that our readers should know before coming to Asturias to teach English? Leave your comment below!