Hola to everyone,

I'm hoping to move to Madrid this September (maybe) or next January (more likely) and have applied to Training Express, after seeing a job notice of theirs on-line. Of course, I know they won't make me a job offer until I'm actually in Madrid, but they have strongly encouraged me to come in for an interview once I've arrived there.

I would love to hear from anyone who has worked for them or is currently working for them.

Mil gracias,

Marsha

Marsha.

Are you coming to Madrid to live and work as an English teacher?

If so then you need to inform yourself better on how the English teacher thing works here in Madrid.

It does make a difference if you are an EU citizen and legal to work in Spain or not.
See: English Teaher Advice

Typically everyone makes a list of agencies / academies ( English Teacher Agencies )that usually hire teachers and then make the rounds to all of them based on if they hire everyone or just EU citizens and then once you have finished interviewing with all of the agencies / academies that you can you place ads for private lessons in all of the free newspaper and publications and on-line and then make flyers that you will post around town.

You will also meet people and trade information and constantly add and drop classes in the hopes of building up your hours and looking for your perfect schedule.

Very few people just get an offer from one agency or academy and go to work for them full time.

You can find more information on what I am talking about at the following sites:
www.expatriatecafe.com
http://madridteacher.com

Thanks for the advice, Madrid Insider. I have done my research on this and other websites about coming to Spain to work as a non-EU English teacher, so I don't expect on arrival to immediately get a full schedule from Training Express or any other school. That's why I'm coming with a nestegg to tide me over till I having enough hours to support myself. Also, by next summer, I'll have a modest monthly pension coming in from early retirement
from Social Security in the United States.

Hi Marsha, from a fellow Philadelphian! Sounds like you are well prepared to start your new life here. Look forward to meeting you when you get here, and I (and others here) can probably help you get more classes.

Juliette,

Thanks for the encouraging words. I would really like to arrive in Madrid in September but fear my nestegg may not be big enough to ensure peace of mind as I look for work and get settled. What's the minimum amount you would recommend I come with? I have high (but realistic) hopes of finding work fairly quickly since I have many years of teaching experience and speak Spanish well.

Hi Marsha,

I worked for Training Express for 6 months and Iloved it. They leave you alone, they give you a book and a syllabus and they try their bestest to give you block hours. the reason that I left was because I got another job offer not teaching English.

Good luck with the move and all.

Shawn

Shawn,

Thanks for even more encouraging words about this outfit. I'm getting more and more optimistic about my return to Spain. I wish it could be in a few weeks instead of a few months.

Marsha

The main problem with teaching english is the cost of housing. We are moving in a month or so and couldn't find anything under a 1000 a month rent. There are loads of shared rooms but that's not for us.

that is true...rents are crazy...for a one-bedroom you are looking min. 800 euros (though if you are vigilant and look in segundomano, plus pound the pavement in the barrio you want) you can find places for less.

i've found on average, working full-time (and i am including all the metro/bus travel, prep time, grading, etc), monthly wages come to 1800 euros. some months more, some less. if you are not on contract, you rarely get paid for students who don't show...and never for when you don't.

i think that folks starting out should expect to make less....1000 +/- ...as they find a rhythm, locations (and academies, and students) that work for them. i know many teachers that make quite a bit more than 1800, but they have been in the game for years, treat it like a profession, do marketing, build clients, etc...

it is what you make it, and what you are willing to put into it....


good luck

Great advice Candy.

A studio can run you about 600€ if that's what you want. I live in one for 650€ and it suits me fine. I can't do the sharing apartment thing unless it's with a good friend and they respect my sleeping habits.

As you can tell from all of the posts, you basically have to make it work for you. Stay positive and GO WITH THE FLOW. I no longer work for academies and I love being on my own and calling my own shots.

Have a great day,

Shawn

Hey guys,
I worked for Training Express for a few months and I really enjoyed it too. They do try to give block hours, but sometimes they don´t work out to your advantage. They recently opened a call center to do telephone classes and they try to sell that to alot of the new teachers there (mostly because nobody wants to do them). I did telephone classes with them the first year and it was great, but they decided they were paying me too much money. When I went back to them for the second year, they offered me a full schedule of telephone classes, 5 days a week at a regular weekly pay, contract and all. The only thing is, when you break down the weekly pay into how many hours they actually expect you to be there, it turns out to be about 6 Euros an hour. You´d be much better off teaching an actual class (although you may have to travel a bit) because training express usually starts at 18Euros an hour for an actual in person class. I would be careful if they try to push the phone classes on you and make sure you calculate well how much it would be an hour.
Well, that´s my friendly advice.

I'm doing my TEFL next month and then will be working for TE so its good to know that. One thing I don't understand is why you go to a persons house rather than regular scheduled classes. It seems to me to be a big waste of time and for the acadamy a lose of income, for 10 students you need 10 teachers rather than one teacher for 10 students in a classs.

Anyways I'm going to be teaching in Tres Contas rather than madrid so I'm hoping for to teach more at companies rather than at someones home.

rob

Hi Rob,

Not all of the language academys have proper schools, many of them work out of their homes or in small offices so there is no class room to teach in. The schools that do have classrooms for lessons only hire legal teachers to teach in them as if there is an inspection and the teacher is not legal there is a heavy fine for the academy. Then there is the reality that there will always be clients who prefer the convience of having someone come to their home. Yes it's an inconvience for the teacher thats why you have to structure your schedule to make sense for you. Try to keep your classes with-in convient range of your home when possible, cutting down on travel time. I personally prefer the individual classes as I specialize in children. More than three children in a class is too many as far as I'm concerned as Spanish children are no different than any other in the sense that it's easier to hold thier attention if there are less of them. When you teach a group of them you spend quite a lot of your time just in classroom management. I've been lucky enough to finally get my schedule to where all of my classes but two are with-in a 15 minute bus ride from my house, or a 40 minute or less walk if I so choose. The two classes I go farther for are both private and they are for two hours at a time. I've decided to no longer spend more than 80 minutes in travel RT for a class thats less than two hours long or pays extremly well (by well I mean more than 30€ an hour). We all make choices though. Once you've built up a schedule that provides you with enough work to live on, you'll be able to fine tune it to suit your preferences.

Cheers,
Bonnie

A very interesting posting from thebrits.de regarding Non-EU freelance language teachers - new regulations! Basiclly the rules in Germany have changed making it almost impossible for non EU freelancers to get a work/residency permit. Basiclly you have to be hired fulltime or your out of luck

more info here non-EU freelance language teachers - new regulations! Germany

Hey Rob,
When I worked for Training Express, I taught both phone classes and business classes. If you're teaching business classes for them, they will send you to the company and you'll usually have a classroom with about 10 to 15 students in it. I see that you live in Tres Cantos and that is exactly where I taught when I was at Training Express. They have a contract with Siemens, right next to the train station in Tres Cantos, and teaching there was a lot of fun. You should see if they need any teachers for that location since you already live in that neighborhood.