FAQ’S ON YOUR NEW ADVENTURE
TEFL Spain

Yes, One Hundred Percent! If we don’t get you into the Safety Zone of a minimum of 10 hours a week teaching with Canterbury English thirty days after your course finishes, we will give you 300 Euros back and then you will be green flagged as the Number One Priority of our scheduling department to receive classes. This means you have first choice of all the daily class offers and within a few days you will have 300 Euros back, as well as being in the ten to fifteen hour safety zone.

Putting a good teaching schedule together requires 50% Canterbury English and 50% other schools. From the third week of the TEFL course onwards (first day Madrid Lifestyle), we are sending you class offers to teach with us so that you can start acquiring the foundation of a solid schedule of classes that will keep you in Spain. You have just graduated on the fourth Friday of your TEFL month and from the beginning of the third week you are starting to accumulate real paid teaching experience. We give you one more week to settle into your new Canterbury English schedule and then on the following Monday, as part of our Other Schools Premium Program, we contact the over 340 schools that are part of our network to let them know you are ready to work. That’s when you will start getting offers from other schools, as well as continuing offers from Canterbury English and you chose what’s best for you.

It is very important to know that you are completely free to choose the best class offers that you receive, whether it be from Canterbury English or other Schools. For example, if you have a class with Canterbury English that prevents you from getting a higher paying class, or a great work opportunity or block hours from another school, then because you are a free agent, you chose the class or job that is best for you. You can let our scheduling department know you have had a better offer somewhere else and you need to pass this class on to one of your classmates or someone in the next TEFL/Spanish course. Some graduates even organize it themselves with their friends from the TEFL/Spanish course and hand over a class that may be blocking their schedule, but for a classmate, fits in perfectly with their class timetable. As you can see we are highly flexible and this is fine by us, because our priority is that you get that golden schedule you are looking for and need. We will encourage you to always look out for number one, which is you, and so what is good for you, is good for us. There`s no doubt about it, you are our top priority.

We can’t just accept anybody into our programs, because we are not a TEFL “churro” machine that churns out massive numbers of graduates. We are entrusting you with our own clients. You’re not being farmed out to someone else’s customers. So that’s why we say we are an Ivy League TEFL program. We are very selective and look at the university you have graduated from, your GPA, your work experience, your interests, you’re application letter and then we make a decision. If you are accepted into our program, be joyful, it is a privilege.  We feel we are a very human and artisanal organization and applicants are handpicked, not by an employee, but by the founder of the company.

• Money is not the bottom line at Canterbury English. That is why we are a thousand Euros less expensive than other organizations for our Madrid Lifestyle Non-EU Program, one thousand Euros less expensive for our One Year Study Abroad Program and almost 400 Euros less expensive than most other TEFL programs, when you include the required student teaching, which at Canterbury English is paid for.

We could easily add on a thousand Euros to our two Non-EU programs and 400 Euros to our TEFL and still fill our courses. The founder has an international MBA from California and a Masters in Marketing and Sales from IE, Madrid, but he is also a poet and a humanitarian and has been helping teachers to live in Madrid for almost thirty years and shares their interests, their ups and downs and their financial concerns. He doesn’t want to rip anyone off, because in life, what comes around goes around. And he’s going to be seeing you every month to pay you for however many years you want to remain with Canterbury English. That is why we at Canterbury English believe in Fair Trade and we feel that the prices of our programs and all the extra benefits that you get from being a part of Canterbury English, is part of a bona-fida Fair Trade Agreement between you and us.

• Yes. We limit the classes to about twelve to fourteen students a month to keep it cosy, quality orientated and to fulfill our job guarantee. That’s why the early birds who send in their application for one of the programs, if their application is up to par, get accepted into the month of their choice. Course months start to fill up as we get closer to the start date, but always try, because although we have a waiting list for high season months, some people change months for different reasons and then we can pop you into the month of your choice.

Our International program has been awarding high quality and accredited Canterbury English TEFL Certificates for over two decades now. And like waves from a stone that falls in the placid and sparkling blue Mediterranean Sea, our thousands of graduates have, in ever expanding rings, brought the good name of Canterbury English to schools in just about every country across the five continents. Our name is familiar to English school directors in China, Japan, Korea, South & North America, Australia, Africa and especially in Spain. Earning our TEFL certificate and carrying it with you will automatically activate the sliding doors of welcome, wherever your heart desires to go. And as you will also carry under your belt the experience of teaching with Canterbury English and a letter of recommendation for the teaching that you have done with us, then truly the world is your oyster!

• No, not at all. If you don’t speak a word of Spanish you can teach English without any problems at all. Only in the case that a client asks us for a teacher who speaks Spanish (which only happens once in a while), because they have either no knowledge of English or very low level, then we say so on the class offer that we send to you. But again, this doesn’t happen very often and it will not limit you in any way to get a full schedule of classes.

Enterprises in Spain have a high demand for In-company English classes. Often the employees of a company receive paid English classes year in, year out. A Canterbury English contract with a corporation can go on for up to ten years. We still have a number of teachers giving classes for example in De la Viuda, the Spanish chocolate company and the contract started with this enterprise in 2005. This is the same in other schools in Madrid and around the English teaching world. Therefore teachers need to be well versed in giving in-company classes and that is why part of the course is dedicated to preparing you well for what you are actually going to be doing for Canterbury English and other schools in Spain or abroad.

Perhaps the biggest world market in English teaching is giving classes to children from a tender age through the end of High School. That is why it mystifies us, on the academic side of Canterbury, why the Celta courses don’t have a part dedicated to teaching children. Other TEFL courses are similar in that they dedicate a few hours at best to children, at Canterbury English, it is an important part of the course, because we know that there is a 100% chance that you will be teaching kids during the year unless you specifically tell us, no kids! Which you can, but it limits your possibilities in the English teaching market. And teaching kids is fun, because their innocence and candidness brings you into their world and rubs off on you and you feel the more vocational, heart to heart side of this job, which is maybe why you signed up in the first place!

Madrid Lifestyle Start Dates

As far as start dates are concerned, to give you a general idea, they would be the same as the TEFL start dates (https://canterburyenglishtefl.com/ce-program-prices-and-dates/). However people come at different times and we adapt to your arrival time, as it all depends on you and when you can comfortably get here. Richard will give you a personal two hour orientation the first weekday after you arrive and get you started with classes.  So just put the month you want in the application form following the TEFL start dates and then when you have bought your flight, you can let us know your arrival date and we will arrange an orientation session with Richard. Also You can change months as many times as you like just by sending an email.

TEFL: September – March: Any arrival dates from September to March are great work wise to start the Madrid Lifestyle and TEFL Programs during the school year.

April & May: are also very good, because we still have classes going out every day. Other teachers’ (who have started from September through March) schedules are full and less people arrive at these times, so you would come in very handy! At this time you can also often take over another teachers’ schedule, because some teachers leave early, before the end of the school year, for different reasons such as weddings, graduations, family affairs, etc. If you are under 45 and native born (USA, GB, etc. or you are from a country that’s official language is English, India, Carribean, Nigeria, etc), you will probably do a summer camp in July and August, which is a great bridge for the summer.

June: June is perfect, because of the Summer camps.

Summer in Madrid: This is available to you if you are doing Madrid Lifestyle and you arrive sometime in June or if you do the TEFL in June. If you are not native or you are over 45 or you just want to stay in Madrid, the summer in Madrid is an opportunity for you, because most of our teachers leave for summer camps or home or to travel, so we will need you to do the intensive summer classes. A certain segment of the population use the summer to learn English intensively, because they don’t have time during the year and they leave English for the summer, but do it intensively. For example, with one Monday through Friday two hour class, you have a class offer of ten hours a week in one blow! Also because most people leave for summer vacation, Madrid is wonderful and relaxed and there are a lot of things going on culturally speaking and in the open air such as parks, outdoor cinemas, plazas, terrazas, outdoor swimming pools, etc. Personally for me, July and August in Madrid are my favorite months of the year!

Madrid Lifestyle Arriving in July and August: Not a good idea, unless you want to travel or just hang out and you have the funds to do so! We don’t have a Madrid Lifestyle program in July and August, for the simple reason that it is the summer holiday period.

TEFL in August: This is a very popular month for TEFL for many reasons, but especially because you finish right before the school year begins in September and you are ready to go with a TEFL Certificate under your belt!

So basically, any time you arrive is great, depending on what you want to do, based on the above information and either you have orientation in a group, if your arrival date is right before the last Friday of the month, or if you arrive on a different day, you recieve an individual orientation. The group orientation for the TEFL and Madrid Lifestyle Programs is the last Friday of the month, because the TEFL program usually starts on the first Monday of the next month and for the TEFL students it is required to start the course on the correct date.

Not at all! It is very common to have older and more mature English teachers teaching private and company classes in Madrid. Clients sometimes prefer it and specifically ask for an older, more mature teacher who has more life experience to enrich their classes. Because age is an issue in the Asian and Arab countries (40 plus starts to become a problem!), many people in their 50’s plus come to Spain, because it is the mecca for those who want to begin a second (or third or fourth!) career and life for themselves and Madrid is an amazing option for them. So don’t think twice about it, you will be very welcome!

TEFL or Madrid Lifestyle as a Non-native Speaker

Hundreds of non-native students with a bilingual level of English have achieved a Canterbury English International TEFL Certificate or already have one and do our Madrid Lifestyle Program and teach for us for a year or many years.

Is it possible to get a job if you are a non-native?

Of course it’s possible. After taking part in this course you will get a job. When the course will be finished, you will have part of your schedule with us and the other part with the academies and schools that we work with.

What support non-natives can get from us?

During the whole period of the TEFL course we will support our non-native students in all ways possible, to improve their pronunciation and speaking. Before the course you have to pass a level test by the Director of Studies, who will identify areas for improvement and help to find work after the course.

What advantages are there for non-native teachers?

Non-native speakers know their English grammar very well and this means they can help their students progress quickly, because they were also once students of English and this knowledge is very useful in class

There are many benefits to the Madrid Lifestyle, so let me explain what the main ones are. The Madrid Lifestyle Visa Program is a program that gives you A to Z coverage, including the opportunity to apply for a visa to get here, a job, a 9 month  Spanish course, a social network of friends, an English school, a director and staff behind you and supporting you and paying you for as long as you wish (and if you have a real problem, we will bail you out, scouts honor, because you are part of our ex-pat family), contacts with 340 English schools, help with accommodation, bank accounts, mobile phones and so much more. And that is why it is so popular and every month, it fills up fast.The Madrid Lifestyle kicks off with a morning workshop when you arrive, job offers starting the same day and 9 months of Spanish classes, without which you can’t get a one year study abroad visa, because you are coming here first to study and then to work.

The visa allows you to work for 20 hours a week or up to 92 hours a month (depending on how many working days there are in a month).

Unless you are studying at university or you are studying Spanish you cannot get a Study Abroad Visa.

In other words, the only way to study and work in Europe and Spain, for Non-EU, is a Study Abroad Visa. Basically there is no other way to get started.

https://canterburyenglishtefl.com/know-accreditation-tefl-courses-spain/

We have been running a TEFL program for 21 years now, but many teachers from other countries like you who already have TEFL certificates said to us, “it isn’t fair on us, we too want a shot at paradise, at living the good Spanish lifestyle.” And so Voila, we built the Madrid Lifestyle Program as a bridge to paradise!

For more information on Madrid Lifestyle: https://canterburyenglishtefl.com/course/madrid-lifestyle-non-eu/ 

If you want to work in Spain, I highly advise you to do the TEFL program in Spain, because it will be much more useful than a generic one from the US or anywhere else. Ours is totally focused on the teaching situations you will find especially here in Spain and also around the world. If you have not already started your TEFL Certificate, I suggest you do our program, because it would be much more productive to get an externally accredited (by College of the Teachers) certificate from Canterbury English. Only CELTA and a very few number of TEFL programs are externally accredited, and Canterbury English is one of them. So your certificate would be worth much more. To be externally accredited is very difficult and very expensive and that is why very few TEFL programs do it. I highly recommend you to do the TEFL program with us.

Canterbury English will accept you for our Madrid Lifestyle Program if you have an online certificate.

However, I would like to warn you about online certificates: Why do we and most English language academies in Madrid and Spain and around the world highly prefer teachers with externally accredited on-sight TEFL Certificates? The reason is that although you definitely have exposure to teaching with your online course, there is an enormous difference in the quality of education that your receive when you are in an on-site, externally accredited TEFL program. You are interacting with live teachers, the other students, give live presentations, teach real live practice classes and a long etc. (please see this link: https://canterburyenglishtefl.com/ce-course-syllabus/)

Online courses are good to get your feet wet, as a behind the computer introduction to teaching, but the teaching market in Spain has evolved so much in the last decade that Canterbury English, as well as the other 340 English schools in Madrid, companies that hire ESL teachers (in-company), private English students and small businesses will always hire someone who has a bona-fida on sight and accredited TEFL Certificate over someone who only has an online certificate. The reason is that they have found in the past that the people who have online certificates are not ready for a real classroom setting and will always employ someone who has an on-site TEFL certificate first. Most teachers who teach in Spain have onsite certificates like the Canterbury English International TEFL Certificate Course. So as I said before, it’s definitely useful if you have an online certificate and having it will help you in our course, but on its own, it will be more difficult for you to get a job. So to conclude, your best program option would be the One Year Study Abroad with TEFL and Spanish.

So why did you get an online certificate? The reason why you got an online certificate in the first place, instead of an on-sight one, is probably because it was much cheaper and more convenient. However, we suggest that if you have one, you should still do our TEFL course and get an on-site one as well with us. This is by far the best combination. The difference is night and day, believe me. You will probably realize during our TEFL course that your online diploma is basically worthless and really hasn’t prepared you at all for real teaching. This is the hard truth, but it must be said, and I think that after seeing thousands of teachers pass through my company, I am in a position to say it. Real teachers with a lot of experience teaching and with B/A’s in education and even masters degrees in education, do our TEFL course to adapt their training to the ESL market in Spain and find that our TEFL course is extremely useful to them and are very glad they made the decision to take it and the investment they have made, even though they have a four year plus teaching credential. As you can see, there is a world of educational difference between someone who has done something else in life, and then gets an online certificate and comes to do our Madrid Lifestyle program with only an online certificate. Yes we will accept you if you only have an online certificate, and perhaps there is/was no other way to do it for financial reasons, but you really need to know that as a teacher, there is an enormous difference in the quality of your education and your preparation for teaching and that it should be your last, only way to do the Madrid Lifestyle program option.

A teacher from the USA said to me recently, “I got an online certificate and came to Madrid to teach, but I now realize that it’s just not the same at all for schools and companies, and I quite frankly regret not having done the Canterbury English program from the outset. Now I will be stuck with this online certificate for life, unless I save up and get a real TEFL Certificate with you guys.” So the moral of the story is get one from the beginning and don’t have the same thing happen to you.

However, all this being said, we do have a few good teachers who have only online certificates, but have had to basically learn how to teach by trial and error. They crash and burn and sometimes burn our students. I myself had to do this, but TEFL didn’t exist when I started teaching. Back in the 80’s and early 90’s in Madrid, we all crashed and burned, but I don’t recommend it at all nowadays, unless there is no other way out.

The best situation is that you can invest in your own education, so that you are more qualified and this way you can better educate your students!

We offer the Canterbury English International TEFL Certificate and not the CELTA. And there is a very good reason for it. The CELTA concentrates on teaching adults and does not teach you to teach children. CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults). As I’m sure you well know, teaching adults and teaching children are two completely different worlds and you need to know both. In the ESL teaching field and especially in Madrid with Canterbury and other schools, you are teaching a mixture of adults and children. To give you a rough idea, your teaching schedule could have about 50% adults and 50% children.

So the CELTA is only valid for half of your teaching schedule, which is why Canterbury, like most organizations, provides you with an accredited TEFL certificate, which is audited every year by an outside accrediting body. Also as you can see in the following link, CELTA is designed for candidates who have little or no previous teaching experience, while our TEFL course is attended by people who have a B/A and even a Masters in education, as well as teachers who have been teaching for many years, but don’t have a certificate, as well as people who have little or no teaching experience.

We have been running a TEFL program for 21 years. I myself started the English Academy in 1991. Please look at the testimony page https://canterburyenglishtefl.com/whats-the-word-about-us-from-our-tefl-students/Also you can look at our accreditation page:

https://canterburyenglishtefl.com/know-accreditation-tefl-courses-spain/

And College of the Teachers

https://canterburyenglishtefl.com/about-college-of-the-teachers/

Please let me know any other doubts you may have. Also when we Skype (after you send us your application) you can ask me in person so I can clear up any of your doubts.

The Quality of our Certificate: As far as the quality of our certificate, it is one of the highest quality ones with its accreditations, our instructor and for many other reasons. We have students who have B/A’s in education and even Masters in Education who do the program and are very happy with what they learned, as I speak with them afterwards and so far everyone, no matter what their background and degree qualifications are have found the Canterbury English TEFL program very useful.

How long is the wait to get an appointment at the Spanish Consulate in my Consular District

As soon as you are sure you want to do our program, you should check the wait time for an appointment in the web page of the Spanish Consulate in your Consular District. In the US, the wait can but up to 4 months to get an appointment. For Example, if you look in May the next available appointment could be in October. So do this ASAP, otherwise you will have to push back your travel plans by a few months.

Question to the Spanish Consulate in China from a Foreign Citizen teaching English in China: Can I apply for a student Visa from China and not return to my home country to do this?

Q: The questions is would I be able to apply in China for a student visa to Spain even though I am not chinese or a permanent resident?

Response from the Spanish Consulate in China

If you are a legal resident, no need to be permanent, in the moment you submit the visa application you can do it here.

Q: My school said to verify that I can apply for the one year student visa while in China as there are various lengths of study visa. I would be grateful if I could get a reply so I can send it to my school

Response from the Spanish Consulate in China

Good morning, If you are a legal resident here you can apply any type of visa to go to Spain. Please note that it does not mean that the visa is going to be granted. Once the visa application is submitted the Consulate would need to check if you meet the requirements. Please note that you might need some documents from your place of origin. For example, if you haven’t been living in China in the past 5 years you will need to submit the certificate of non criminal records of the previous countries where you lived during that period of time. Also certificates of relationship if your parents are going to be your economic support, etc…these documents must be duly legalized and translated into Spanish.

Comment from a teacher working in Hong Kong and applying to the Spanish Consulate there

I have applied to the Spanish Consulate in Hong Kong and been trying to sort out a few things in preparation to leave Hong Kong and move to Spain and in the process, but I ran into a hitch, because I found out that it would not be possible for me to apply for my Spanish visa from Hong Kong, because my visa expires on the same date of my contract. This means that when I submit my papers my visa will be expired and so it is no longer valid and I cannot then apply in Hong Kong and must go back to my home country to apply.

Would I need a Police Clearance from the country I am living in (that I am not a passport holder of) if I have been living there over 6 months?

YES (if you don’t your visa will be denied.)

Do I have to get my visa from my home country?

YES (UNLESS YOU ARE A RESIDENT OF THE COUNTRY YOU ARE LIVING IN)

Will you give me the school letter I need for the visa?

YES A VISA LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE AND PROOF OF PAYMENT WILL BE PROVIDED.

Can I switch courses if I’m delayed by visa or other issues?

Yes of course you can switch courses. There place is guaranteed (no matter what) once you have been accepted and if you delayed by visa or other issues. Just send us an email and we will switch course months anytime you wish. It is common that people put their arrival date back or even forward, depending on their circumstances.

FAQ: Visa Process: Stressful

1) Just take a deep breath and say to yourself that this is going to be easy, all I have to do is make a list and go through the requirements and tick them off step by step once there are done. Like anything you want to achieve, it’s just a question of going through and completing the requirements one by one. And keep in mind your dream at the end of the rainbow! This is the motivation you will have to do it.

2) Find the Spanish embassy closest to you and go to their web page and get the list of requirements for the study abroad visa (although requirements vary a little from country to country, they are mainly the same).

Good luck and remember Canterbury English and I are 100% behind you! Richard

We only hire out of our programs and so I would encourage you to do our Madrid Lifestyle Program, because it is the only way you can get a student visa for a year (renewable) to live and work in Spain.

YES.

Once you pay the deposit, it is subtracted from the total program price (Example: Madrid Lifestyle Program Price: 1600-300 deposit = 1300 (you owe and pay at orientation).