# Living and working in Barcelona



## justinecharles (Aug 28, 2011)

Hi I wonder if somebody could advise me on options. I live with my family in Brighton UK and my partner has the option of relocating to Barcelona with his company. He works in IT. My daughter is now 9 and I'd be worried about her slipping behind if she were to enter the state schooling system. I am thinking of enrolling her into an international school if we do go. I need to earn enough money to cover the fees! I am wondering whether I might find work. I work as a project coordinator at Sussex University and am also a linguist. I studied german to degree level and speak fluent french having worked abroad for a number of years previously in International Organisations. Unfortunately my spanish is more basic. I have basic conversational spanish. Would I be better eoff following a TEFL course and trying to get a job teaching English or would I be more likely to find admin work using english and my other languages and improving my spanish. i'm not sure what direction to take or where the best opportunities would be. We are thinking of basing ourselves in Sitges but this all depends on schools etc. Please could anyone advise? Justine from Brighton


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

justinecharles said:


> Hi I wonder if somebody could advise me on options. I live with my family in Brighton UK and my partner has the option of relocating to Barcelona with his company. He works in IT. My daughter is now 9 and I'd be worried about her slipping behind if she were to enter the state schooling system. I am thinking of enrolling her into an international school if we do go. I need to earn enough money to cover the fees! I am wondering whether I might find work. I work as a project coordinator at Sussex University and am also a linguist. I studied german to degree level and speak fluent french having worked abroad for a number of years previously in International Organisations. Unfortunately my spanish is more basic. I have basic conversational spanish. Would I be better eoff following a TEFL course and trying to get a job teaching English or would I be more likely to find admin work using english and my other languages and improving my spanish. i'm not sure what direction to take or where the best opportunities would be. We are thinking of basing ourselves in Sitges but this all depends on schools etc. Please could anyone advise? Justine from Brighton


Hi Justine,
As a qualified teacher I estimate you'd be making a GROSS salary of around 1100/ 1200 euros, so you'd be taking home around 900 (?? correct me if I'm wrong), so the money ain't great. As you have a family that you might actually plan to see and share your life with you also need to know that if you work in an academy the timetables are a little difficult. Most work being in the evening when schools and offices chuck out (5:00 - 10:00 ish). You might get company work at 8:00 - 9:30 ish and lunch times (2:00 - 4:00) are very popular too. I don't know if that would be enough money and if you'd be able to work round those main time slots. A large number of teachers supplement their income with private classes off the books, but apart from not being legal so not paying taxes, they are not of course guaranteed so it's not advisable to build your life around something so unstable.

I don't know what a project manager does exactly, so I don't know what skills you have, but languages are always sought after.

I don't know. Maybe get your TEFL just in case, but be on the look out for other jobs that will probably be better paid?

Having said all that, I suppose you know the unemployment  statistics for Spain, do you?

There are loads of threads on here that will be useful to you
Teaching in Spain
(Un)employment
education
...


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Pesky Wesky said:


> Hi Justine,
> As a qualified teacher I estimate you'd be making a GROSS salary of around 1100/ 1200 euros, so you'd be taking home around 900 (?? correct me if I'm wrong), so the money ain't great. As you have a family that you might actually plan to see and share your life with you also need to know that if you work in an academy the timetables are a little difficult. Most work being in the evening when schools and offices chuck out (5:00 - 10:00 ish). You might get company work at 8:00 - 9:30 ish and lunch times (2:00 - 4:00) are very popular too. I don't know if that would be enough money and if you'd be able to work round those main time slots. A large number of teachers supplement their income with private classes off the books, but apart from not being legal so not paying taxes, they are not of course guaranteed so it's not advisable to build your life around something so unstable.
> 
> I don't know what a project manager does exactly, so I don't know what skills you have, but languages are always sought after.
> ...


yes, agree with all that.....but to be fair a 9 year old should be absolutely fine in state school in any case, so money/ a job might not be such a huge issue - unless it's a temporary move in which case International school might well be the best option


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

BTW I meant to say that there of course jobs for teachers in schools, but they are either state schools with a complicated state exam to go through (in Spanish if you see what I mean) or in international schools where you'd most likely need a B Ed, or a PGCE.


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## barca (Aug 18, 2011)

justinecharles said:


> Hi I wonder if somebody could advise me on options. I live with my family in Brighton UK and my partner has the option of relocating to Barcelona with his company. He works in IT. My daughter is now 9 and I'd be worried about her slipping behind if she were to enter the state schooling system. I am thinking of enrolling her into an international school if we do go. I need to earn enough money to cover the fees! I am wondering whether I might find work. I work as a project coordinator at Sussex University and am also a linguist. I studied german to degree level and speak fluent french having worked abroad for a number of years previously in International Organisations. Unfortunately my spanish is more basic. I have basic conversational spanish. Would I be better eoff following a TEFL course and trying to get a job teaching English or would I be more likely to find admin work using english and my other languages and improving my spanish. i'm not sure what direction to take or where the best opportunities would be. We are thinking of basing ourselves in Sitges but this all depends on schools etc. Please could anyone advise? Justine from Brighton


Hi justine,
i think the advice you have been given is correct. It's very difficult to get any sort of job at the moment so do (e.g. getting more qulaifications) everything you can to improve your chances of finding something. My advice would be to look everywhere and anywhere.
Sitges is a nice place to live but you may find you have the commute into Barcelona (if you can't find anything around Sitges) a bit tough/expensive. Although the train (30 mins) is good and goes straight into the centre of town - so is possible.


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## justinecharles (Aug 28, 2011)

Hi all
Thanks very much for your honest replies. This has been very helpful and confirmed my concerns! I do realise how bad the economy is out there and how much unemployment there is. Its not a great time to be considering Spain! That said we are still going to have a good think about it. We'd probably go the international school route in case we wanted to come after a year or something. So I'd definitely need to work. I might rethink the whole TEFL idea and focus on my present skills and languages, see what I might be able to do with those. Time will tell! Best wishes. Justine


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

justinecharles said:


> Hi all
> Thanks very much for your honest replies. This has been very helpful and confirmed my concerns! I do realise how bad the economy is out there and how much unemployment there is. Its not a great time to be considering Spain! That said we are still going to have a good think about it. We'd probably go the international school route in case we wanted to come after a year or something. So I'd definitely need to work. I might rethink the whole TEFL idea and focus on my present skills and languages, see what I might be able to do with those. Time will tell! Best wishes. Justine


Well, I'm just glad you took it the right way, because although people ask for advice when they come on the forum, they often don't like what they hear, and think we're trying to put them off for some reason!

So, you seem sensible. Just do your research, ask for help when you need it, and make your own mind up! 
Best wishes to you too


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## ivorra (Sep 24, 2008)

justinecharles said:


> Hi all
> Thanks very much for your honest replies. This has been very helpful and confirmed my concerns! I do realise how bad the economy is out there and how much unemployment there is. Its not a great time to be considering Spain! That said we are still going to have a good think about it. We'd probably go the international school route in case we wanted to come after a year or something. So I'd definitely need to work. I might rethink the whole TEFL idea and focus on my present skills and languages, see what I might be able to do with those. Time will tell! Best wishes. Justine


If you are thinking of an international school for your daughter in Barcelona or Sitges, I guess you have to budget for fees of at least 3500 euro per term. The state schools do not charge fees, although there is a category of state assisted private school where fees are charged. In all State schools in Catalunya, the language Is Catalan not Spanish.


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## Manin_bcn (Jun 18, 2011)

barca said:


> Hi justine,
> i think the advice you have been given is correct. It's very difficult to get any sort of job at the moment so do (e.g. getting more qulaifications) everything you can to improve your chances of finding something. My advice would be to look everywhere and anywhere.
> Sitges is a nice place to live but you may find you have the commute into Barcelona (if you can't find anything around Sitges) a bit tough/expensive. Although the train (30 mins) is good and goes straight into the centre of town - so is possible.


... Oh, there are tons of jobs for English teachers in Barca! Just look on loquo.com the jobs are posted every day.

Barcelona (or Spain, in general) may be saturated by English teachers but many are young and use their CELTA as a travel passport! The older (oops, more mature one is) the better.

Of course, secondary qualifications add strength to one's CELTA/TEFL qualification but basically academies ask for native English speakers.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Manin_bcn said:


> ... Oh, there are tons of jobs for English teachers in Barca! Just look on loquo.com the jobs are posted every day.
> 
> Barcelona (or Spain, in general) may be saturated by English teachers but many are young and use their CELTA as a travel passport! The older (oops, more mature one is) the better.
> 
> Of course, secondary qualifications add strength to one's CELTA/TEFL qualification but basically academies ask for native English speakers.


I agree - and look at the pay! 

You very often, but not always admittedly, need to work in 3 different academies to get a liveable salary.
It's true the turn over is high as Spain is usually the first stop before going to S America. Somehow I did it the other way round...
The older, more mature you are may be good for adult classes, but not always for children's classes. Stereotypes I know,but they do exist.

Anyway, I think the basic advice is, be warned; it might not be as easy as it once was, don't expect to feed a family on a TEFL teachers salary, be prepared to be flexible and move where the work is.


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