There are countless ways of saving money while in Spain, but if you want to be able to travel more and enjoy more experiences, increasing your income is a great way to do that. As native speakers of English with experience teaching English as a foreign language in Spain, your teaching services will be in high demand, but there are a few things to be aware of.
Legality:
As mentioned before in my budgeting article, auxes will no longer receive work authorization. Regardless, individuals with a student visa are not allowed to work as freelancers. This also applies to private in person lessons while in Spain.
Of course, thousands of auxes do this anyway. They either get paid in cash, earn such a small amount that the hacienda in Spain wouldn’t notice (and avoid transfer concepts that imply work), or receive payments through their American bank accounts, which Spain wouldn’t have access to.
In the end, it’s a “do it at your own risk” situation, but this type of work has become the norm. Even officials within the NALCAP program will mention private English lessons as a way to make extra income and stretch your budget.
Which online tutoring platform should I use?
From my experience, a lot of tutoring platforms that recruit English teachers either have very low rates or are known for their scummy behavior such as missing payments, poor student behavior, or problems with spam. Make sure to do your research before working with any given platform. In person lesson plans are great as well, but if you are expected to commute from place to place, it can eat up a lot of your available time.
Success isn’t always guaranteed, so I will walk you through some guidance into teaching online.
Have a Certification
Depending on the platform, being TEFL certified can give your profile higher visibility, credibility, and would justify a higher price for your hourly lessons.
There are also additional benefits to getting TEFL certified. It gives you more confidence and skills in teaching English as a foreign language, and it will open up further opportunities to teach English at a more lucrative platform or for academies in Spain (with work authorization).
I personally took a course through the International TEFL Academy. This helped me get an academy job later on. (I had work authorization, sorry!)
TEFL Course Discount
(Get a free $45 digital copy of their textbook)
Trial Lessons: Don’t Burn Yourself Out!
A lot of platforms use trial lessons. When starting out, it can be tempting to accept every free trial lesson request, attempting to maximize the amount of students you teach. Remember though that trial lessons are unpaid. Be patient and set a modest goal of attaining 1 or 2 new students a month.
Make sure not to set too low of rates either. You may think that having a lower rate will help you quickly gain new students, but oftentimes it results in getting unserious people who just want free conversation lessons. Make sure to take into account the preparation and experience that goes into each lesson before setting your rates.
Offering cheap or free services oftentimes results in being taken advantage of… Off topic, but have you considered supporting the website? You can do so by simply using my affiliate links. I only include links to things I personally use and recommend. It costs you nothing, and it helps me maintain the website.
Try to Reuse Material
You don’t need to create a brand-new lesson for every trial. Have a flexible, basic plan ready that you can adjust depending on the student’s needs.
Trial lessons are like job interviews. Students notice when you’re not prepared. Having a consistent structure will make you more confident, and it will help you turn trial students into long-term ones.
As you continue teaching, you will notice that regardless of each student’s individual goals, they will all need grammar lessons. Many of them will be working towards Cambridge certifications, and a lot of them are practicing for school or work. There will be a lot of common ground between students, so don’t reinvent the wheel for each lesson. Reuse material when it’s suitable.
Growth is Slow (That’s Normal!)
As mentioned before, your goal at first will be to slowly increase the number of students you have. Over time, you will fill up your hours. Doing more lessons, getting good reviews, and gaining experience will also give your profile much more visibility in the platform leading to even more students. If eventually you have maximized the amount of time you wish to teach with scheduled lessons, you can gradually increase prices.
Hopefully, by following this advice, you will have a great experience teaching English online or in person.
Good things can happen if you stay patient and professional
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