Researching for this blog I’ve come across several EFL sites of course and quite a few written by current or ex teachers lambasting the TEFL sector and certain academies in particular.
I haven’t come across any yet written by academy owners so I hope I’ll be able to redress the balance.
I have to say, I sympathise with those teachers who are being treated badly by their schools, who are promised classes that never materialise, who are sent to classes that have been cancelled, who are ignored when they are crying out for pedagogic support, who are thrown into a class of demanding top directors at a moment’s notice having just arrived in Spain….the list is endless, and in fact, part of my intention is to raise awareness that this is happening in badly run schools which continues to lower the reputation of TEFL even further.
But running a school is like juggling with 10 different balls.
- We juggle to find teachers in a city where demand is outstripping supply.
- We juggle to find teachers who at least know what the present perfect tense and even better know how to teach it
- We juggle to do feedbacks on teachers to ensure quality classes are being given.
- We juggle to find time to sit down to support teachers.
- We juggle to set up teacher training workshops
- We juggle to retain clients who are demanding teachers yesterday.
- We juggle to negotiate better contracts with clients so we can give teachers a better deal.
- We juggle to provide thousands of attendance and performance statistics for multi national clients obsessed with reports and bureaucracy
- We juggle to get student evaluations from teachers who have passed the hand in deadline
- We juggle to cover classes where a teacher has “disappeared”.
- We juggle to pay the 35% SOCIAL SECURITY on top of gross salaries that the Spanish government demands of us, (in the UK this figure is 11%)
- We juggle to find teachers who can work legally in Spain
- We juggle to persuade clients to have classes at least the whole of July and to start beginning of September instead of stopping for 3 whole months
- We juggle to pay all our monthly costs and still have some money left over to invest in the business to be able to offer a better service.
Oops! that was 14 balls not 10. And in fact I’m sure you other academy owners can throw some more balls this way.
Sometimes we ask ourselves is it worth it? We certainly never get bored as this sector is so dynamic and we meet so many interesting people but the truth is that we are facing extremely challenging times - both for the teacher and for the language school.
At the end of the day, if we can improve the service and the quality of classes to the client we can charge more, pay our teachers more and invest in our businesses to move forward, it’s so clear that that’s what we have to do.
Let’s get started!
The demand for English in Madrid continues to grow but the city is crying out for teachers. I’m not sure whether the problem is that there is indeed more demand or that teachers are simply choosing to go elsewhere, after all, for the British, Spain is just around the corner and so consequently looses points on adventure appeal.
True to the laws of demand and supply, such a scenario means that teacher rates are being pushed up (and about time), as great teachers are worth their weight in gold. However, and here’s the rub, fewer teachers with the same amount of demand (or more) for classes means that academies are lowering their standards and putting weak and ineffectual teachers into classes.
In an ideal world, fewer teachers would mean that the price we could charge to clients would rise and we could maintain our margins, but this is impossible if quality is being compromised. How can clients be expected to pay more for classes when the quality of the teachers is poorer? It just doesn’t make sense.
Language schools in Madrid are facing a huge challenge and we’re on the brink of a shake up where those schools who consistently compromise on quality will be forced out of the market. Most clients don’t know what goes into a well structured and executed class, but they do know when they are not getting value for money.
If it means that we have to invest more money in teacher support and recruitment we just have to do it, it’ll be worth it in the long run. and who really wants to be fire fighting all day anyway?
Writing your first blog post is daunting to say the least. You’ve spent hours researching the subject but there comes a moment like getting into the car for your first driving lesson, when you can’t put it off any longer. So here goes..
We all know something about something. Having been in business for 25 years, (8 of those with my own business ), lived in Madrid for 19 and been involved in the EFL world for 14, I think I’ll have plenty to say about all these topics. I’m also trained as a Small Business Coach through The Coaching Academy in the UK so there’ll also be some classic coaching stuff creeping in, especially related to business owners “finding their way” with their company, and aligning their values to the culture of their business which is an all time favourite interest of mine.
There are going to be several main topics on this blog, (I thought it would be a good idea to forewarn you so you can decide if it’s worth you checking in here ever again!!):
I’m going to be talking about
- The challenges and issues facing the EFL sector in Madrid
- Running a language school – the ups and downs and how to move forward
- Growing a business in general
- Small Business Coaching
It’s true, there is a huge demand for English in Madrid but the sector is plagued with many problems which need addressing or at least talking about. There’s lots of material via different sites and blogs posted by teachers, but I’ve seen nothing so far written by language school owners putting their side of the case. And what about the clients? Most clients are completely in the dark about what it takes to provide an excellent service.
At the end of the day, what any serious business professional is interested in is giving value for money in a way that provides job satisfaction for everyone involved. Is this possible in the TEFL industry…. We shall see!