EFL Teaching Positions in Nicaragua

Date posted:2008-03-17 | Writer: Granada English College | Email: [email protected]

Positions available throughout the year. We currently have 110 students and are adding about 15 new students per month. We plan to grow the school to 200 students. We provided a 12 week EFL program for 24 Tourist Police officers as part of a tourist safety program sponsored by a foreign embassy.

We almost exclusively hire EFL teachers who are visiting or living in Granada, and who are between the ages of 20 and 45. We do hire some exceptional teachers over the Internet. We are very flexible with our qualification and experience requirements if we observe a teacher doing well teaching our students.

Many of our best teachers have been non-teachers who have adjusted very quickly to our students’ needs for an interactive, communicative classroom using EFL methodologies. Our books and CDs make this easy for people who have an aptitude for teaching EFL to students who are high-beginner to intermediate adults and young adults.

Pay and Benefits: • We contribute $3.00US/hour towards your living expenses. Our full class schedule totals 30 classroom hours per week. Most of our teachers teach about 19 hours per week. • We do not provide airfare, housing or airport pickup. • We will help you find good housing. • Computer with high-speed Internet and laser printer available for school use. • Class sizes range from 6 to 8 students. Tutoring opportunities are sometimes available.

Qualifications and Experience: • Native North American English speakers only. • Minimum of 250 hours of EFL/ESL classroom teaching experience with adults or young adults, 16 years or older. • TESOL, TESL, TEFL, or equivalent training. We are looking for teachers who can effectively use EFL methodologies in a classroom with students age 16 to 45. We have one class for 9 to 15 year olds that is taught by a Granadina. • 2 month minimum commitment. Longer commitments are welcomed. Our Levels are 8 weeks long. • Some Spanish is very helpful. Spanish instruction is available.

Housing and Accommodation: • Your total cost to live here will be at least $400US/month. There are 18.9 Nicaraguan Cordobas per $1US. • Room rentals are available in Granada for $120-$300US/month. • Homestays with a Granadino family are $250-$300US/month, 3 meals/day included.

Granada English College General Information: • We teach 12 months a year in our five classroom Colonial building. We have 1 hour and 2 hour classes, M-Th, mornings, afternoons and evenings, and 3 hour classes on Saturday mornings and afternoons. We start new classes every four weeks and currently teach Levels 1 through 7. We are prepared to teach 12 Levels. • Our mission is to provide Granadinos with skills to compete in the tourism and related industries, and to own/operate their own businesses. • Our teachers love teaching and are enthused about improving the educational and economic opportunities for the people of Granada. • We use the excellent “Interchange, 3rd Edition” textbooks and class audio CDs by Cambridge University Press. They have proven very useful for the novice and advanced teacher alike. We have 4’ x 4’ white boards, CD players, TV, DVD player and a very clean, well-maintained, newly restored Colonial building. The building is not air-conditioned and the city of Granada does have temporary electrical and water outages. We have a battery backup system that keeps our lights, fans and CD players on during city wide blackouts. • The average length of EFL teaching experience by our Granadino teachers is two years. • Many of our native English speaking EFL teachers have several years of EFL teaching experience. 

• Granada English College is a legal, educational company recognized by the Nicaraguan government as an “Investor Business”. We have a Granada city business license and pay city and national taxes. • I (the unpaid owner/recruiter and financial provider) and our Granadina School Director are highly motivated to provide Granadinos with a means to compete in a growing tourist industry and global economy. We are a negative-profit school run in a professional way.

We gladly accept donations and student sponsorships in person and through our website. We keep our student fees low and have provided a high quality of EFL teaching to hundreds of Granadinos.

Interesting Information about Granada, Nicaragua: Nicaragua is located in Central America. “Moon Handbooks, Nicaragua” is an excellent book on Granada and Nicaragua. The same authors have also written the excellent “Moon; Living Abroad in Nicaragua”. Granada English College is located five blocks west of the Central Square, on the north side of Parque Xalteva. You can walk to anywhere in town.

Granada is the oldest colonial city in the Americas. The ecology is as abundant and diverse as Costa Rica yet the cost of living here is much less. The people of Nicaragua are friendlier and they are proud of the 500 years of Spanish history in Granada. The Atlantic Coast has many indigenous tribes with English and African influences. The government and economy have been stable since 1990, when the civil war ended. The country is peaceful and Nicaraguans are looking for a place in the world economy. Money sent home from Nicaraguans in North America and Costa Rica is the largest source of income and amounts to $950 millionUS a year. The tourism industry is increasing steadily. In recent years, foreign investment has been in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Aid and loans from other countries are in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Thank you for your interest. I am happy to answer any questions related to EFL teaching at Granada English College. We look forward to hearing from you.

Applications: Please send a brief email describing your interest in teaching EFL in Granada, and how well you meet the qualifications listed above. Please send a resume, C.V., or a brief summary of your EFL teaching/work/education/travel experience.

We prefer applicants who interview in person and can be observed teaching our students. We are very flexible with our new teacher requirements if we observe an applicant doing well using EFL methodologies in our classrooms.

Donations and student sponsorships may be sent through the “PayPal Donate button” on our website. Credit/debit cards, and Echecks from your bank account are accepted. You do not have to be a member of PayPal to donate. PayPal members may donate directly to [email protected].

We operate the school at a loss so any donations towards student fees, teachers’ pay, and teaching and student materials are very welcome.

Thank you.

Scott Banks, Owner, Recruiter Sarai Pastora, Owner, School Director Granada English College

[email protected]