July marked the end of Red Ochre’s Erasmus Plus Programme: Teach Seville. We sent 21 people with English teaching qualifications to work in academies in Seville in 2016-2017 on two month all expenses paid placements. There was teaching and reaching different communities. There was also manzanilla, flamenco, free Spanish classes, fino, bars, football, festivals, insect bites, bla bla car journeys and forgetting to get the gas topped up.
Why Teach Seville?
Recent census figures showed that across England 1.7% of the population (900,000 people) have either no, or poor spoken English. These people face significant barriers in participating fully in local, national and European life. There is a need for high quality, trained teachers who can think creatively, but also with the ability to innovate and be entrepreneurial in how they teach, where and when. At Red Ochre, we think of these types of people as socially entrepreneurial English teachers!
We know that after qualifying, for most TESOL teachers experience is often isolated to ‘on the job’ progression. The need for innovative ways to reach and teach a variety of people meant that the Teach Seville placements provided training for participants to experience a variety of ways of practicing their vocation.
We are undertaking the evaluation now but have found that absolutely all participants agreed (strongly or otherwise) that through participating in the mobility they learned better how to find solutions in difficult or challenging contexts (problem solving), see the value of different cultures and are more confident and convinced of their abilities. Absolutely all participants also believe that their chances to get a new or better job have increased as a result and at least 50% of participants have stayed in Seville of Spain after getting jobs afterwards.
15 participants were very satisfied with their Erasmus+ mobility experience in general. 5 were rather satisfied and one was neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. No one was dissatisfied which we consider a good achievement.
Group 1 of the Teach Seville programme getting ready for an adventure of a lifetime!
In the participants words…
“Thought you might like to know I’ll be moving to Seville in August/September to take up a position in the language school I was placed at. Can’t wait!”
“ Thank you so much for everything, had an incredible time. Truly appreciate your efforts. All the best.”
“Just wanted to say thank you for letting me take part on the program, it was a great experience and I definitely learnt a lot. I’m off to work in Alicante now. The scheme definitely helped me to get that job.”
“Teach Seville is a great idea and I appreciate the work it and Red Ochre does.”
“I just wanted to say thanks for everything and for letting me be a part of Teach Seville. It really was an amazing experience and provided me with exactly the experience I needed to start working as an English teacher. Aside from that, it was loads of fun and I was able to visit a lot of beautiful places! I’ve got a job for the summer in Valencia so I’ll be heading back to Spain next weekend, I almost can’t believe it.”
“Just wanted to say a big thank you for accepting me onto the programme, had the best time and ended up getting a job out of it too.”
Group 2 enjoying life in Seville
We have won funding for an updated and improved version of Teach Seville and will be sending three groups of 10 participants to Spain starting in September. For more information see our Teach Seville webpage or email Martin Cooper.
Published: July 11, 2017.
Categories: News.