Details
Demand
Very High
Busiest
Sep-Jun
Academic Year
Currency
€
Euro (EUR)
Contract
8-9 months
Normally
Taxes
Low
- Summary
- Most children go to one of the thousands of language schools across the country, so teachers are always needed
- Main TEFL regions
- Athens, Crete, Corfu, Thebes, Thessaloniki, Larissa and many other smaller towns.
- Types of teaching
- Private language schools (frontisteria): General English, Cambridge (FCE, CPE)
In-family: General English, English for Younger Learners - Accommodation
- This is usually provided by your employer, either at a cheap rate or free of charge. Just check whether or not your apartment will be furnished.
- Flight reimbursement
- While flight reimbursement is not typical, you will often receive a bonus at the end of a long contract.
- Salary
- €450-750 per month. In the better schools, experienced teachers can earn over €1000 per month.
- Taxes
- Unless you get a very well-paid job, you’ll pay 5% tax.
- Cost of living
- Prices have risen since the Drachma was scrapped in favor of the Euro in 2001, but it’s still possible to live comfortably on a teacher’s salary. A simple souvlaki will cost about €2 and a cinema ticket is about €7, but try to avoid expensive imported goods.
- Potential to save money
- Realistically, you’re unlikely to save much money unless you live like a hermit!
- How much TEFL training is recommended?
- There are lots of English teachers here, and many are Greek themselves, so to have the best chance of getting work you should get a TEFL qualification such as those offered by i-to-i.
- Common teaching conditions
- It takes very few credentials to open up a frontisterion, so conditions vary greatly. Many owners have been running their businesses all their working lives, so don’t take kindly to change! As a result, the best, most flexible schools are often the biggest.
- Most of the students come after school, so don’t expect them to bound enthusiastically into the classroom, although they are usually well-behaved.
Be aware…
Many frontisterias are run purely for profit and even the better ones may want pupils to be marked leniently to ensure they re-enroll next year.
