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For those of
you who live or want to live in Spain and have got a degree,
“oposiciones” are a good chance to get a steady job. They
consist in a series of exams made for the Administration of the
different parts of Spain (Comunidades Autónomas). If you pass the
proofs with a good mark and you get the job, you become a
“funcionario de carrera”, with a good pay for Spanish standards
and a lot of rights you cannot find in the private field.
There are all kinds of “oposiciones”
for almost every post of the Administration:
to become a clerk, a doctor, a carpenter, an arquitect,...
but the ones I’m going to inform you about are those to become a
teacher of Secondary Education in English (there are very similar
in form to any other speciality: Maths, Geography, Latin, Physics,
Sports, etc...).
To begin with
you need to know when and how the exams take place. You
know that thanks to the “Convocatorias”, which appear
published in the Official Newspaper of every “Comunidad Autónoma”.
In these pages we intend to offer you that information for free,
so watch out.
In the “Convocatoria” they give you the type of proof,
the items that can appear, the requisites to inscribe
yourself to the proof (all members of the EU can apply), the form
and where and when you have to put your form into (normally 20
days from the date the “convocatoria “ appears in the Official
newspaper of the CA). If you are abroad, the place to send it is
the Spanish embassy or consulate, and you have to pay some rights
for the exam, normally from 15 to 20 pounds ($20-25).
Once you are written in, you know for certain what the proof is
about, but then you only have about 3 months to prepare it (the
exact date and place of the exam appear also in the Official
newspaper of the CA after some more bureaucracy). You can imagine
that’s very little time to prepare a specific series of exam
which includes not only items of your speciality, but also 14
fixed items about Spanish Educational law and pedagogy.
You will be
thinking that this is a very complicated system to go through, for
a post of teacher of 12 to 18 years old that get paid about
200.000 pts to start with (1000 pounds ($1500)a month). But I can
assure you that thousands of thousands of Spanish graduates
prepare for years with the sole aim to go through all this and
eventually get the the post. The main advantage is that you are
“fixed” in your post. You have to incur some great problem to
be thrown out and get the sack. You are practically your own boss.
Another thing
you ought to know is that in the “convocatoria” they offer a limited
number of posts: for instance 31 in English, 23 in Maths, 10 of
Music, maybe 1 or 2 for careers like Spanish, Philosophy or Latin,
where the posts are occupied by "funcionarios de carrera"
already. The posts the Administration offer depend on the negotiation
with syndicates and there have to be places that don't have a
“funcionario de carrera” on it (because once you become a
“FdC you get assigned to a post and you can only change through
a specific method with a “concurso”). The advantage of trying
this exam is that in many Comunidades Autónomas, even if you are not
one of the 32 “chosen” but you have passed the first exercise
(there are normally 2) you become an “interino” and you can be
called to work in the order of your mark, first in small
“sustituciones” but finally you can work for the whole year
almost like you had passed the exam.
And how do
these people prepare if they only have 3 months to do it?. Well,
syndicates and tradition assure you that the exams and the
contents don't vary or very little throughout the years (but
there are not " convocatorias para oposiciones " in all
CA every year) so the best thing you can do is to prepare for a
certain CA (even thought they vary very little from one to other).
For instance,in the Oposición for the Valencian Community
(Provinces of Castellón, Valencia y Alicante) the exam consists
of two exercises, the first written and the second oral.
The first exercise
has two consecutive parts: the first one to develop in writing for
about 2 hours one of the 14 items above described, and the second,
during another consecutive 2 hours, one of the 69 specific English
items. These items you can get in specialized Academies, which
also prepare you for the whole proof, but if you prefer to go for
free, you are out of the Valencian Community (in this case) or you
simply, are already studying these “oposiciones” and you want
new versions of the “Temas”, watch these pages, because
periodically we will offer you new and original “Temas” with
the corresponding Didactic Units.
More
information in Spanish
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