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I am responding as Co-founder and partner of my company Training Express, and also as the founder of the internship program that you participated in. I greatly value your feedback, and take your comments seriously. In my opinion, many of your concerns are due to the “structure” of corporate language training in Spain, hence some background information on these factors might be useful.
Regarding long working days, that is undoubtedly true. In the corporate language training field, each clients´ human resources policy dictates when teaching practicum sessions can be given. The market has degenerated over the past decade due to Spain´s economic crisis, and now most clients only allow their employees (your practicum students) to receive class outside of working hours (in 1-hour slots in the morning, lunchtime, and late afternoon). We have no way to combat this structural trend, and in the interview process as well as the documentation that we send we are entirely transparent about how demanding this is. Regarding irregular payment days, in Spain employers pay by the 5th of every month.
According to calendar dates, we know the exact day our banks can guarantee reception of payment. We do not set these dates ourselves, thus, the payment date does not always fall on the 1st of the month. This is another “structural” fact of living in Spain, and the payment dates for the academic year are communicated to interns upon being accepted into the program.
Regarding contract renewal, that depends on student visa renewal. This was very important to us as one of the objectives of the internship program was that interns could extend their program to consolidate their training and / or be hired as permanent staff in our company. We went through a period of trying to guarantee renewal with Spain´s Ministry of Internal Affairs, but renewal was denied because our interns´ stipend is higher than the minimum salary for starting teachers in Spain, and given Spain´s high unemployment rate they argued that we were “taking jobs away” from Spanish nationals. Whilst we were in the midst of these conversations with the Ministry, we were upfront with interns about the situation, which is why it is difficult for me to understand why you are of the opinion that contract renewal depended on our company, and not Spanish immigration law. Regarding last minute changes in procedures and training plans, rather than a “structural” issue, this is a “cultural issue”. Spain is a “last-minute” working culture, compared to Anglo-Saxon work methods. We warn interns about this in orientation as a cultural fact of living in this country, but I do understand that some people have more difficulty adapting than others.
Finally, what most concerns me are your comments about being treated as inferior because of your intern status. Precisely because we conceive this program as a professional development program, internally we do not use the term “intern”. The term “International Recruit” means that we hope that you will form part of our team in the long-term (although, as I have stated earlier, Visa renewal is no longer an option). You may have perceived some negativity from staff because the training program and support that you receive provides you with benefits that are different than what staff receives, which as you say, might result in internal conflict. This is an issue that, until now, I was unaware of, and I will investigate and take the proper measures to ensure mutual respect on both sides.
In summary, I have tried to align your concerns with a rationale that explains their origin. In my opinion the explanations given indicate no misconduct or lack of professionalism on behalf of my company. Your advice to management about engaging a community of future committed TESOL teachers confirms a positive point upon which we coincide. The aim of the internship is two-fold. Firstly, to provide participants who want to pursue a career in TESOL with the training and experience that gives them considerable advantage over other candidates. Secondly, for those who join the program for general career development purposes (not specific to the TESOL profession) we hope that through practicum sessions with students from all business sectors this global vision will help them define their future career path.
In the seven years that this program has been operating, our surveys validate that 83% of participants achieved these goals. I hope that that is also your case, and that the finality of professional development was achieved.
