What is The Teaching Assistant Program in France?

This program is a joint initiative of the French Ministry of Education, France Education International (formerly known as CIEP) and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in Canada. The program’s goal is to strengthen English-language instruction in French schools by establishing a native speaker presence, while also providing Canadian Francophiles with an excellent teaching experience abroad and first-hand knowledge of French language and culture.

Job Duties (12 hours /week)

Assistants teach 12 hours per week in up to 3 schools (close location to one another). Classes are conducted mostly in English. Teaching assistants conduct all of a class with a referent teacher or a small group of students, independently.

Typical duties include serving as a resource person in conversation groups, providing small group/individual tutorials, introducing students to Canadian culture and history as well as facilitating cultural understanding between France and Canada. Assignments vary depending on the school’s needs and the assistant’s abilities.

Contracts are available at two different school levels:

• Elementary School: children aged 6-10 years old

• Secondary School: students aged 11-18 years old.

Contract Length

All teaching assistants’ contracts last 7 months, from October 1st through April 30th, without any exception possible. Short-term contracts, summer contracts and alternative start dates are NOT available.

Stipend

Assistants receive a gross monthly salary of 1010€. After obligatory deductions for health insurance and social security, the net salary is approximately 800€ (about 1165$ CAD at the current exchange rate, as of October 2023), but this amount may slightly vary from year to year and from academy to academy. Due to the higher cost of living in the overseas departments, assistants in French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and La Réunion receive an additional salary allowance of 30% to 35%. No additional support is provided for travel to France or for dependents. Personal funds are strongly recommended for the initial period of the contract (minimum 2000$ CAD), especially since you will not receive the first paycheck before the end of October minimum.