FAQ
Language requirements
We judge French language skills by looking at a number of elements of the application, including:
– Your transcripts to see how many French courses you have taken and at what level, plus your grades
– Your evaluation to be completed by a current or former French professor or language evaluator from university. It is strongly recommended to be evaluated by a professor, however, for candidates who already graduated and can not find any professor willing to create an account on ADELE and evaluate them, you can submit a proof of French language test or diploma (TCF, TEF, DELF, DALF). Please email [email protected] if you are in this situation. You need to have your French test language results before the end of the application campaign, February 20th.
Yes. Applicants must have an intermediate proficiency in French, minimum B1 level on the CEFR levels. This means that you should be comfortable enough in the French language to complete daily tasks, hold conversations of substance, and manage a classroom full of French students. Assistants are required to do a number of tasks all in French, including completing immigration paperwork, opening a bank account, going to a medical visit, and working with their French teaching colleagues on a daily basis. Having an intermediate level of French skills is therefore essential to have a positive and successful experience as a Teaching Assistant in France!
Application process
Applications for the 2024-2025 school year are available from October 25, 2023 to February 20, 2024.
For more information about the process, please check the application section.
Applications are open from October 25, 2023 to February 20, 2024.
No applications will be accepted after this date.
Most of the program participants have just finished their 2nd, 3rd or 4th year of university and do the program during the school year after they graduate (to do this, you need to apply during the fall of your third year of university).
Although most participants are in their early to mid- 20’s, we also welcome people under the age of 35 who are interested in teaching English in France. A number of participants have just finished graduate studies or are young professionals looking for a new challenge. As long as you meet the program’s eligibility criteria, we encourage you to apply!
Teaching assistants come from all fields of study. While we do have many French majors and minors in the program, we also have many assistants with backgrounds in other fields like education, international relations, political science, history, English, science, etc. Most selected participants have taken at least a few French courses in university or have demonstrated a serious study of French after graduation.
Applications are evaluated based on a number of criteria that are indicative of a candidate’s potential for successful participation in the program:
– French-language skills (applicants must demonstrate a proficient level of French equivalent to level B1 on the European Framework of Reference for Languages)
– Teaching experience
– Experience working with children or young adults
– Experience living abroad
– The level of the applicant’s university studies (grades)
– General motivation
– Coherent professional project with the program
Applications are ranked based on the above criteria and acceptance/placement decisions are made starting with the most qualified applicants, by the managers of the program in Canada and in France.
Past applicants, regardless of the result of their application (even those who withdrew from the program), are welcome to reapply for a new academic year. Prior applicants will be given equal consideration as new applicants (i.e. no advantage or disadvantage) during the application review process.
Canadians may participate a maximum of 3 times in the Teaching Assistant Program in France. If you are applying for an assistantship for a second consecutive year, you will need to apply to renew your contract through France Education International. Renewal is contingent upon a positive review from the host institution, whether or not the assistant wishes to remain at his/her host institution or be transferred to another school or académie, amongst other factors.
If you are applying for a second assistantship in non-consecutive years, you must apply through the general program application in Canada.
Former assistants wishing to do the program a second time must meet all normal program eligibility requirements. Their applications will be reviewed based on the same selection criteria as for first-time applicants. If found highly qualified and still eligible to participate, the program managers will also verify with their first académie of assignment that they received a positive performance evaluation the first time that they participated in the program. Only assistants with positive reviews will receive offers to participate in the program a second time.
If all criteria are met, former assistants will be systematically placed on the program waiting list when decisions of placement are made during the selection committee in March (new candidates receive priority; former assistants will be considered for positions that open up during the spring and summer due to new candidate withdrawals).
The application to the program is very simple. You will be asked to provide basic information about yourself, your academic background, your experience with the French language, your experience teaching or working with young people and your experience living or working abroad. You will also need to provide a statement of purpose about why you want to be a Teaching Assistant in France. This statement is to be written IN FRENCH (approximately 500 words in length) and must not be proofread or corrected by anyone with a knowledge of the French language.
You will also need to provide the following documents:
• A scan of your passport. Your passport must be valid through at least October 30th of the year in which you would end your teaching contract with the program. For example, if you want to apply to the 2024-2025 program, your passport would need to remain valid through October 30, 2025. If you do not have a passport, if your passport has expired, or if it will expire before that October date, you should start the passport application/renewal process immediately in order to have it before the program application deadline. Applications missing the passport scan will not be considered.
• If you are a permanent resident of Canada, a scan of your resident card in addition to the scan of your currently-valid passport from your country of citizenship.
• A scan of your official university transcript (of the two last years of studies, completed), with the stamp of the university.
• You will also need a language and motivation evaluation by a French teacher or a language evaluator from your university. Please ask a professor in advance, so that everything is ready before the application deadline, as the professor will have to make the evaluation through the ADELE platform. For candidates who have already graduated from university; if you really do not have access to a former university French professor to complete the language evaluation, then you may take a French language test instead (TCF, TEF, DELF or DALF). Contact [email protected] if you are in this case.
• A copy of your birth certificate (in French or in English)
• A copy of your criminal record check in order to receive their “arrêté de nomination” (work contract).
Gather the documents listed above.
You should also keep working on your French-language skills and try to gain as much experience as possible teaching or working with young people. These two elements of the application can be the deciding factors as to whether someone gets accepted to the program or not.
Decisions about your placement in French will be communicated to you in April. You will be notified in all cases, whether your application has been selected or declined.
The application to the program includes a section where you can list your general regional placement preferences. Due to the number of requests and limited availability in certain regions, however, we are simply unable to accommodate all applicants’ requests. Applicants are highly encouraged to keep an open mind and to list 3 school districts (“Académies“) of preference on the application. We are usually (but not always) able to assign assistants to one of their top 3 regions of choice.
Accepted applicants receive their general regional assignment in one of the school districts in France known as “Académies” at the time of acceptance notification in April. Each Académie then makes its own specific city and school placements.
Applicants cannot make requests for specific city or school placements.
Flexibility is HIGHLY ENCOURAGED when it comes to regional placement. This program is a “mobility” program and assistants are expected to go wherever they are assigned in France. Accommodations will NOT be made for candidates with special circumstances (ex: plans to study at a particular university during the year, family or friends in a particular town, etc.). We remind candidates that it is a program designed to send assistants to ALL regions of France, and that the main focus of the program is to provide native language speakers to French students learning foreign languages, with the added benefit of giving foreigners the chance to live and work in France for a year with a stipend. We are really looking for candidates who are motivated to teach anywhere in France and who will be able to approach the teaching assistantship as their primary reason for being in France.
Program acceptance and placement decisions are done entirely by merit (and not on a “first come, first served” basis). We base our evaluations on a number of criteria including: French-language skills, teaching experience, experience working with children or young adults, experience living abroad, the level and focus of the applicant’s university studies, and general motivation. We evaluate and rank the applications, then accept the top applicants into the program. We then do Académie assignments, starting with the most qualified applicants and going down the list. The stronger your application is, the more likely it is that you will be placed in your top area of choice. A lot depends on the number of requests for a region vs. the number of positions available in that area. Some Académies are more “competitive” than others. Paris, Lyon, Strasbourg and Grenoble always receive many requests for a very limited number of positions. Other Académies like Amiens, Caen, Limoges, Poitiers, Reims and Rouen, are less “competitive”.
Cost
There is a 55 dollars CAD application fee to apply to the program. After that, there is no fee for participating in the program.
(Assistants are responsible for purchasing their plane tickets to and from France, however, and must cover any costs associated with traveling to the closest visa center in Canada for the visa application process. Assistants should also plan to bring at least $2,000 with them to France to cover start-up expenses since the first month’s salary is not paid until the end of October.)
The monthly salary for teaching assistants comes to 1010€ GROSS. After obligatory deductions for health insurance and social security, the net salary is approximately 800€ (about 1165$ CAD), but this amount may vary from year to year and from academy to academy. We recommend you to bring some extra savings with you to France, or do some babysitting or tutoring to make extra money if you would like to travel around France on the weekends during your stay.
Please note: Very urban areas like Paris can be extremely expensive. It can therefore be VERY difficult to make ends meet on the assistantship salary in the Ile-de-France region, or Nice region as well. Other regions of France have a significantly lower cost of living. Many assistants receive housing subsidies from the Caisse d’Allocations Familiales (CAF), however please note that not everyone is eligible to receive CAF as the subsidy is issued on a case-by-case basis.
Budget questions really depend on the region of assignment, plus personal spending habits, savings, and circumstances.
Assistants are responsible for purchasing their own plane tickets to and from France. Assistants are also responsible for the costs of travel to and from the closest visa center in Canada for the visa application process.
Most assistants leave for France with at least 2,000$CAD in savings to help cover the initial start up costs during the first couple of months they are in France. You would not receive your first paycheck until the end of October at the earliest, so you would need some money to live on between your arrival and at least the end of October. Depending on your housing situation, you may need enough money to pay a security deposit and first month’s rent on an apartment. You should work on the assumption that you will have to find your own housing in France, then if you are provided with housing by your school, you’ll be pleasantly surprised and will have some extra money saved up.
Assistants are responsible for finding their own housing in France.
Some schools are able to arrange housing for their assistants, and some can even offer assistants very cheap housing at their school’s dormitory (some high schools in France have boarding students who live at the school during the academic year, and the school can sometimes house their assistant in exchange for performing duties similar to those of an R.A.). Some schools and contact persons arrange housing for their assistants ahead of time (for instance, a school might have a standing agreement with a landlord in the town who rents his/her apartment each year to assistants), while others are not able to provide very much help to their assistants.
It is best to work off of the assumption that you would need to find your own place to live in France.
Assistants are responsible for all costs associated with travel to the closest visa application center for France in Canada (Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver) to apply for their long-stay work visa. An in-person visa appointment at the VFS center is mandatory (as your bio metric data will be collected).
Assistants need personal funds (suggested minimum of $2,000) to cover their start-up expenses during their first month or two in France. Assistants are also responsible for covering the cost of: airfare to and from France, traveling to their appropriate regional VFS center to apply for their long-stay work visa, and the translation of documents required to enroll in the French national healthcare system.
Miscellaneous
Yes. Canadian teaching assistants must obtain a “long-stay work visa” (“temporary worker”). They must fill out the visa application form on the France visa website, and then make an appointment to go submit their documents IN PERSON from their regional Visa Application Centre (VFS Global) (centers in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver) in Canada. Costs of travel to the assistant’s regional VFS centre are NOT covered by the program. VFS centers collect, on behalf of the French Authorities, visa application documents which are then reviewed by the Consulate General of France in Montreal. Please note that your passport will be kept by VFS the time between your visa appointment and the reception of your visa (the exact processing times can vary from a situation to another but takes approximately 4 to 6 weeks to receive the visa). Therefore, assistants should plan on being in Canada during August and through late September to allow enough time to complete the necessary visa procedures, and not plan vacations outside of Canada as they will not have their passport with them.
EUROPEAN citizens are exempted from the visa but they must submit copy of the European passport they will use to entry in France in the application.
Couples are welcome to apply to the program, however each person must apply individually and each person’s application will be evaluated separately based on the standard English Teaching Assistant Program’s criteria. Each person must qualify individually before we will take the couple status into account. This means we would not automatically accept a significant other who is not qualified for the program simply because the other member of the couple is very qualified. If both people are accepted to the program on their individual merits, only then will we take couple status into account (when making placement decisions).
The program application includes a question about civil status/applying as a couple, so this would let us know that you are applying together. If both members of the couple are accepted, we would do our best to place you together in the same region. We recommend requesting some of the less popular regions in order to give yourselves the best chance of being placed together. As placement decisions are done on merit (and the most qualified applicants get placed first), it can be very tough for two people to both receive placements in very popular (and therefore very competitive) Académies like Paris, Strasbourg, Lyon, Grenoble, etc. Your chances of being placed in the same region are higher if you both select Académies that receive fewer overall requests, like Caen, Clermont-Ferrand, Limoges, Reims, and Rouen. If both people are accepted into the program and placed in the same region, then it is up to the school district to make the specific town and school assignments. The Académies usually do their best to keep couples together.
If one member of a couple applies to the English Teaching Assistant Program and the other does not (or if both people apply and only one is accepted), then the accepted person is responsible for researching visa requirements for bringing the other person to France. Canadians are allowed to travel in France for up to 90 days as tourists (without a visa), however after this amount of time, the non-assistant must have a visa. Many accompanying significant others go to France as students by enrolling in an academic program in France for the year – student visas are much easier to obtain than other long-stay visas, and this way, the person can go to France and take some classes for the length of the other person’s assistant contract. For more information about studying in France, please visit the website for Campus France: www.canada.campusfrance.org
You can also find out more information about the different types of long-stay visas at your regional French consulate’s website.
Past assistants have been able to successfully defer their student loans by making a loan deferment request directly to their loan provider. The Embassy cannot submit the request for you as each assistant’s situation is different, however the Embassy CAN provide you and/or your loan provider with a letter stating your position as a teaching assistant and the details of your placement, contract length, salary, etc. Please contact your loan provider directly for more information.
Assistants are generally not allowed to have second official jobs. Rules are subject to change by school district and regional labor authority. Assistants are advised to check directly with their school contact person in France to find out if second jobs are allowed (and if so, what rules apply).
Many assistants earn extra money by tutoring or babysitting on the side for cash.