Education Schools and Programs in Spain

Education Studies in Spain

Education as a field of study in Spain covers several different careers: teaching in nursery and primary schools, teaching a subject in secondary school, educational guidance and planning (pedagogy), social education, and teaching English as a foreign language. Each has its own qualification, and three of them are regulated professions, so the first decision is which role you are aiming for.

The main qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Primary Education or Infant Education: primary school teacher (Maestro en Educación Primaria) is a regulated profession that requires the corresponding official bachelor's degree. The degree has 240 ECTS credits, normally four years, and includes a teaching placement (Practicum) in schools. By the end, students are expected to reach C1 level in Spanish and, where relevant, in the region's other official language. The infant education degree follows the same model for children up to six.
• Master's in teacher training (Máster de Formación del Profesorado): secondary school, vocational training and official language school teaching are regulated professions. After a bachelor's degree in the subject you want to teach, you need this official 60-credit master's; at least 80% of its credits, always including the Practicum, are taught in person.
• Bachelor's degrees in Pedagogy and Social Education: 240-credit degrees for work in educational guidance, training design, special education support and social and community programmes. They are not regulated teaching qualifications.
• TEFL certificates: private certificates for teaching English as a foreign language. TtMadrid, for example, runs a 180-hour course that combines online theory before arrival with intensive in-person study in Madrid and leads to a Level 5 TEFL qualification. These are not Spanish university degrees.

A search of the Ministry's Register of Universities, Centres and Degrees (RUCT) returns 89 records for bachelor's degrees in primary education and 29 for pedagogy, including some degrees being phased out.

Where to study

Madrid and Barcelona have the most schools in our directory in this field. Examples of universities with the degrees listed in the RUCT:

• Primary education: Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (also offered as a Bachelor in Primary Education), Universidad Alfonso X El Sabio, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Universidad CEU Cardenal Herrera, Universidad de Granada, Universidad de León and Universidad de Cádiz
• Pedagogy: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Universitat de Barcelona, Universitat de Girona, Universidad de Granada and Universidad de Málaga
• Blanquerna – Universitat Ramon Llull in Barcelona, whose faculty of psychology, education and sport sciences grew out of the Escola de Mestres Blanquerna, a teacher training school founded more than 75 years ago

Our directory also lists the UNED, Spain's distance-learning university, and the online Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). For public teaching posts, preparation centres such as ECOEM in Seville prepare candidates for the competitive exams (oposiciones) for primary and secondary teachers, in person or in a virtual classroom.

Admission and recognition

Students who finished secondary school outside Spain usually apply through UNEDasiss, the UNED service that assesses international students' records for access to Spanish bachelor's degrees. Because teaching is a regulated profession, teachers trained abroad need the homologación of their degree to work as teachers in Spain; a declaración de equivalencia only certifies the academic level of a degree.

Teaching posts in state schools are filled through oposiciones. As a general rule, candidates must be Spanish or nationals of another EU member state, and those without Spanish nationality must show adequate knowledge of Spanish and, where applicable, the region's co-official language.

Careers

Graduates work as teachers in state, state-funded (concertado) and private schools, as educational advisers and counsellors, in training departments of companies, in social and community education, in educational publishing and technology, and as English teachers in academies and companies.

Frequently asked questions

How do I become a primary school teacher in Spain?

You need the official bachelor's degree in primary education: 240 ECTS credits, normally four years, with teaching placements in schools. To teach in a state school you must also pass the oposiciones.

Can I teach in a Spanish secondary school with a degree in my subject?

Not with the degree alone. Secondary teaching is a regulated profession, so you also need the 60-credit master's in teacher training, which is mostly taught in person.

Can a non-EU citizen get a teaching post in a Spanish state school?

As a general rule, the oposiciones are open to Spanish and other EU nationals. In any case, a foreign teaching degree needs homologación to practise the regulated profession in Spain.

Is a TEFL certificate enough to teach English in Spain?

For language academies and private classes it is a common qualification, but it is a private certificate, not a university degree, and it does not qualify you to teach in the Spanish school system.