Why work on TECS School Camps?
Every year we have a new team working on our School Camps, and over the years I get asked “Why should I work on your school camps?” or “Why would it be good for me to go and work on camps?”. Every single one of us year-round camp staff have been monitors and teachers on camps before, and have not only decided to do it once, but have decided to dedicate our entire lives to working on camps. Not only that, but we have seen so many people work on our camps over the years, and so through many different angles why working on school camps are great:
#1 IT’S FUN!
Working on camps is so much fun! Kids are hilarious and can be so much fun. So you get goof around with the kids all day, without having to be their parents and do the tough discipline side.
Our camps have been designed for kids to be in a safe learning environment that is FUN. Yes, your job is literally to be fun, make the camp fun, and ensure the kids are having loads of…… FUN!!! Best job description I’ve ever heard of!
Not only that, but you will be living and working with a lot of like-minded people, of a similar age who are here for the reasons you are!
Picture a lot of young people together in a camp setting where they are suppose to be the craziest, wackiest, and most entertaining versions of themselves. All of this in the beautiful Spanish sunshine. What more could you ask?? How about sports, excursions to cool places, cross-dressing guys for evening entertainments, costumes, and staff nights out to name but a few?
#2 LEARN TO TEACH
One of the reasons why people often want to work on our camp team is because they would either like to:
- Be teachers in the future and they want experience.
- They are unsure about being teachers in the future, and would like to see what it’s like.
- They aren’t so interested in the teaching side but wouldn’t mind trying it out, or developing another skill that might help with getting a job in the future.
Either way, all candidates who have the right personality and interest will be given the training and ongoing support to learn how to be English teachers on our camps.
#3 TRAVEL AROUND SPAIN
You will be living in El Puerto de Santa Maria, a beach town located on the costa de la luz (Sunlight coast) where we are famous for having 300+ days of sunshine each year. As we have camps every two weeks or so, you can spend the rest of the time enjoying the beach, traveling around Spain and getting a great tan!
#4 GREAT MIX OF ROLES + RESPONSIBILITIES
One of the aspects that staff have enjoyed about this type of work in the past, is the mix of roles. Every 2-3 weeks when we have a camp, you are running sports sessions, teaching English classes, or doing cool projects with the kids. When we don’t have a camp, we are based in our central office where each person will be given a role in the office. We will usually decide each persons role depending on their personality and interests, and could include:
- Interviewing staff
- Coming up with new activities and projects for the camps
- Developing teaching materials for the rest of the team to use
- Video or photography projects
- And much, much more!
#5 PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Working on a camp will definitely take you out of your comfort zone and make you try and do new things! Ever stood up on a song and sung songs about Moose in front of loads of people? Ever cross-dressed on stage? Ever painted yourself from head to toe? All of these things and more will help you go home a more confident person!
Training has also always been a top priority for us and over the years we have dedicated considerable time and resources to developing the best training programmes we can. Whilst we know no training can ever prepare someone perfectly for the start of camp, we also know that extensive skills training, “mentalization” (as we call getting prepared for the challenges of camp) and plain important information giving will give most of our staff the starting point they need to approach the challenges of camp life with confidence.
We are incredibly passionate about the personal and professional development of our staff. Not only do we see it as the greatest investment we can make to improve the quality of our camps but all of us at the top have it has one of our top life passions to help make people better, be it in their jobs or in their lives.
We put a lot of time and effort to ensure that our staff are constantly given feedback, given every chance to develop within their jobs, and assisted and pushed to do so by our management teams.
#6 WORK WITH GREAT PEOPLE AND FRIENDS
It’s not every job in which you get to live and work with your teammates in such a wonderfully fun (and weird) environment! You’ll spend an intense amount of time together in the “camp bubble” where you will forget about the outside world and where time goes different (I swear knowing a person on camp for a week is like knowing them for a month!).
With just one summer you can make some of the closest friendships, or even relationships.
#7 INCREDIBLY FULFILLING WORK
If you work on a camp you aren’t going to be an accountant or a sales person, you aren’t going to do any old job, you really are going to do a truly good job in which you will try and give kids and wonderful time and teach them something that will hopefully help them in the future.
You are going to take the role of being a surrogate parent/older brother or sister/confidante/friend to a group of kids. You will care for them, make sure they are happy, care for them when they are sick or sad, teach them good manners and values. You will be their role model, the person that they look up to and want to emulate. That doesn’t just mean that they want to copy the way you wear your cap backwards or the way you dress – it means that they will want to be likeu for good or for bad.
You can and will make a difference! We’ve seen countless cases of kids who’ve come to summer camp and thanks to a great staff member have had the summer of their lives and have decided to come back year after year and push themselves to be better people. Some of them have even come back as coordinators or even camp directors! Check out some of their stories here.
#8 TECS believes in it’s Staff
For TECS, our staff have always been, and will continue to be, our number one prioity– as it is very true “happy and productive staff” make possible the happy experience for our campers to grow in. For this reason we have always sought hard to provide our staff with what they need to do a great job.
Nurturing a work environment of support is also a top priority for TECS. All of our camp managers were once TECS camp staff, meaning we have firsthand experience of how tough a staff member’s job can be. For this reason we strive to work with our staff; supporting them when they have problems, guiding them and advising them whenever they need help, and do whatever it takes to make our staff be the best they can be.
TECS Employment 