Local Recruitment of Language Assistants

If you’re starting to read this blog, you’re probably here because you’ve done the Teaching Assistants’ program once, then for some reason you did not request a contract renewal for another year in January/ February, and now you again feel like doing the program another year and so you wonder if you should have applied for it again. Or maybe you’ve done the program once, are back in your country for more than a year and now you wish to do it again. It’s not too late!

I often receive messages from other assistants and aspiring assistants asking me how I managed to renew my language assistant contract even after a gap of 1 year. So I’m writing this blog because I’m sure many of you might also want to know the process. Yes, you could still be a teaching assistant this year again, through a process called local recruitment of teaching assistants in France.

In my previous blog, I discussed being a second-time teaching assistant at Reims Academy. The first time, I had been an assistant in Grenoble from 2019- 2020. Later, after a gap of one year, I realized I REALLY wanted to go back to France again, I applied and got locally recruited as an assistant. Thanks to Rutwik Khalanekar, another ex-assistant, the savior of all assistants, who’s always ready to give the best guidance!

Every year, academies require more assistants if some candidates have backed out. So they start to look for candidates to fill up those vacant positions somewhere around late August or September. So those who have been past assistants and are now in their country can also apply and get selected. (I’m not quite sure if they also accept people as FIRST-time assistants for local recruitment). Sometimes the contact person may also ask if you know more English speakers who might want to become teaching assistants. So you can be sure that a lot of people do withdraw their candidature every year and so many academies need to fill up those positions.

My first time as a Teaching Assistant in France

I went to France in 2019. I did the program at Grenoble Academy and returned to India in June 2020. This happened when the coronavirus pandemic was at its peak and I didn’t give a single thought to renewing my assistants’ contract at that point. However, deep within I knew I hadn’t got closure having left France in that state of mind. Anyway, End of my French story! At least that’s what I thought, but destiny had other plans for me. In India, I continued for over a year (2020- 21) as an online French language teacher. I worked hard and I was flourishing well. But then came a point in June 2021 when I realized that Europe was calling me back again.

How did I apply to be a local recruit?

Usually, after you’ve done the program once, and if you’ve not requested a renewal, you cannot do the Teaching Assistantship again through the regular process of application. However, that doesn’t mean it’s the end. This is where you send out your applications to academies in France individually instead of applying through the Embassy, and you wait till September to get selected.
So in July 2021, when I knew I had to go back, I kept the following documents ready:

1. CV (in French)
2. Lettre de Motivation (in French)
3. Passport
4. Apostilled Birth Certificate
5. DELF Certificates (B1 minimum required)
6. Previous IELTS Academic results (even if it was not valid anymore)
7. All Educational mark sheets and degree certificates
8. Previous Experience Certificate of Teaching Assistantship

– You do NOT need to take the IELTS exam again since you’ve justified that you’ve already been an assistant once.

– You do NOT need a Police Clearance Certificate this time.

Next step, I googled “Academies in France Map”. Then to apply to every single academy, I found the email addresses of the contact persons available on every academy’s website. I wanted to BE in France that same year, so I didn’t leave any academy. If you want to be in a particular academy, you may leave out applying to the rest. However, it is not always guaranteed to get recruited into the academy that you want. (I wanted to be selected for Strasbourg, but I was offered by Reims, Amiens, Paris, and  Marseille. I chose Reims because that was the first offer I received and I didn’t want to lose the chance.)

After applying in July, I was impatient and I waited for the whole of July and August since that is time for vacations in French schools. Around the first week of September 2021, I got my first reply from Reims. I was asked about my preference for the city/ town. I chose Reims City as my top preference but since I was about half an hour late in replying, the position was already gone. So I was offered a high school and a secondary school in a town called Châlons en Champagne. Even though I wasn’t sure of the town, I immediately accepted it to avoid losing my opportunity.

At home, I was using this time to spend with my family. From what I knew at that time, as a local recruit, I would be given time and I would be asked to join somewhere around November or December. So I hadn’t thought yet about starting to prepare or pack and I was just relaxing.

On the evening of 13th September, I received suddenly my arrêté de nomination from Reims and I was asked to join from 1st October onwards! It was completely unexpected and seemed unrealistic for me to be able to do the visa process within those few days and pack. So for once, I dropped the thought of accepting the offer from Reims, but again, I got the right guidance from other assistants in France who assured me that it WAS doable. Rutwik told me one thing that changed my mind completely, “Before it was you who wanted France, but now it is France that wants you, even earlier.” That was all the motivation I needed.

Yes, I did think of the possibility of getting an extension by requesting the academy, but I didn’t do so because I didn’t want to miss the 3-day orientation in Reims where I would get to meet and interact with other assistants. Knowing my experience, you should now be mentally prepared to pack and prepare in advance and only keep the visa process on your to-do list as soon as the arrêté de nomination reaches you. But if you prefer not to have to leave earlier with all the chaos waiting for the visa, you could ask for an extension, you will surely get it. In that case, you might just miss the orientation held by the academy.

As for me, I knew all the chaos was going to be worth it, and so I decided to get my visa process done from Delhi, instead of Chandigarh, believing that the process would be faster there. I got an appointment for a visa application at Vfs Delhi for 20th September, and after this, I impatiently waited for 9 days for the visa to arrive before my already booked flight for the night of 29th September!

I was getting more and more anxious because it hadn’t arrived till the morning of 29th September, and I still had to go from Chandigarh to Delhi to catch my flight! I was continuously praying and tracking it, and I even had arguments with the courier delivery service to provide me the contact of the delivery person so I could go and collect it on my own. Around 3 pm, I finally knew his whereabouts and I rushed to collect my visa. We immediately rushed for Delhi and I could catch my flight that night.

So amid all this chaos, I hadn’t eaten properly, I was sad because I had to leave my family sooner than I thought, it was a huge mix of emotions. So setting my feet in Paris on the morning of 30th September was a happy feeling but it didn’t feel like reality yet. It took me a while to realize that I was again on the French territory that I had left in an unaccepting mental state during the pandemic. Though this time France was much more of a familiar place, it didn’t feel daunting to be in a foreign land miles away from home.

I got to my town, met my professor référente, my landlord, settled, and finally rested. The next day onwards, life became more normal. I signed my PV d’Installation, met my colleagues at school, and went for the 3-day orientation where I met the other assistants. Having settled, I knew it was all worth it, all the packing and managing everything to get into France in a matter of just 12- 13 days because there were so many more experiences awaiting me in Europe!

So having read this, I hope you’ve also started making up your mind to be recruited locally this year. If you have any questions about local recruitment, or if you want me to go through your CV/ Lettre de motivation for feedback, n’hésitez pas à me contacter par e- mail : lingorelic@gmail.com
If France is calling you back, do listen to that voice!! Hasta la próxima !