Volunteers need in Spain. The only requirement -- speak English.

Want to go to Spain for two months? Want to go and have someone else pay for your housing? Are you a retired or former teacher and can you do it a month from now?

The Spanish government is seeking retired teachers for an English language education project that gives qualifed applicants the change to teach English for two months in 12 different schools throughout north central Spain.

Done in collaboration with a company called Vaughan Systems, this program follows a succesful pilot program. The program recruits native English speakers to enhance the English-learning process of pre-schoolers and early elementary school students. For anyone who's been to Spain you'll that as a rule they don't speak English very well over there. That's because its never been stressed in their schools and they dub all English-language movies in Spanish. This new program targets the youngest students to get them started early.

Volunteers will help as teaching assistants giving kids the opportunity to practice their English, particularly their speaking skills.

The program runs from April 12 to June 12 and seeks retired school teachers with previous experience. The studen age groups range between 3 and 12 and classroom size between 25 and 35. Spaces are limited.

In exchange for their volunteer work, the project covers housing in a single or shared apartment in the town where the school is located, insurance for the duration of the program and transfers from Madrid.

Positions are available in various locations throughout the Castile-Leon area in Segovia, Zamora, Burgos, Leon, Palencia, Soria, Valladolid and Salamanca.

Vaughan Systems, the partner company, is the largest language training firm in Spain. Every year the company brings some 1,500 volunteers to Spain (not necessarily teachers, just native English speakers of all ages) for a locally-famous adult English-learning program called VaughanTown. The program is a six-day conversation program that pairs native English speakers with Spanish people to help them learn to speak English better.

In 2006 the program was called Englishtown and I did it for a week. You can read an article I wrote about here.

If you're interested in participating in VaughTown go to http://www.vaugantown.com/. If you're a retired teacher and interested in the two-month program send your resume and a cover letter to project coordinator Mayte Ziga at mziga@vaughantown.com.