I used to write about this topic so frequently, but it’s been nearly six years since I completed my second year as a language assistant/auxiliar de conversación in Spain through the NALCAP program. Back then, this blog was full of articles with how-to guides on topics like getting a good school placement and opening your first Spanish bank account. 🙂
A lot has changed in my personal life since then — in the past six years, I moved back to the U.S. for three and a half years, and then moved BACK to Spain on the digital nomad visa. It had been a while since I’d thought about NALCAP (other than reminiscing on what an amazing experience I had.) But last summer, I was invited by the Spanish Ministry of Education to be one of five panelists on the first-ever “NALCAP Forever” webinar, which was designed to connect program alumni.
This was when I first found out that NALCAP was having problems.
NALCAP in Andalucía, 2025
In July 2025, during the preparation for the webinar, we had a few test-runs before we went live. The coordinators mentioned that there would be a Q&A session at the end, where webinar attendees could type questions into the chat and we could answer them live. But one instruction stood out to me: “Don’t address anything about NALCAP and Andalucía. This webinar is not the place for those questions.”
I watched as the questions trickled in, several of which did ask about Andalucía placements, and these were dutifully ignored. (I didn’t know what was going on, anyway.) But later, I started Googling the situation, and I found out what everyone was curious about.
While the usual timeline for language assistant placement is May-July, no one who had indicated a preference for Andalucía had received a placement. Andalucía, by the way, is home to so many famous Spanish cities, such as Sevilla, Granada, Málaga, Córdoba, and Cádiz — so it’s a really popular region to request. It has also traditionally had the most placements after Community of Madrid, typically making up about 25-30% of all NALCAP program participants.
It turned out there was a good reason that people were getting worried. Spanish news sources were reporting that there was a disagreement between the program and the government. This snippet from The Olive Press, an English-language newspaper in Spain, explains the gravity of the situation:
“The Spanish Labour Inspectorate has imposed a €5 million sanction on the Andalucian Junta for failing to register foreign language assistants in the Social Security system, leaving hundreds of participants of the popular Language Assistant Programme in limbo.
The penalty comes after investigators ruled that assistants, who tend to travel from the UK, US, France, and Germany, were working without valid employment status. The sanction includes €4 million for immigration irregularities and nearly €1 million for unpaid Social Security contributions.”
Umm, that’s not good.
So my understanding of what happened was that they suddenly decided that language assistants were “employees,” though we had never really been classified as such. The official visa that we held as language assistants — at least in the NALCAP program — was a student visa. When I filed my U.S. taxes, I was instructed to report my small, €1,000-a-month Spanish income as a scholarship/grant. Not wages.
In the last couple of years, it seems there was a situation where a program participant went to the government of Andalucía and said they wanted their Social Security benefit… which they did not have, because only employees pay into social security — not those who are classified as students.
And I guess when this was brought to their attention, the Spanish Labor Department decided all of a sudden that language assistants in Andalucía should have been classified as employees all along. (Though the NALCAP program has existed since 2005 and ostensibly everyone has been on student visas since then.)
But anyway, at the beginning of August, they officially cancelled the NALCAP program in Andalucía for the 2025-26 school year. 😢 This was reportedly due to the €5 million fine, and Andalucian officials opted not to renew their contract with the program until the conditions were clarified.
New Development: NALCAP in the Valencian Community, 2026
While I lived in Madrid as a language assistant, my second stint living in Spain has brought me to Alicante in the Spanish autonomous community of Valencia. We have a few friends who were auxes last year, and one of them added Matt to a massive “Valencian Language Assistants” group chat, where people buy and sell things as they move in and out of the area.
Just the other day, Matt told me that someone posted in the group chat that all NALCAP placements in the Valencian Community have been cancelled for the 2026-27 school year as well.
While I wasn’t able to find specifics on any fines/sanctions on Valencia, a press release on the Valencian government website explains the reason for the program cancellation: Just like Andalucía, they aren’t willing to move forward with the program due to the lack of coordination between the Ministry of Education and the Department of Labor.
Why Is This Happening Now?
I’ve been doing my best to really understand the current situation and why this is happening now, specifically. Again, the NALCAP program has been around for 20 years!
I came across a really great Reddit post where someone summarized the ongoing legal argument after having read the 426-page document. Interestingly, it looks like several other regions have addressed the same question — is a language assistant a student or an employee? — over the last 10ish years. There was the Canary Islands in 2014 & 2018, Pamplona/Navarra in 2015, and Madrid in 2017.
In every one of those situations, it was decided that the language assistants should have been classified as employees based on the job responsibilities. However, any changes that came from these rulings seem to have been applied only to the current year and the region in question, so there were no wide-reaching impacts across autonomous communities and the overarching program.
This time, however, there seem to be major implications putting the whole future of the NALCAP program at risk.
Is This the End of NALCAP?
As of the time of writing this blog, I haven’t seen any news about other regions cancelling the program.
But I have to say that it’s not looking super promising at this point.
When I applied for the first time back in 2018, the application opened on January 4, and I believe it closed in mid-late April. Now, it’s the end of March and the NALCAP website doesn’t even list a date that the application will open — all it says is that 2025-26 applications are closed. So that’s probably been up there almost a year…
I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I really hope this isn’t the end. While there are other private programs where you can teach English in Spain and around the world, I loved that NALCAP typically works with public schools and I LOVED the commitment to the bilingual (or even trilingual) program in Spain, at least at the school I worked at! It’s something I wish I’d had as a kid — how cool would it have been to have half my classes in Spanish or French, with a 20-something native Spanish or French speaker visiting my classroom several times a day?
Being a language assistant will probably always be the coolest “job” I ever had. (I put “job” in quotes because unlike the stories I’ve heard from many other auxes, I very much got to be an assistant and just have fun with the kids rather than having to plan every lesson and teach all day long!)
I wish that everyone had the chance to do something like the NALCAP program. So I will be keeping a close eye on the news and hoping that the next generation of college graduates get to experience something so life-changing.
What Are the Alternatives to NALCAP?
I know very little about any of these programs except for BEDA because some of my friends were doing BEDA when I lived in Madrid. But here are a few other English-teaching programs that can get you to Spain — though I believe they are all much more selective and application periods may already be closed.
BEDA: Placements in Catholic private schools or semi-private schools (also known as concertados). Requires interview for application. About 80% of all placements are in Madrid. Your visa is technically through the Universidad Pontificia Comillas, where you’ll be taking a class, which you’ll have to attend once a month on Saturdays (from what I remember from my friends!). Social Security coverage is included, so there shouldn’t be any issues on that front. 🙃
Instituto Franklin: Grants you a “master’s degree” through the Universidad de Alcalá (though I’m not sure how legit this master’s degree is.) Language assistant placement in Community of Madrid. Requires application video and tuition of €4,400. I don’t think you get Social Security coverage because this is very much a student situation where your time in the classroom is directly tied to your studies like practicum hours.
Meddeas: For recent college graduates only and requires multiple rounds of interviews. You have the option to live with a host family if you want. Placement is random and depends on what the program “matches” you with. Requires €850 refundable deposit. You will also be enrolled in an ESL graduate course at a local Spanish university, which you must complete throughout the course of the year. Social Security coverage is included.
UCETAM: Placements in Madrid only. Requires interview for application, and it’s highly selective — they receive more than 600 applications annually and only have 60 spots available. Experience in a classroom setting or those pursuing teaching careers are often given preference. Social Security coverage is included.
Final Thoughts on the NALCAP Program
I’ll continue to follow this closely over the next few months, and I’ll update if I have a chance depending on whether more news comes out.
Feel free to let me know in the comments what you’ve heard or what you think is going to happen, or if you were planning on applying to NALCAP this year! I’m really hoping they’re able to get it worked out for everyone. 🤞🏼
-Cathy
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