Teach English in Colombia with TravelBud

This is a great opportunity to teach and get to know the beautiful country of Colombia. The support is good and the pay is enough to live on without splashing out too much. Travelbud provide the support during your application and some support in Colombia with the very helpful Carolina, but once you arrive you will mostly be dealing with their in-country partners who run the programme. Be prepared for classrooms with very few resources and pupils who barely know the alphabet in English.

I've been teaching English to high school students in Bogota for the last 2 months. I won't lie, the first 3 weeks I was here, I was really suffering from a hard case of culture shock. Most of the schools are located about an hour bus ride out of the city centre and the conditions of transport are very different from where I am from in Australia.
So, it took me a while to settle, but now after getting my bearings, I am really enjoying the experience. The kids at school are really keen to learn English and although their conversational skills are not particularly high, I can already see most of students gaining in ability and confidence to speak English. TravelBud have been a fantastic company to work with. Carolina is very friendly, knowledgeable and at all times, super helpful.

Colombia offers a few volunteer teaching programs working with minors and adults. I participated in the program where you teach English to adults for tourism purposes. When I was searching for teaching opportunities to teach abroad in Colombia, I noticed a lot of repetitive job descriptions for volunteer english teaching programs. I finally figured out that if it is a volunteer program with a monthly stipend it is all one of the same few programs that Colombia offers through its government, but that there are many third party recruiting sites.
TravelBud was the recruiting site that I used and my process with them went pretty well. They were very good at sharing all the information and paperwork with me and I arrived to orientation being one of the only people who had already completed all the registration and required paperwork for the program.
Getting all the required documents in on time and feeling prepared can be a little overwhelming but TravelBud was able to answer any questions and doubts I had. The visa process was a little bit confusing, but that is not a problem specific to TravelBud and if you can not get it ready before you leave, the program you are doing will handle that whole process during orientation.
Overall, I recommend this teaching experience in Colombia. It is a really rewarding experience, and great for traveling around Colombia and experiencing a new culture. The only thing I would warn you about is that the stipend is enough in smaller cities like mine, but I am unsure if it will be sufficient in bigger cities. You will definitely need to budget and maybe have some savings.

Honestly, when I first came across the program, I was hesitant about its legitimacy, especially because they ask for a deposit, they’re relatively new to Colombia and I was getting emails from someone in South Africa. I didn’t know what to expect, but from my first email inquiring about the program to now being here, everything has been smooth sailing with TravelBud. They were quick to answer my questions and pass along my application to the Colombian volunteer teaching program. I actually got to meet the person I’d been emailing, Carolina, and she took us out for dinner during our first week here. TravelBud had arranged for us to have Spanish lessons, a nice walking tour around Bogota and some local coffee. It’s been great to have this addition point of contact while being here. The schools aren’t anything spectacular. If they were, there probably wouldn’t be a need for me. The teachers and students I work with are great. I always feel like the local celebrity walking around the school and having everyone say hi to me. I have definitely seen a change in some students’ attitudes toward English over the month and a half I’ve been here in Bogota. The city is amazing. There are, like any place, certain spots you shouldn’t be caught after dark, but overall, there is so much to do and see here. I have really enjoyed my time here so far and look forward to what the rest of my time has in store.