Transferrable skills....

Well we're taking the plunge. We've decided to move to Costa del Sol 

The first problem is finding work before we move. I'm aware that neither of us will be earning anything like what we're earning in London but we believe our quality of life should be better in Spain.

I have a degree in and am fluent in Spanish (although a bit rusty), am qualified to teach languages including EFL and have more recently been a manger in a Youth Offending Service (including lots of admin and ICT skills). I'm aware that it's virtually impossible to transfer from public sector in England to public sector in Spain. Is this true? Ideally I'd like to work with young offenders over there.

My partner is a qualified electrician and personal trainer and has a keen interest in delivering fitness for golf.

So basically our interests/skills are fitness, working with youths, languages, admin, ICT, property management (gardening, maintenance).

Any suggestions how we could go about finding jobs that incorporate any of the above? Once we've got soem ideas I can hand my notice in!

AJB1

Being fluent in Spanish will help yopu and you could apply for a job in the state sector. Helping youths, well not sure where to start but Im sure you could even if it were to teach english to offenders!

Electrician will have no problem finding work but would be self employed unless again spanish but self employed earn a lot more than contract workers

You could teach english to children - the spanish pay for native teachers outside of the school hours, and maybe spanish to englich speakers in the monrings?

I would think better to be self employed then amplyed as you will earn more, ensure youhave enough money to see you through the first year and you will be fine.

Where abouts on CDS are you thinking?

Thanks for the reply. We were thinking that going self employed was probably the best idea, however we definitely need to have something in place for one of us when we go out there. So we'll keep on hunting.

We'd eventually like to be in Benahavis, or at least we've been there and liked it but we're flexible, especially as we probably can't afford to rent there to start with!

Any suggestions? I see you're in Nueva Andalucia. What's it like there? Basically we're looking for somthing that has some authentic Spain about it but that is also fairly close to a decent gym, cinema, 15-20 mins drive to the beach (close to La Canada really!) but between Marbella and Gibraltar end of CDS.

We also looked at Eviria and that looked quite nice too! As you can see we're quite flexible and really need to spend a week out there just getting a feel for the different areas.

Hiya - might be worth exploting Istan or Ojen. They are on the main road about 15-20 mins drive to Canada, Marbella/Banus and you have everythingwithin a short reach. Rental prices vary depending on what you need but there is plenty around now. A standard 2 bed Ojen I guess in the region of 500-600 euros per month and oyu pay bills but not community fees ot town hall taxes.

Marbella/N andalucia area you can get from 7-900 euros depending on what you want, 3 beds marbella area 900-1100 euros, Elviria a bit cheaper and the main advantage is you can move around until you find an area you like!

All the above new and will comunal pools. Houses nit more and for a 3/4 bed house around 12-1500 euros would get you something nice.

Benahavis is nce and it wont be much more - its a bit of a drive down wth a coupel of nast bends but a lovely place

Well that's given some food for thought. I'd never heard of Ojen nor Istan - just had a look on the map and they're within the zone we're looking at but those roads look pretty horrendous on the map - probably even worse in real life! - I wasn't that keen on the one to Benahavis!

We're planning a long weekend over there again soon to look at different areas - any excuse!  So any other suggestions would be welcome.

I suppose the area we go for will also depend on what kind of jobs we'll have (one of us will have to have something to go out there to).

Are there teh equivalent of job centres out there?

There are job centres I think they are called Inem but totally spanish. There are also a couple of english agencies who provode to the spanish market. Wemloy is on, cant remember the other

The roads to Ojen/Istan are better now, wide dual carriageways so dont be too disheartened - take a drive up there when you are over.

Rixxy, thanks for all your help before.

There's no turning back now, we'll be joining you all out in Spain on 18th March. The last 5 months seem to have taken forever to pass - especially my 3 months notice period at work.

I haven't got any work sorted yet but I'm not worried yet as I've had responses to a couple of things I've sent my CV over for - they're just not in an ideal location.

We'll be in manilva so hope to join in any get togethers in the local area!