Foreign language assistants

Hosting a language assistant in your primary or secondary school is an ideal way to bring language learning to life for your students. Language assistants are mostly young and bring fresh ideas and energy to a classroom, making it easy for students to relate to them and boost their confidence.

Having just arrived from a native-speaking context, language assistants iwll be up to date on their local culture and news, meaning they are best plaed to work with student on developing their conversational skills and increasing their awareness and understanding of another culture.

Language assistants are native speakers of French, Spanish, German, Italian, Chinese and Irish. The majority of our assistants are language students, but the programme also attracts applicants from other disciplines and age ranges. Find out more at:

British Council: Employ a language assistant

This article looks at some of the ways languages assistants can benefit UK schools and their pupils:

British Council: How UK schools can benefit from modern foreign language assistants

Information for schools 

• FLAs work from 1 October to 31 May. FLAs must work a total of 12 hours. You can negotiate for them to work extra hours for extra pay on their arrival if so they wish - and they usually do!
• FLAs are entitled to a full day off each week.
• if you share an assistant, please plan their timetable carefully so that travelling is kept to a minimum.
• if shared, only the host school receives the FLA’s dossier. Please get in touch with your partner school to let them know what is going on. Please contact the assistant before the summer holidays to avoid any unnecessary anxiety and sort out some temporary accommodation.
• in the case of shared assistants they should spend their first two weeks in the host school to have more of a chance to settle in.
• assistants should be allowed a period of 3 to five days’ observation.
• assistants should not take sole responsibility for whole classes and should not be responsible for marking pupils’ work.
• finally, it is the responsibility of the host school to find some accommodation for the assistant.

How to apply

Please apply directly to the British Council at:

British Council: Language assistants

or Tel: 0161 957 7755 or email Customer services: language.assistants@britishcouncil.org