TAPIF – Teaching Assistant Program in France 2025-2026
Are you ready to embark on a new cultural adventure? France attracts millions of visitors annually to experience the latest in fashion, fine art, and world-class cuisine. As an English language teacher, you might have the opportunity to live in France and teach through the TAPIF teaching program.
The Teaching Assistant Program in France – TAPIF is a joint public school teaching program initiative by Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the US and France Éducation international, which is a national public institution and a key public operator for the Ministries of Education and Higher Education in France.
The goal of the program is to help strengthen English language instruction in French public schools by providing the opportunity for American citizens and permanent residents to work in French public schools as assistant English language teachers over a 7-month period.
It is also a great opportunity for aspiring teachers and young professionals to gain international teaching experience and an increased understanding of the French language and culture.
About the TAPIF program
The TAPIF program provides 1300 positions annually to American citizens and permanent residents with green cards. The program is part of the French Ministry of Education’s larger Assistants de langue en France program, which is a program that recruits around 4500 teachers from 60 countries to teach 15 different languages in public schools across France.
The recruiting and promotion for TAPIF is managed by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States.
Let’s now take a quick look at what the program is, and how you can apply to it.
Where are the schools located?
The program offers positions in all regions of metropolitan France, as well as in the overseas departments of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Réunion.
When submitting your application, you are encouraged to select up to three regions of preference. However, due to the number of requests and limited availability in certain regions, they are unable to accommodate all applicants’ requests. Flexibility is highly encouraged.
Who are the students?
You will be assigned to public schools at the primary and secondary school levels:
- In elementary schools, you will teach children between the ages of 8-11 (Prior teaching experience preferred).
- In secondary schools, you will teach children between the ages of 11-18 (No prior teaching experience required).
During the application process, you may submit your preference for the type of age group you would like to be assigned. They’ll try to take your preferences into consideration but cannot guarantee that you will receive your choice of preference.
How long is the program?
All TAPIF contracts last 7 months, starting in October 1st through April 30th.
Can you participate more than once?
As of 2022, Americans can now participate a maximum of 3 times in the TAPIF program (instead of the previous 2-year limit).
What are the job duties?
When working as an English language teaching assistant through TAPIF you’ll have the following job duties:
When working as an English language teaching assistant you will have the following job duties:
- Teach 12 hours per week in up to 3 schools.
- Conduct all or part of a class completely in English.
- Serve as a resource person in conversation groups, providing small group tutorials, and giving talks related to American studies. The teacher’s assignments can vary depending on the school’s needs and the abilities of the teacher.
- Elementary school level – Assist the teacher by leading oral activities with small groups of students or working alongside the teacher with the whole class.
- Secondary school level – Assist the teacher as a resource person during conversational group practice, facilitate English-language clubs, or work alongside the teacher with the whole class.
Benefits included with the TAPIF program
As a participant in the TAPIF program, you’ll have access to a range of benefits that can help make your stay in France all the more enjoyable.
📑 Work Visa: Through the TAPIF program, you will be able to apply for a long-stay work visa. The visa that you will be applying for as a teaching assistant is a visa type D – “visa de long séjour, mention travailleur temporaire (VLS-TS)”.
Please note that you are not legally allowed to work in France without a long-stay visa and you cannot apply for this visa once you are in France.
💶 Assistantship stipend: As a teaching assistant you’ll receive a monthly stipend of approximately €810 per month NET (the total amount may vary slightly depending on regional/local deductions).
In most cases, (depending on personal spending habits) the provided salary is enough for teaching assistants to live a comfortable lifestyle in most regions of France.
*Please note that urban areas like Paris can be very expensive, making it difficult to make ends meet with only the provided stipend. Also, due to the higher cost of living in the overseas departments, assistants in those regions will receive an additional salary allowance of approximately 30% to 35%.
⚕️ Health insurance: As a TAPIF teaching assistant, you will receive health insurance through the French “Sécurité sociale” or “Sécu”.
The fee for the health insurance and social services will be detracted from your monthly salary. The health insurance (only valid in France) covers 60% – 70% of medical costs incurred, 35–65% of prescriptions filled, and 80% of hospitalization fees.
*Please note that the health insurance is mandatory in order to keep your work visa.
🏠 Housing aid: Most participants qualify for the CAF (government housing aid) and can therefore be reimbursed a large percentage of their housing costs if their accomodadtion is not within their school. However, assistants are fully resposible for finding and arranging their own accomodation. Some schools are able to help assistants secure housing, but it’s not guaranteed.
Eligibility
To be eligible for the TAPIF program you need to meet the following requirements:
🌎 Citizenship: Be an American citizen or permanent resident. Foreign nationals with a US green card may apply if they are citizens of one of the countries listed by France Éducation International (scroll down to “Pays concernés” and click on “Langue Anglaise” to see the accepted countries).
👨👩👧👦 Age: Be between the ages of 20 and 35 (no exceptions are made).
📚 Education: Have completed at least 3 years of higher education by October 1, 2025. Applicants must also have completed the majority of their elementary, secondary, and university education in the US.
🗣️ Language: Applicants must be native English speakers. They also need to possess a minimum B1 level proficiency in French according to the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference) framework.
French language skills are essential when it comes to facilitating work in the classroom and integrating into a new community.
Not essential but preferred:
📜 A TESOL/TEFL certificate: While a TESOL/TEFL certificate is not a requirement to be eligible for the program, it is nonetheless a meriting qualification that can help give you an edge during the application process.
👩🏫 Teaching experience: Applicants with prior teaching experience or experience working with children, adolescents and/or adults are favoured. This is not a requirement but it can help improve your chances during the evaluation and selection process.
🗺️ Cultural experience: As the applicants will work to promote cultural exchange between the US and France, it’s meriting if they have prior experience living, working or studying abroad as this can help demonstrate an appreciation and understanding of other cultures.
As long as you meet the program’s eligibility criteria, you are encouraged to apply!
Getting your TESOL/TEFL certificate: To teach English overseas and online you’ll need to have an accredited and recognized 120-hour TESOL/TEFL certificate.
If you haven’t enrolled in the course you can do so here:
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How to apply for the TAPIF program
It’s important to make sure that you apply at the correct time and with all of the required documents. There is a non-refundable $99.00 application fee to apply to the program. After that, there is no fee for participating in the program
When do applications open?
Applications for the 2025-2026 school year can be submitted starting from mid-October 2024. The application submission deadline for the 2025-202 school year will be February 28th, 2025.
What documents do you need to prepare?
The application process can be a little bit complicated, so it’s important to take some time to prepare your documents and write out a clear account of any relevant academic and life experiences.
When submitting your application, you need to provide the following:
- Basic information about yourself.
- Academic background.
- Experience with the French language.
- Experience teaching or working with young people.
- Experience living or working abroad.
- A statement of purpose about why you want to be a Teaching Assistant in France.
The statement needs to be written in French, approximately 500 words in length, and must not be proofread or corrected by anyone with knowledge of the French language (it should be your own work).
In addition to the information above, you will also need to provide the following documents:
- A scan of your passport: Please pay attention to the passport’s expiration date (must be valid through October 30th of the year your teaching contract ends).
- Photograph of yourself (passport-style): Must be taken against a white background, clearly show your face, and follow the format of an official passport photo.
- A scan of your green card: If you are a permanent resident of the US, you’ll need to provide a scan of your U.S. green card + the scan of your currently valid passport from your country of citizenship.
- A scan of your official university transcript: You need to provide a hard-copy official transcript from your university registrar. Print-outs of unofficial online transcripts are not accepted.
- Proof of French proficiency: You need to be able to submit a personal statement in French and letters of recommendation attesting to your French skills, attitude, and work ethic. This can be done through a university French professor and one recommendation from a different person who knows you in an academic or professional capacity.
If you do not have access to a French professor for the application’s language evaluation, or if you did not have French as a major or minor during your higher education years, you can instead submit a score from a standardised French language test, such as TCF, TEF, DELF, DALF via Alliance Française. You need to possess a French proficiency score of B1 or higher on the CEFR Scale.
- Background check: A scan of your background check (Federal Identity History Summary) that has been issued by an official department of States.
Applications are evaluated on a case-by-case basis and the most qualified candidates receive offers for a teaching position. Decisions are typically sent out by e-mail within the month of April (this timeline may be subject to change).
You will be notified whether your candidacy has been selected or declined.
Where do you apply?
If you wish to know more about the TAPIF program, please refer to TAPIF’s official website.
Once you’ve prepared all of the required documents, and are ready to send in your application, you can do so via their Online Submission Form.
When filling out your application, it’s highly recommended to use their free application guide
💡 Bonus Tip! Joint Applications
Fulbright ETA (English Teaching Assistant) positions
While applying for the TAPIF program, you can also apply for the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) positions.
The Fulbright Commission has 11 reserved spots in the TAPIF program, and they come with extra benefits such as travel allowance and health coverage (in addition to the normal teaching assistantship stipend). If you wish to increase your chances of receiving a teaching position in France, you should apply to both programs. More information can be found on their Official Website.
For more information about other joint application opportunities, please visit The Cultural Services division of the French Embassy in the United States’ website.
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