The project takes place in the center of the country, in the town of Cimarrones, within a magnificent region surrounded by mountains and even some volcanoes. Join participants from all over the world, who like you are wondering how to join an organization, and contribute together to the improvement of the living conditions of the city’s inhabitants, especially through education. Your main tasks revolve around teaching in the classroom, to facilitate the learning of English in particular and other subjects of daily life such as health, protection of the environment…

Take advantage of your free time to visit the Turrialba Volcano National Park, accessible via a short bus ride!

Like all of our training courses for working in humanitarian NGOs , this project allows you to benefit from a complete learning process, while having a positive and lasting impact on local communities.

This project is part of the so-called career training:

This vocational training program is part of the so-called “career” projects. In addition to the mission that you carry out on site, it allows you to benefit from real support, and to access the position of project coordinator in 6 months. Here you combine theoretical training with practical learning, with online modules to be completed after the end of the mission. At the end of the program, you obtain an international certification recognized and issued by the University of Richmond, in the United States.

The accompaniment is therefore present upstream, on site but also downstream of the project. During the course of the mission, you will also have a remote project to carry out: you will have to solve a problem with other partner organizations in marine conservation, environment, animal protection… A coach will follow you and support you to help you in the best possible way in the resolution of these problems, and at the end of the project you will have access to a platform of job offers in NGOs, for which you will be eligible thanks to your professional training.

Remote projects included in professional training will be carried out AFTER having carried out the mission in the field.

If your training lasts 4-11 weeks, you will work on a remote project for a period of 4 weeks after completing the field assignment.
If your training lasts 12 weeks or more, you will work on 2 remote projects for a duration of 8 weeks after completing the field mission.

For more information on the employment guarantee conditions, click on the link:

Conditions on the job guarantee

Take a closer look at all the specificities of this training as a career program !

The project as a whole:

Pupils from different schools often need extra lessons, tutoring in English. This region is indeed more and more touristic, and the mastery of English appears as a real asset in front of this new public more and more present. Many employers are looking for people with these English speaking skills to help these international visitors. To speak English is to afford future professional opportunities.

In teaching in schools, you will also learn Spanish in contact with children.

Children also do many workshops to develop different skills, depending on their age. It is generally sports, to develop gross motor skills, art, manual activities or even music to develop what is called fine motor skills. Social skills are also promoted through collective activities.

More details about the project:

Teaching in schools is not the whole project, you also help young adults through conservation classes. This consists of training and planning activities that take place before and after work on the project.

Participants can also get involved in other missions during the project to find out how to integrate an organization; for example, create or maintain a garden, renovate a center or help with the organization of various events!

Costa Rica being mainly Catholic, events such as Easter or Christmas are particularly celebrated. During these periods, school attendance is lower than the rest of the year. Nevertheless, we continue to organize educational programs in the summer, or provide an individual tutor during the holidays. The development of community infrastructure, such as the renovation of centers and the creation of communal gardens, also continued during this period. In addition, it will be an opportunity for participants to learn Costa Rican customs during the holidays, by participating in organized events.

The assignment depends on the skills and profile of the participants. A telephone interview and a registration file (CV and motivation letter) will determine the placement of the volunteers on educational projects ranging from childcare to the organisation of extracurricular activities and tutoring / assistance in schools for those with the most training.

A basic level of Spanish is required to successfully communicate with children and other locals once there. You can discuss with your manager on site about adding Spanish lessons to improve your language level. The earlier you start this learning, the more rewarding your experience can be because of your exchanges with the community!

Your impact:

All of our programs have short, medium and long-term goals that align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). This allows us to report on our collaborative impact around the world in a simplified way, measuring those goals to which we make a substantial contribution.

In 1869, Costa Rica became the first country to make education accessible to all, with free and compulsory primary school. Funded by the State, education is accessible in particular thanks to the income received by the country from the coffee sector. The consequences are significant, considerably reducing the illiteracy rate within the country. The State did not stop there and continued to place education as one of its priorities, transferring in 1945 the budget planned for the national army to the education system following its dissolution. It is now 93% of the population who can read and write, against only one inhabitant in ten in the ^19th century.

Despite all of these efforts and the progress achieved, teaching and education are not easily accessible to all. Primary schools are present and accessible throughout the country, but those in rural areas often lack the resources and materials to provide quality learning to children. In addition, to adapt the building to the number of pupils, rural schools often divide the timetables to set up two learning sessions.

Thus, RealStep proposes you through this training to contribute to the improvement of the living conditions of the local population, the future opportunities for the children of this rural area, to learn you how to integrate an organization.

Life on base:

Live at the same pace as the locals, and discover the pura vida, the “simple life”. Cimarrones is a small rural town located on the border of the provinces of Limón and Cartago in the heart of the mountains. About a three hour drive from San Jose International Airport, our base is within a vast area of sugar cane fields, coffee plantations and other agricultural land. The participants share a typical house in the country, and the maintenance tasks of this accommodation are divided between them. On weekends, you can visit the surroundings or relax in the accommodation with the other participants.