We’re a teacher-owned cooperative
Cronopios Idiomas is a teacher-owned cooperative. This means that the teachers and the administration staff are both the owners and the managers of the school. Teamwork is an essential priority and any decision about the school is made by the full team. The fact that our team is steady is key to the stability of the school and the quality of the teachers.
Cronopios Idiomas is a cooperative Company. It’s owned and run by its members according to the cooperative principles: democracy, solidarity and environmental responsibility. We believe in a new economic model: one that exists for the sake of the people, and we try to play our part in its development through participation in projects such as the credit co-op Coop57, and the production and distribution cooperative network Mercado Social de Madrid.
Also we try to provide, as far as we feasibly can, reduced price or free courses for students with lesser resources:
- Long-term students who need continuous learning but do not have an income.
- Students that collaborate with us in exchange for group lessons.
- Students without resources that come to us through social organisations and NGOs which are dedicated to teaching Spanish through the efforts of volunteers.
Committed to local suppliers and host families
We provide ourselves with local products, bought mainly within the framework of MES, Mercado Social de Madrid. We make use of cultural activities and local guides in order to promote Madrid’s local economy, focusing on cooperatives and small businesses.
The accommodation prices are set according to the standard of living in Madrid. We work with totally committed host families that receive 100% of the money paid to them by the student for the duration of their stay in their home. We charge only 30 Euros per student for the management cost, but we do not receive any additional commission from the host families.
Committed to sustainable tourism and environmental responsibility
In our school we use recycled paper and stationery wherever possible. We also promote waste management, involving differentiated collection of plastic, paper, bottles and print cartridges, as part of the experience of the students in our school. We work with energy efficient computers and electrical appliances, and we comply with the strict regulations of Mercado Social de Madrid regarding this issue.
We collaborate with agencies such as Responsibletravel.com, promoting responsible tourism and compensation for CO2 emissions produced by air travel through www.fairchanges.com.
