Becoming a tutor opens doors to new opportunities. Offering private tuition lets you learn through teaching and develop your professional network by meeting new people. You gain experience as a mentor and develop valuable skills to succeed in the future. Tutoring is one of the most attractive alternative jobs for teachers.
Tutor jobs give you the skills that employers are looking for, including good interpersonal skills and being open to new concepts. Employers appreciate the enthusiasm, authenticity and all of the soft skills needed to meet the demands of tutoring roles. Each of these traits comes as part and parcel of your experience as a private tutor. In this article, we want to show you how:
- valuable your tutoring experience on the jobs market
- tutoring can help your career
- you can claim your place in the private tutoring market
- you can tutor even as you continue your studies
We also want to talk about why becoming a tutor is a good idea. As an educator, you get to draw on your students' strengths to create tailored tutoring programmes which will lead them to academic success. In the same way, you can become the learner by interacting with your pupils. This partnership, where tutor and tutee work together, is called 'reverse mentoring'.
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Why Become a Tutor?
You might wonder if using your skills to encourage others is beneficial for your future as you consider becoming a home tutor. But you won't puzzle for long before discovering plenty of advantages to teaching privately.
Tutoring allows you to increase your income while working from home, an ideal situation if you are still in school, at university or job hunting. More importantly, private tuition is valuable personally and professionally, it's an experience to improve your CV.
You can give lessons and teach in any subject you are passionate about. You can find innovative ways to teach maths, English and any other subject you excel in. You can help pupils build the skills to become lifelong learners. You could even teach languages, history, geography or even the piano.
You can conduct lessons in different ways. You can teach just one pupil at a time or a small group that can learn with each other as a form of peer tutoring. You might even tutor online.
One-on-one tutoring can help children with specific learning difficulties or disabilities (SpLDs) such as dyslexia. These students need guidance to develop personalised study skills and feel confident in school. And don't forget that sharing your knowledge this way requires you to exhibit skills which employers love.
Get Involved in the Growing Market for Private Tuition
Teach because you love teaching, as part of the bigger picture.
The educational support business is booming. Private tutoring is not a new concept but it has evolved from its early days. Business-minded individuals realised they could profit from the demand for personalised tuition. They established companies to connect learners with teachers. Today, there is an abundance of organisations that specialise in home tutoring, such as Kumon and Superprof.
Learn how to teach English online here.
In 2013, around the time webcam technology made online tutoring effective, people paid £2.1 billion for 40 million hours of lessons. During the coronavirus pandemic, the UK government allocated a hefty sum to pay for private tuition in English schools. The scheme has produced such amazing results that the Sutton Trust is urging the government to not end the program.
Among other reasons, they cite the narrowed tuition gap between rich and poor families. Those with means have long engaged private tutors to keep up with schoolwork and pass grammar school entrance exams. Many also received help to pass a specific GCSE exam.
Whether or not the government extends the tuition scheme, the future of private tuition remains bright. More and more people look to find a tutor who they can pay for hourly private lessons. That means you can earn some extra cash by giving supplemental instruction.
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Tutor Alongside your Studies
You should now be convinced that private tuition is popular that you need to become a tutor. Don't let being at university be a problem because undergrads can provide educational support too. University students are ideal tutor material since they are also in education. You might peer-tutor your classmates or help A-Level candidates revise because you've been through the same ordeal not long ago.
Let's say you did A-level sciences and you're now studying for a BSc in Applied Mathematics. Your help as a maths tutor or even a physics tutor could be invaluable to an A-level student coming to the end of their school career. The same goes for those studying humanities, who might be able to give lessons in English writing skills or reading comprehension.
The university lifestyle means students who become tutors often have a flexible schedule, which can be useful for busy families. University students who have tutor jobs London or in the UK and teach younger pupils are more likely to be successful in their own studies whilst helping their students achieve their specific goals.
If you struggle financially, as many students do, home tuition can top up your income. Being a tutor is also far more interesting and rewarding than stacking shelves or making coffee because you earn more than just a payslip.
Tutoring jobs can be perfect for undergraduates who are more familiar with the education system; they're well-equipped to provide help for test taking and essay writing. Your subject knowledge and exam skills can be priceless to someone who needs them. Online tutoring means you will be helping others whilst keeping yourself on your toes in your own area of study.
The best thing about tutoring is creating your own timetable to fit around your lectures and other commitments, as well as those of your clients. Organising your work schedule around your classes is difficult with other student jobs. Becoming a tutor as a student is advantageous because you earn good pay, make effective use of your time and keep an eye on your own progress.
How is your Tutoring Experience Valuable to an Employer?
Being able to earn money for tutoring is a great benefit but working as a tutor helps you start your professional life on the right foot, too. The specific skills you gain by providing tutoring services make you an attractive job candidate.
Recruitment websites all emphasise five qualities employers look for in candidates: optimism, adaptability, curiosity, good interpersonal skills and conviction. Some people come by them naturally but teachers cultivate these characteristics.
- Optimism, it is up to the teacher to give pupils the confidence to overcome the difficulties they face.
- Adaptability, you will enter into different situations and you will have to adjust your lessons accordingly.
- Curiosity about your subject and your pupil goes hand-in-hand with teaching.
- Good interpersonal skills: Teaching isn't easy. The best tutors are above all positive and open to other people.
- Conviction: to have an impact on your pupil, you need to be confident in what you are teaching.
You might think of a tutor as a project manager who has to demonstrate project management and organisational skills. In other words, the teacher will have to take an interest in their pupil and do a basic assessment. They must establish achievable goals to get the desired results.
How can Tutoring help your Career?
By now, you will be aware that you have many reasons to become a tutor. Whether you are at university, already working or retraining, the advantages of tutoring are too good to miss. You could specialise in homework help or exam preparation. If you play a musical instrument or have a special skill, you could combine your passion with your job.
You might wonder if being passionate is enough to guarantee high-quality teaching. Starting out as a private tutor is an excellent way to gain the relevant experience to become a certified teacher. Whichever subject you decide to teach, tutoring will make you more knowledgeable and accomplished on a professional level.
For example, if you want to be a team leader in the future, tutoring will help you learn organisational and managerial skills. If you want to start a business, you will already have experience marketing your services at a reasonable price.
If you aspire to be an engineer, you will know how to make abstract concepts simple to foster understanding. Your pupils - and later, your clients, bosses and junior team members will look to you for explanations of what they don't grasp. Whichever path you choose, interacting directly with clients will no longer be a daunting task for you.
Tutoring and educational support are more than just a way to earn money; they're a path to self-development. You can help primary school students keep up with their classmates or give secondary school students refresher courses. You can specialise in helping students prepare for a specific exam or teach a leisure activity you excel at.
The demand for tutors is ever-growing. Few jobs can give you such self-confidence or prove that you are focused and competent. And even fewer give you a springboard to your career. Aren't those great reasons to become a tutor?
Want to give private lessons?
Join the Superprof community and share your knowledge with interested and motivated students.
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