Becoming a private tutor- all questions here

Reactive

I start my PhD in Chemical Engineering in September, and I'm about to graduate with a BEng in Chemical Engineering. Would I be in a position to tutor A-level students mathematics and chemistry? Do I actually need a qualification to do this? I'm a guy (22), how would I work tutoring girl (or guys for that matter) students, I assume I'd have to have their parents present?

I also assume that all tutoring would have to be done at my place?

cheekychipmunk

Reactive wrote: »

I start my PhD in Chemical Engineering in September, and I'm about to graduate with a BEng in Chemical Engineering. Would I be in a position to tutor A-level students mathematics and chemistry? Do I actually need a qualification to do this? I'm a guy (22), how would I work tutoring girl (or guys for that matter) students, I assume I'd have to have their parents present?

I also assume that all tutoring would have to be done at my place?

I think the general rule for tutoring is that you should have qualification at least one level above the one you plan to teach. So for A-level, you should have a good degree in the relevant subject. I tutor, but don't have any 'school' teaching experience. I have a Ph.D in the subject area I tutor in and seem to be doing ok (great results with my students).

You just need to have a crack to see if you will be any good! And don't make the mistake of underselling your services. £25 per hour is reasonable for A-level.

You can tutor from home or at the student's home. A CRB check is reassuring for parent's if you have one? If you are going to tutor from home, make sure you inform your home insurance provider too.

Reactive

cheekychipmunk wrote: »

I think the general rule for tutoring is that you should have qualification at least one level above the one you plan to teach. So for A-level, you should have a good degree in the relevant subject. I tutor, but don't have any 'school' teaching experience. I have a Ph.D in the subject area I tutor in and seem to be doing ok (great results with my students).

You just need to have a crack to see if you will be any good! And don't make the mistake of underselling your services. £25 per hour is reasonable for A-level.

You can tutor from home or at the student's home. A CRB check is reassuring for parent's if you have one? If you are going to tutor from home, make sure you inform your home insurance provider too.

Appreciate your reply. Why would I have to inform my home insurance provider?

I would not like to travel as it's too much of an inconvenience (+ the cost £££), all tutoring would have to take place at my house.

As for under-selling my services, I had initially thought of starting out at around £15/h for an A-level student and see how it goes. But you think I should start higher?

cheekychipmunk

Reactive wrote: »

Appreciate your reply. Why would I have to inform my home insurance provider?

I would not like to travel as it's too much of an inconvenience (+ the cost £££), all tutoring would have to take place at my house.

As for under-selling my services, I had initially thought of starting out at around £15/h for an A-level student and see how it goes. But you think I should start higher?

If you are tutoring from home, you need to let your insurers know that you have people coming into your home for business purposes. Otherwise they would be in a position to reject any claims you make for burglaries etc as you would have withheld important information.

I started off charging £20 an hour, but increased to £25 once I was confident I was doing a good job (after a year). I know that chemistry tutors are like gold dust round here, so I would try charging £20 to start off with at least. Remember, it will take you quite a bit of extra time at first to prepare, read up on exam board syllabuses, collect past papers etc, so what sounds like a lot per hour is diluted down significantly with your prep time.

hth

bubbleoflife_2

Gazing_On_Sunsets wrote: »

... but a PGCE for secondary

I have PTTLS. How long does PGCE take and is it equivalent to PTTLS & KTTLS?
I'm really confused about this one

cheekychipmunk wrote: »

...
I started off charging £20 an hour, but increased to £25 once I was confident I was doing a good job (after a year). I know that chemistry tutors are like gold dust round here, so I would try charging £20 to start off with at least. Remember, it will take you quite a bit of extra time at first to prepare, read up on exam board syllabuses, collect past papers etc, so what sounds like a lot per hour is diluted down significantly with your prep time.
hth

I'm wondering if my not getting a lot of responses from my advert at the Library is due to my underselling myself (£10 x hour) :think: ....
(Reason for keeping my fees low are because I have a certificate in Maths, one in Astronomy and will soon have another Cert High in Physics & Maths which I'm using towards BSc in Astronomy with Physics component (I'm studying partly by distance learning and partly at college).


Someone mentioned Disclosure Scotland. Is it this one?

http://www.disclosurescotland.co.uk/pvg/pvg_index.html

cgk1

I would not like to travel as it's too much of an inconvenience (+ the cost £££), all tutoring would have to take place at my house.

Lots of people tutor via skype and give a slight discount for this - but the trade-off is that there is no travel and you can slot in more classes. A friend of mine does it this way and he says overall it's a much more effective system that going from student house to student house. Moreover, you can literally tutor anywhere in the country so the potential market is much higher.

Obviously to do it this way, you want a decent webcam, a reasonable speed connection (as do the students).

Gazing_On_Sunsets

bubbleoflife wrote: »

I have PTTLS. How long does PGCE take and is it equivalent to PTTLS & KTTLS?
I'm really confused about this one

A PGCE (secondary) is one year, full time. It qualified me for secondary but also adults, where I teach now. My colleagues did the PTTLS, CTTLS and DTTLS (prep for teaching in lifelong learning sector, cert of... and diploma in..., respectively) but they didn't do it full time. They trained "on the job". I believe the DTLLS, the diploma, is like a PGCE but for post-compulsory education. It always used to be the case that a post-compulsory PGCE or DTLLS did NOT qualify you for secondary age teaching. However, a colleague tells me that has now changed but you'd be best advised to look that up (LLUK might be your best bet, worth a google) and confirm it. It does seem kind of unfair - I can move between secondary and post-compulsory, but my colleagues with DTLLS may not. Maybe it has changed though.


Also yes, at £10 an hour you are underselling yourself. People will assume you're not qualified or capable or something.

Put ads in newsagents, not just libraries, and sports centres, and shops and supermarkets.

cheekychipmunk

Gazing_On_Sunsets wrote: »

A PGCE (secondary) is one year, full time. It qualified me for secondary but also adults, where I teach now. My colleagues did the PTTLS, CTTLS and DTTLS (prep for teaching in lifelong learning sector, cert of... and diploma in..., respectively) but they didn't do it full time. They trained "on the job". I believe the DTLLS, the diploma, is like a PGCE but for post-compulsory education. It always used to be the case that a post-compulsory PGCE or DTLLS did NOT qualify you for secondary age teaching. However, a colleague tells me that has now changed but you'd be best advised to look that up (LLUK might be your best bet, worth a google) and confirm it. It does seem kind of unfair - I can move between secondary and post-compulsory, but my colleagues with DTLLS may not. Maybe it has changed though.


Also yes, at £10 an hour you are underselling yourself. People will assume you're not qualified or capable or something.

Put ads in newsagents, not just libraries, and sports centres, and shops and supermarkets.

A student I just picked up through UK tutors confirmed this. She mentioned that she chose me, as the other tutors on there were charging so little - therefore she assumed they must be under-qualified or useless!

cgk1

Gazing_On_Sunsets wrote: »

It always used to be the case that a post-compulsory PGCE or DTLLS did NOT qualify you for secondary age teaching. However, a colleague tells me that has now changed but you'd be best advised to look that up (LLUK might be your best bet, worth a google) and confirm it. It does seem kind of unfair - I can move between secondary and post-compulsory, but my colleagues with DTLLS may not. Maybe it has changed though.

I think it's *about* to change but hasn't quite do so yet. As I understand it, the Condem alliance are going to remove the requirement for people to have any qualifications to teach in secondary education. The idea being that schools will be able to employ 'suitable' people even if they are not qualified.

Of course this has absolutely nothing to do with driving down teachers salaries.

Titchvic

Hi,
Just wanted an opinion really as I've been reading the posts with interest.
I qualified as a primary teacher 10 years ago but had a change of direction and moved into TEFL teaching as it allowed me to travel. Am now training IT to adults, but would love to get back to kids. We have the 11 plus here so do you think this is a viable option? Am I the kind of person you would have tutor your child for the 11 plus exam, based on my qualification and experience? And how much would you pay?
Also any tips on the best places to get appropriate resources from?
Many thanks