Are you considering becoming a private tutor? It's a great choice in its own right — potentially making a good income from using your passion, as well as knowing you're helping others to improve their education. If you're looking for a career in teaching, however, can tutoring help with that?
Tutoring Is a Logical Introduction to Teaching
A one-to-one teaching experience is more intense, personal and bespoke to the student, but it also creates less stressful, less responsibility and less pressure. When you take on a full class, you need to be ever vigilant and to check on everyone, whereas when you're tutoring you can really focus on the learning experience of your individual student. For this reason, taking on a single pupil before a whole class makes sense. You should learn to walk before you can run.
Tutoring Experience Teaches You Skills
Lessons and skills learned from tutoring are mostly transferable to mainstream teaching. As with anything, the more time you spend practising something, such as helping people to learn, the better at it you’ll become. If you invest your time honing your craft outside the classroom, you’ll be that much more prepared. Whether it's an amazing slideshow that you’ll use for the next decade or crowd control technique, you’ll be able to pick things up during your one-to-ones.
Try New Things and Iron out Any Kinks in Your Teaching Style
One often overlooked advantage of tutoring is that you can try out fun and ambitious teaching ideas on your students, who'll quickly give you an idea whether or not that technique is appropriate. If something doesn't work, you can tinker with your approach, and you won’t have to worry about a mob of angsty teenagers making fun of your blunders.
Positive Student Reviews Will Improve Your Job Prospects
Positive reviews and results from students will help reassure employers of your ability. You can add these reviews to your application, so that you stand out to a future employer. If you don’t have a past employer to give you a good reference, this can be the next best thing and will help you prove your worth.
Tutoring Is an Impressive, Proactive and Independent Decision
Tutoring can help sway a possible employer to hire you, especially if you’re lacking in other experience. The fact that you’ve had face-to-face time with students, and even helped them attain great results, will look impressive on a CV. Even just having the energy and enthusiasm to go out and get into tutoring off your own back is a great talking point at any interview and shows lots of positive characteristics. In addition, it highlights a large investment of your own time into helping others and improving your own skill set, which is very attractive to employers.
Exercise Your Teaching Muscles
Before you’re able to get your first teaching post, tutoring is an excellent way to put into practice the lessons you’ve learnt during teacher training and keep all of that valuable learning fresh in your mind. If you’re from generation Z and you’ve still not caught your break, there’s lots to be gained from setting yourself up in tutoring to dip your toes in the water and get some awesome experience. Register with TutorExtra to find out more about how to become a private tutor.