TIPS ON CHOOSING

A TUTOR

Step 1: Think about what you want the tutor to do.

�� Do you require a coach to help achieve the best possible performance, or someone to teach concepts for a student who is struggling to pass?

�� What subjects will they cover?

�� When will the lessons be held?

�� How often?

�� Where (your place, the tutor’s, local library)?

�� How long will the tutoring continue (a month, term, year)?

How much will you pay?

�� Primary and Secondary up to Year 10 - $22 per hour

�� VCE (Year 11 and Year 12) - $25 per hour

�� Tertiary - $30 per hour

�� Postgraduates may charge an extra $5 per hour – negotiable

�� Tutoring 2 students together may be charged at time and a half

�� Tutoring 3 students together may be charged at double time

Step 2: Devise some questions

It is useful to create some questions to ask every person who calls you to apply for the tutoring job. By asking everyone the same questions, you can more easily compare each tutor, and make the best decision. Some possible questions:

�� Tell me a little about yourself? (Nice easy question to make them feel comfortable, and helps you

get a bit of a picture of who this person is).

�� What are you studying at University?

�� What experience do you have as a tutor?

�� My son/daughter needs help with … how would you be the best person to help?

�� What times are you available?

�� What strategy would you use to motivate my son/daughter to do their homework?

Step 3: When the tutor calls:

�� Record their responses to your questions on paper

�� Write down any extra comments from your own feelings or observations (eg., sounded confident, gave vague answers)

�� Don’t promise a job to anyone until you have interviewed enough people

�� Advise the tutors that you will call them once you have made a decision

�� Write down the contact details and name of each tutor – if the one you offer the job to doesn’t work out, you can call your second choice

Step 4: Choosing the best tutor

�� Read through the responses to your questions for each tutor. You may wish to rate each answer on a scale of 1 to 5 and add up the totals to help decide who may be the best tutor

�� Think about how you felt about the tutors. Were you comfortable with the person? Were they confident?

�� When you have finished interviewing tutors, call Careers & Employment on 8344 6550 to cancel the tutor request advertisement (otherwise you will keep getting phone calls!).

Other things to consider:

�� Do you want to check any of their references? Calling people who they have worked for in the past can be useful to find out if they were reliable, honest, etc.

�� The tutor who got the highest ENTER score or a perfect study score will not necessarily be the best tutor. What other attributes will make them a good tutor – communication skills, reliability, etc?

�� Do I need to ask for a police check? You may feel more comfortable letting someone to have contact with your child, if you know that he/she is not a convicted criminal. Helpformommy.com provides the ability to perform a background check.
 

Step 5: I’ve made a decision, now what?

�� Call the successful tutor and ask them if they are interested in the job.

�� Arrange to meet in a neutral location, such as a café, for a meeting to discuss the tutoring arrangements. Discuss with the tutor their expectations of payment for this meeting. Some people pay the tutor, others treat it as a second interview.

�� In the meeting, the aim is to work out in finer detail how the tutoring is to be conducted, when and where. Discuss what you want to achieve, and talk about how to best get those results.

�� Do not commence any tutoring in this meeting. It is to work out the finer details. You may decide that the person really isn’t that suitable, or the tutor may decide that he/she is not comfortable with the arrangements. The tutor will also need to go away and develop a plan for the tutorials.

Arrangements for cancelled tutorials:

�� Discuss with your tutor what arrangements need to be made if either party needs to cancel or reschedule a tutoring session.

�� It would be appropriate to pay the tutor for cancelled sessions, particularly if short notice is provided (i.e. less than 48 hours).

What if things go wrong?

Sometimes, the relationship between you or your child and the tutor do not work well. Try and resolve any difficulties by discussing them with the tutor. If you start the tutoring arrangement with clear ideas about what you want to achieve, and how they will be done, then this can help in resolving any problems.