There always seems to be a great demand for extra tuition, especially in the core subjects of English, Mathematics and Science. Working as a private tutor is an excellent and rewarding way of earning a supplementary income for those working part-time or for retired teachers. Even full-time employees who need to earn a little more could offer one or two hours of tuition at weekends.
It is preferable to hold a degree but not necessarily essential to have had classroom teaching experience in the subject you are offering. I personally have a degree in Fine Art and taught English abroad for a number of years. I speak fluent French and have studied the language with the Open University in the UK. When I first began tutoring, I offered English and French as my main subjects but soon found that many of the younger pupils required tuition in Mathematics as well as English. My Maths qualification was a Grade A at GCSE level, so I was able to offer tuition in Maths to pupils up to the age of fourteen. In general, the tutor is required to have a qualification at least one level above the level being tutored; to teach at GCSE level, you would thus need to have successfully studied your subject to A level. To tutor to Advanced level, you would require a degree. If you are not currently teaching in a school, you must of course have an up-to-date knowledge of the curriculum, but this information should be easy to find on the Internet.
As well as considering academic qualifications, you will in the UK need to apply to the Criminal Records Bureau for an Enhanced Disclosure Certificate. This is usually compulsory if you register with a tuition agency now, and is advisable if you set up your business independently unless you intend to tutor solely adults. Registering with an agency is an easy way of obtaining introductions to new students, but you will of course have to pay around twenty to twenty-five per cent of the tuition fee to the agency as commission. This may sound a lot, but you will be introduced to students that you would not otherwise have encountered and you will avoid advertising costs. Advertising in the Yellow Pages directory, however, can be an excellent way of developing your business. In 2002 I placed a free listing of my name and address under the Tutoring category, and my income from that listing in that year was GBP3,000. Some of the students stayed with me for several years. I decided that it would be worth placing a small paid advertisement in the directory the following year and have done so ever since, at a cost of about GBP300 which I pay by direct debit over a ten-month period.
As soon as you set up your tutoring business, in the UK you must inform HM Revenue and Customs that you are now self-employed, even if you are in other employment. You will of course have to fill in an annual tax return and pay any income tax due on your tuition earnings. Your tax bill is split in half, with one half payable by 31st January and the other by 31st July. National Insurance contributions can be paid be direct debit. It is essential that you keep a detailed record of all your income from tuition as well as allowable expenses such as advertising, agency commission, books and other materials, which can be deducted from your earnings before income tax is calculated. I keep my account book up-to-date on a daily basis which takes just a few minutes each evening.
Public Liability Insurance is a serious consideration for a private tutor. You can take this out along with your house or contents insurance as I do at an extra cost of about GBP10 per month, or apply for it separately. Although it is an additional expense, it will set your mind at rest over the problems that could arise if a child were to have an accident in your home, or even if you were to visit a student's home and sustain an injury or cause accidental damage.
Unless you are undertaking online tuition only, you will need to consider whether to tutor in your own home or whether to travel to your students' homes. In my particular case I live alone and do not drive, so it makes sense for me to tutor in my home. I have occasionally had enquiries from students who were adamant about being tutored in their home, but most people are flexible. The advantages are that you don't have to waste time travelling from one student to another, and you have all your textbooks (and in my case a couple of hefty dictionaries) at your disposal. You will of course need a good-sized table and chairs in a well-lit room with adequate heating in winter. The surroundings need to be quiet and undisturbed. (I never answer the telephone whilst in a tutoring session.) If you don't live alone you need to ensure that your family will not encroach on your tutoring and also that they will not resent the fact that a particular room will be out of bounds to them, at least at certain times.
It is becoming quite common to use a computer during tuition, and you may also require a printer or photocopier to print off worksheets. You will have to decide whether or not to provide textbooks and workbooks or worksheets for your students, and if you do decide to do so this can be factored into the fee that you charge. There are very few start-up costs involved in setting up a tutoring business, but books could be one of these. One solution would be to charge a returnable deposit to any student who needs to borrow books for the duration of their tuition. You will of course also need paper, pens, pencils, rulers, erasers, sharpeners and perhaps geometry instruments. If you are tutoring a language, you may need to use CDs during your sessions. A small first-aid kit is essential, although in the ten years I have been tutoring in the UK I have had to deal with nothing more than one nose bleed, two pupils being sick, and one girl needing a plaster on a minor injury sustained earlier at school. Another consideration is that some students appreciate a cup of tea or coffee or a cold drink, although there are those who prefer a glass of water and those who bring their own drink.
You will also need to have a bathroom at the disposal of your students, preferably on the same floor as the room in which tuition takes place. A separate hand towel or a supply of paper towels would be a good idea. Bear in mind that tutoring in your own home will probably necessitate extra cleaning and tidying of any areas that are used. I have in the past tutored in the student's home and haven't always found the table clean enough to put books and papers on! There is also no guarantee that other family members will not create a disturbance in the student's home. A young child in particular will probably concentrate better outside of their home environment.
If you are setting yourself up as a tutor independently of agencies, you will of course have to decide on the fees you are going to charge. I work partly through an agency and partly independently, and I usually set my independent fee slightly lower than the agency fee. On the independent income there is obviously no commission, but the cost of advertising has to be taken into consideration. Hourly rates may seem high, but remember that you have to spend time preparing for sessions and keeping accounts, even making phone calls or sending emails. If you travel to students' homes, you should charge a higher fee to cover the cost and time spent travelling. You will have to decide whether to make a charge for cancelled lessons; it might be that you decide to charge only for last-minute cancellations, although these may be unavoidable in the case of illness. You might prefer not to charge for cancellations, but perhaps increase the fee slightly at the beginning of a term or year for any student that has been cancelling too frequently. If you tutor more than one student at the same time, especially from the same family, it is usual to charge perhaps an extra twenty per cent per additional pupil.
Tutoring is for me an extremely rewarding and pleasant way of earning an extra income. It requires a great deal of patience and concentration, but the problems of discipline encountered in a classroom are almost non-existent. The majority of children that I have tutored have been those that are struggling at school, yet in almost every case parents have told me after a few weeks that their child has already gained confidence and shown progress. Some have stayed with me for several years: one started at the age of nine, is now fifteen and will be sitting for GCSE exams in 2010. I have tutored adults in languages as well and have stayed in touch with one or two of them after they completed their tuition.
Perhaps the main drawback is that it is difficult to make a full-time living from private tuition. Numbers dwindle in the summer, following the exam season, and there is likely to be another brief dip around Christmas and New Year. You may be lucky enough to tutor students who are being home-schooled, but otherwise most sessions will be limited to weekends or after 4pm on weekdays. Cancellations, as I have said, can result in loss of earnings. It takes a little while to build up a number of students, but if they continue attending over the years and perhaps introduce you to new students by word of mouth, you could soon find that you have a full diary and a steady stream of income. It is a worthwhile business and one that I personally hope to be able to keep going into my retirement.