Tutoring helped me to develop professional skills at university

“Before starting to work for Tutor Trust, I worked in the hospitality industry, in part-time catering jobs. I found such roles were becoming repetitive and I wanted to focus on something that would benefit my CV. I was, and still am, unsure of what career I want to pursue but was keen to do something that helped people. Tutor Trust seemed perfect for this, so I jumped at the opportunity as soon as I saw it advertised on my university’s careers portal.

“I’m currently in my fourth year of studies, studying Philosophy and Classics at The University of Leeds, and have been with Tutor Trust for two years. In that time, I’ve tutored in schools in Leeds and online, in Primary (Maths and Reading) and Secondary English. I also achieved the Leeds-Bradford ‘Tutor of the Month’ award which I’m proud of.

“The main skill that I’ve got from tutoring is problem-solving. When I first started, I found planning lessons quite overwhelming. I can be a perfectionist, so I really wanted to make lessons as engaging as possible. When I’ve been given a topic that I have no immediate idea how to teach, I’ve had to really think about the resources I’ll use and how to explain the topic. As I’ve had to think hard about what I’m doing, I feel these lessons have been some of my best. Tutor Trust can support you in this – the online resource platform (Thinqi) is an amazing resource for tuition.

“Tutoring has also massively improved my time-management. Planning your own lessons means you need to allocate time towards the job, which for me, was different to working in catering where I would go into work, complete my shift, and be finished. I found the extra responsibilities of lesson planning helpful as I feel I’m more productive in my university work when I have more responsibilities. The fact I knew I was making a difference for the students motivated me further to handle multiple responsibilities at once.

“My favourite thing about tutoring is seeing the progress students can make in a short time. I remember when I was planning my first lesson, I wondered if the effort I was putting in was going to pay off. It does! When you’re tutoring small groups and focusing on specific topics, it’s easy to help your students to make progress. 

“As I’ve mentioned, Tutor Trust is a great charity to work for because they’re incredibly supportive. They offer extensive training and countless opportunities to further your professional development. Recently, I’ve trained in Primary tuition to give myself more opportunities to tutor, and got involved in the Brand Ambassador programme to talk to prospective applicants about the charity.

“For anyone interested in tuition, I’d 100% recommend to just go for it! The application is very straight forward. If you get an interview, you’ll need to give a short mock lesson, which isn’t daunting at all, and even if it is for you, everyone who works for the charity are super nice and approachable.”