Most of us have skills and talents that others wish to learn. Or we have proficiency in some academic subject or profession that could prove useful to others. If you have any of these, I would suggest you to become a tutor and make a lot of money online and offline.
You might wonder whether you have the skills necessary to become a good and successful tutor. Actually, most of us have them but never put them to use.
Therefore, in this article, I will discuss how to become a tutor and provide tips to be a good tutor.
But you might be wondering, why should I become a tutor? There’re several good reasons. First, it helps you make a lot of money and second, it keeps you away from unemployment.
And if you believe that I’m fibbing, here’re some facts and figures that might convince you to become a tutor.
Facts & Figures about Tutoring
Let’s begin by talking about the year 2020. You’d definitely know the first few months of 2020 were taken up by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Disease-2019 or Covid-19 pandemic.
As a result, all schools, colleges, universities, training centers and other educational institutions had to down shutters due to government restrictions to contain a larger contagion.
However, prolonged closure forced these educational institutions and students to look for other avenues of learning. Online learning was the clear winner since it allows the highly necessary social distancing, self-isolation and self- quarantine. Online learning also dispenses with the need to commute or travel to distant locations to complete a course.
According to earlier projections, the global online learning or e-learning market would be worth $325 billion by 2025. Following the Covid-19 pandemic, this figure now stands at $500 billion, with bulk of growth expected in 2020 and 2021.
A total of 77.84 percent respondents surveyed by World Economic Forum (WEF) said, they had taken at least some form of online tutoring.
This clearly indicates that online learning and online tutoring is on the upswing. And if you wish to benefit from this surge, here’re some excellent tips on how to become a tutor.
8 Ways to Become a Tutor
There’re are two ways to become a tutor.
- Online: meaning you’ll train one or more students through various e-learning platforms.
- Offline: by visiting educational institutions as fulltime or part-time tutor.
Both the online and offline options allow you to work fulltime or part-time. This depends upon your skills as well as time and effort you can dedicate for this work.
Therefore, let’s start with the online option first.
How to Become an Online Tutor
Becoming an online tutor is actually quite simple. It depends upon what you want to teach and your personal teaching skills. You may also require certifications.
1. Online Learning Platforms
There’re lots of e-learning platforms where you can sign-up to become an online tutor. They allow you to conduct classes through live video streaming using special software.
Some of these e-learning platforms offer simple courses such as school level English, math, science and others. A few specialize in college and university subjects. Some also feature highly advanced professional courses such as those required for skills upgrade of engineering, medicine or law professionals among others.
And there are others where you can also become a tutor for various skills and hobbies including cooking, fitness, meditation and wine tasting among others.
The type of job you can take as online tutor would depend upon the website. Some websites require you to be native English speaker and hold relevant teaching degrees from reputed colleges and universities. And they will also require tutors that have some teaching experience.
These websites enable you to make a lot of money. In fact, quite a few online tutors have become millionaires because they can teach a subject that’s in high demand to a large foreign audience.
Nowadays, most online learning platforms focus on students in China. That’s because school and college students in China wish to learn English the way natives speak. And they’re also interested in learning school and college subjects taught in USA and other countries.
2. Online Courses
Online courses are also available from online learning platforms but differ in one major feature. Online courses needn’t necessarily have live video streams. Instead, you can create an online course with audio, video and text material and upload on these platforms such as Udemy.
If you want to become a tutor but don’t have the necessary certifications, it’s still possible to create an excellent online course and sell through various websites. To do so, you’ll require sound knowledge about the subject and have that special skill necessary for teaching.
There’s no shortage of subjects on which you can make online courses. These can be anything from stamps and coins collecting to something as complex as teaching different techniques to treat rare medical conditions.
You can become an online tutor if you have perfect knowledge about any field. In fact, online Yoga, cooking and fitness courses saw a high demand during the lockdowns caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
That’s because people around the world were trying to find ways and means to while away their time and stay fit due to the necessity to remain indoors.
3. Online Classes for Educational Institution
The Internet opens several vistas for online education. One of them is the facility for reputed educational institutes to hire tutors from around the world. Video conferencing and webinar hosting make this possible.
You can also find jobs as online tutor for one or more such educational institutions, if you possess the skills they require. Nowadays, most classrooms around the world are facing acute shortage of experienced faculty members. You can fill this demand by becoming an online tutor in your field of specialization.
To join an educational institution as online tutor, it would be necessary to have proper degrees and certifications. Moreover, it would also help if you have an excellent reputation in any field.
4. Own Website
And finally, you can also become an online tutor by opening own website. It’s fairly simple to open a membership website. This means, only paying members have access to your online tutoring material and classes.
Here, it’s important to protect yourself against piracy. Unfortunately, there’re lots of unscrupulous organizations and individuals that can copy your online courses and get a patent registered on their name. This means, you can lose the right to teach the course as online tutor because some other party has stolen your copyrights.
How to Become Offline Tutor
If you find online tutoring a bit complicated, it’s also possible to become a private tutor offline. There’re various distinct ways to become a tutor offline.
1. Faculty Member
Join any school, college, educational institution to work as faculty member. This means, you’ll be a fulltime tutor for one or more subjects, as the case may be.
2. Home Tutor
The Covid-19 pandemic and self-quarantine also proved that home tutoring and home schooling works best. You can become a tutor offline by providing lessons for students who wish to study at home.
3. Coaching Classes
It’s also possible to conduct coaching classes at your home or other premises to become a tutor offline. Generally, school students lagging in a particular subject and foreign students require coaching classes.
4. Visiting or Part-Time Faculty
Another excellent way to become an offline tutor is by taking up a job as visiting or part-time faculty member. This means, you’ll visit an educational institute on a few occasions only. Usually, people with excellent academic qualifications and experience find jobs as visiting faculty members.
Tips to Become Good, Successful Tutor
It’s worth remembering that success as a tutor- both online and offline- depends upon your personal skills and knowledge. Therefore, here’re some tips to become a good and successful tutor.
Use Simple Language: The simplest way to become a good and successful tutor is to use simple language to teach students. Not everyone you’ll teach has that superb command over the English vocabulary. Therefore, all you need to do is make yourself understood to the students.
Make Learning Fun: Another tip to become a good and successful tutor is by adding fun to your lessons and teaching. People tend to learn faster when they enjoy a tutoring session. You can add fun o your lessons by telling stories, using anecdotes and quotes by famous people.
Be Interactive: Engaging your students is highly essential if you wish to become a good and successful teacher. And the only way to do so is by allowing students to ask as many questions as they like. You can allow a few minutes for the interactive session or tell students to ask questions if they don’t understand something.
Maintain Strict Schedules: If you’ll be tutoring online or offline, schedules are very important. You cannot arrive late at the virtual or physical classroom. After all, students and the educational institutes are paying for your time. And they’ve also other engagements to meet. Therefore, make it a point to start your tutoring on time.
Use Illustrations: Psychology has proven that students tend to remember a lesson better when it’s supported by visuals. Therefore, use interesting illustrations in the form of pictures, graphics, charts and videos that will drive home the lesson you’re teaching. This would definitely make you an excellent and successful tutor.
Closing Thoughts
Becoming a tutor is one of the simplest things you can do, if you possess the skills and knowledge. In fact, it’s one of the best work-from-home jobs nowadays, when people are increasingly giving up on commutes. You too can become part of the multi-billion Dollar industry by becoming a tutor.
