Be a tutor
Important notice: the Victorian Government requires any person providing coaching or tuition services of any kind for children to obtain a Working with Children Check
Where to find a job as a tutor
Careers Online
Careers & Employment advertises over 1,800 tutoring jobs each year via the Careers Online job database.
Tutoring agencies
- Tutoring agencies can be found in the Yellow Pages under Tuition – Education. Many also advertise in the classified section of local newspapers, under 'education'.
- You register with the agency and they match you with a student. Some of them advertise on Careers Online
- Some agencies charge a registration fee, which does not guarantee that you will get work. Find out under what circumstances you can get your money back if they do not provide you with any work.
Schools
- Approach some of the schools in your local area-they might allow you to place a flyer on a noticeboard, or an advertisement in their school newsletter.
- Approaching some of your old teachers and let them know that you are available to tutor students-they may be able to recommend you to their current students.
Applying for and accepting a job as a tutor
Applying for a tutoring job usually would involve speaking to the person or the person's parent initially by phone.
- Treat this like any job interview and prepare.
- Determine the goals and expectations of the tutoring and discuss how you can meet those expectations
- Have a copy of your current resumé in front of you when you make the phone call in case the person asks you any questions about what you have done in the past.
- Think about how you would tutor the student-specifically the methods you would adopt.
- Make sure you have suitable referees, such as people you have tutored or worked for in the past, or a teacher you have studied under.
If you both want to proceed after the initial phone conversation, organise a meeting in a neutral location such as a library or a café to discuss the arrangements.
- Before you go to the meeting, make an agreement as to whether or not you will be paid for it.
- Discuss in detail how and what you are going to do in the tutoring sessions.
- It is best not to start tutoring the student at this meeting, as you will need time afterwards to start planning the tutoring sessions.
- Discuss how long the arrangement will last.
- Set up a tutoring contract that states the responsibilities and expectations of what will be done by the tutor, the student and the parent. Include things like how much you will be paid, notice periods for cancelling or rescheduling a lesson and where and when the tutoring will take place.
Tip - don't make promises you can't meet: Don’t make any promises that you cannot possibly meet –such as saying that you can get the student into medicine, or achieve an ENTER score of 99.
How much should I be paid?
You should refer to the table that shows the current rates of pay for tutors as to a guideline of what to expect in terms of remuneration.
Do I have to pay tax?
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) can provide you with information on how you can declare money that you have received from tutoring and how to pay any taxes that may apply. Go to the ATO website or call them on 13 2861.
Tip - keep a logbook!- A logbook can be useful as an employment record, so when you apply for other tutoring work in the future you can demonstrate what you have done in the past.
- It is also good to keep a record of the students that you have tutored, in case any problems arise in the future, or if you need to contact the student.
- Your log book should record the date and time that the tutoring took place, who you tutored, their contact details (such as address and/or phone number), and what happened during the lesson (eg. explained how to...).