Are there any flexible or PT jobs around?

[Kefybaby]

Your help please, wise MNers.
DH has been a SAHD for over a couple of years - partly forced (redundancy followed by challenging jobs market) partly by choice (with 2 preschool children it made sense).
One of the DC is now in school and the other is at nursery two days a week. Although DH still needs to do a fair bit of childcare (school runs plus taking DC1 to after school classes, in addition to looking after DC2 when not in nursery) it feels like the time is right for him (and us - my bank account is hurting!) to get back into some form of employment.
Question is: are there any flexible or PT jobs around? Having done a fair bit of research we are a bit stuck... DH is in the creative industries although in a saturated and badly paid field with few opportunities around unless one has a good contacts network (which DH does not have). He is however quite versatile and open to other ideas.
Where can he look that would allow him to work during school hours and/ or in the evening and/ or full days 2-3 days a week?

retail... evenings and weekends are always being touted round here. minimum wage though... but for anyone willing to slog who has professional background, it can be quick to get to management.

Professional job wise - probably best taking his skills and freelancing or starting a business.

Can he teach his skills? tutor? colleges offer creative type stuff often only in the evenings?

Now my girls are at secondary I mix "a proper job" with tutoring (lucrative and mentally rewarding) - the tutoring I picked up slowly as and when I had time available. Home schoolers often want some group tutoring in the daytimes too - when DC2 at nursery.

Anything he's interested in - photography, website design, where he could freelance? even teaching on adult learning classes? Check out the casual tutor vacancies at your local FE college?

Have you looked at people per hour not used it but sounds good.

Great ideas! Please keep them coming in.
The tricky bit for us is implementation. For example, how does one go about building a clients base for freelancing? Or how does one find students to tutor/ teach instrument to/ teach IT skills to?
Are there any sectors that are a bit easier to tackle (retail has been mentioned for example)?
People per hour unfortunately tends to pay next to nothing as there are a lot of people (often overseas) who are prepared to bid a significantly low price.

If DP is willing to work evenings/nights and weekends - great for childcare sharing so long as the other partner does not have to go away with work -

then can suggest :
retail, warehouse packing, night care, hospital portering/night reception, hotel night reception, security, bar work, out of hours cleaning, piece work - curtains/blinds/knitting machine etc

all minimum wage or thereabouts - though NHS and councils have a tendency now to pay "living wage" which takes you up a pound an hour...

As a tutor, I found students by putting an ad in the local magazines - including the church parish magazine (I don't go to church, but they will take the heathens silver...) - then after I got 2 or 3, word of mouth took over. Rates round here are between £20 and £30 per hour - but really half that if you include the prep and marking time.

The kids piano teacher just puts his ad in the parish mag. £25 an hour - he comes to us.

Only thing you have to do is contact the tax man and say you are self employed, and get insurance (not expensive or hard to find). I give jewellery making courses at the local tech too sometimes - any local adult education colleges recruit between now and summer usually... get their name in there.. wages around £12-£15 an hour for that - BUT it ends up about minimum wage when you take into account preparation hours too.

If he's willing to teach retired people how to use their IT, then there's a BIG demand for it. Put notices in the library, in the local shops, and - as suggested above - in the local Churches Magazines. Then there's the retirement villages and sheltered housing blocks he could leaflet or put a notice on either their communal noticeboard or their magazine. There's a big market out there, and hours to suit. Once he's started with a few, then

In response to your earlier question after my first post, tons of tutoring agencies, or contact FE colleges directly.

Thank you for taking the time to help. Quite a few good pointers there. I am sure it is not as simple as it sounds but I am hopeful that it will get easier over time. Freelancing has been a bit of an uphill struggle so far.

I think a lot of it is to do with a good percentage of luck and that good old right place/right time thing. Once you get registered with an agency (maybe look at the nationals, hays, Randstad and the like?) and through the hoops you (he) need to jump through with refs, DBS and the like, the work is actually plentiful and well paid ime. Good luck

I'd second the teaching/tutoring route as you can fit around kids, school etc. my aunty does this might be of interest if your hubby speaks a language havealookatthis

Yes, tutor work is beginning to sound like a good idea. DH does not speak a foreign language (well, not beyond some basics) but he could teach IT skills, a musical instrument or young kids (eg maths, English or art). A bit if good luck would be great at the beginning!

Might be worth looking into doing a cert ed (teaching qual) - you can't really get work teaching children without QTS so stick with 16+ FE age range?

Is a QTS required for tutoring as well as teaching in schools, Jemima?

QTS not necessary for teaching in FE /adults / leisure courses and the like, they far prefer "real" experience Only needed for teaching in compulsory ed age ranges, so up to 16 afaik. The tutoring agencies I work for only take trained teachers for working with children but do take on a huge number of people for learning support and tutoring of other sorts. Music is a pretty good one as are running courses for silver surfers, art and the like. Massive adult ed market.

Many thanks for the quick response, Jemima!

I tutor kids - outside of school hours, and homeschooled during hours.

I do not work through an agency or have a teaching qualification - only agencies and schools seem to care, parents will soon stop using you if you are no good at what you do.

Thanks, Somewhere. Did you benefit from any "train the trainer" type courses that you would recommend? Or is it wisdom from endless homework assistance plus websites and books ?

When I did adult recreation courses at the local college, they did a compulsory 2 hour training course - apart from that it has been wing it all the way... with a bit lot of net research to keep teaching materials current.

To work in any environment or organisation which gets government funding such as SFA or FE college you would need some form of teaching qualification although for teaching over19s/adults that could be a C&G Preparing to Teach in Lifelong Sector course or equivalent which takes around 50 hours. For literacy and numeracy you might need specialist training in addition.

once again!