Dear All,
Following another post I placed in a Mumsnet thread which mentioned GoStudent, I thought that some of you might be interested in having more information before you make any choices about tutoring for your child.
I have been a tutor on GoStudent for just over a year. This company is manned almost entirely a bunch of salesmen and entrepreneurs (not educational experts.) To be clear, the tutors are NOT employed by GoStudent. We are regarded as "freelancers" or something woolly, to allow GS to avoid paying a fair wage, or providing any benefits whatsoever.
I could type a whole essay here, but in short:
Fees you pay, and what the tutor gets
Your 30 quid for just 50 minutes? As low as just 12 of this goes to your tutor. GoStudent take around 60% of the fee. Given that these rates paid to tutors have just gone down even further, along with the abolition of basically all achievable bonuses in the last six months, means that you have a wide choice of underpaid, undervalued and VERY unhappy tutors on board. The tutors have requested meetings with management about pay, and this has been rejected out of hand by the company. The pay has not gone up (even for inflation) for over two years.
Matching your child to a tutor
They claim to do this, but do not. Requests from parents for a tutor are simply passed around WhatsApp boards for the most part, with the "Programme Managers" hoping to find anyone at all to accept the student. Anyone, it seems, will do. The "Programme Managers" are all on commission, and don't seem to care a jot (with certain exceptions.) There seem to be no educational experts left within the company, many of the PMs don't even know the names of the teaching qualifications in the UK.
Sales and parents' contracts
GS will attempt to pressure you into a contract for a minimum of six months. What they will press for the hardest is a three-YEAR one. This cannot be cancelled, and even when it expires, it turns into a three-month rolling contract from there on. This means that you'll still need to give three months' notice, even after your child has left school and no longer needs it. On the very few grounds that they allow you to cancel a contract early, they will demand personal information such as your payslips, proof of unemployment and the like.
Trial lessons, and the tutor you get
You may well get a brilliant tutor for your trial lesson, and you are convinced to join the company as a result. But they very often then deliberately allocate you to a different tutor (this never used to happen) who is on a cheaper pay-scale, despite your first tutor being still available. You won't get a choice over this.
Pausing a contract
Yes you can... but it simply adds those months onto the end of your contract.
Your lesson credits
These have to have been booked by the next month's renewal date, or you will lose them. No rolling over credits at GoStudent.
Customer Service
Appalling. There's nothing more to be said. Once they have your money, you better expect no calls back if you have a problem.
The Platform
For the most part, doesn't work. They have their own classroom called "GoClass" (that replaced Zoom) which constantly has bugs. Video not working, audio not working, interactive digital whiteboards not working, and they are completely incompatible with Apple devices.
The Communications, Tutor and Student
They have, once again, their own software (that replaced WhatsApp) for this called GoChat. Or "NoChat" as the tutors have dubbed it, because messages often never get through. As a result, lessons get missed, and communications are lost.
Safeguarding
The less said about this the better, or I may get into hot water. Ask them if they check the tutors' DBS certificates annually, for example.
Finally, sackings.
This company is as vindictive as hell towards anyone speaking out publicly, or "rocking the boat" over issues such as pay from within. I have been summarily sacked this week (along with five others) for joining the protest against the company changing the rules over trial sessions and pay at just six days' notice for the tutors (they now get nothing for these, and are expected to act as "Salesmen" to get the student to take out a contract.) I had the temerity to send "poo emojis" on the internal message boards at such announcements, and was sacked with immediate effect by phone. Not only that, it was demanded that I do not speak to any students, parents or fellow tutors following my dismissal. They must be joking.
Please everybody, there are many platforms. Better platforms. More reliable platforms. Cheaper platforms. Go elsewhere.
Best Wishes, and thank you for reading,
An ex-GS tutor, who is now VERY happy indeed to do my tuition privately, not through this bunch of sharks.