is anyone a self-employed tutor?

[careerchanger]

Hi everyone

I'm a name changer as I'm often on my Mumsnet Local site and people on there know my boss as well as me!

I'm a lecturer at a Russell Group uni, sciences. I have done plenty of teaching, to undergrads, masters students, a bit of tutoring to A level pupils while I was a PhD student. I don't have any teaching qualifications though. I volunteer in a science outreach program which I love too :)

I am increasingly realising I want to be at home more with DS and we are planning 3 DC so will be hit hard by childcare costs. I was thinking of setting up as a private tutor - A Levels, undergrads general science, specific tutoring in the statistics programs I use, advice on applying to university and interview practice, cleaning up the English of academic papers.

I have a couple of questions if there is anyone out htere who does this sort of work? Mostly - how do you pay into a pension? How many people do you see a week / month? Where do you advertise? Do you think it's viable for me or will people expect proper teaching quals? How do you manage maternity leaves?

Any other general advice very welcome. I have a job now that I enjoy in the main so no hurry!

My DH is a Maths Tutor and teaches up to 5 hours a day (between 4pm and 9pm mainly when the students have finished school, although the A level and further maths students he can see during the day) He mostly goes to them as they don't drive and their parents can't always get them to us but if any student can drive he offers them a small discount for coming to him but it means DD and i have to tiptoe around which is difficult at times but we manage.

He has a private pension and advertises in the yellow pages although word of mouth is the main advert these days. He also was approached by the local grammer schools and they recommend him now which is fab. He offers his students a £10 voucher for every student they recommend who books lessons which is a great incentive for them too.

He does not have any teaching qualifications per se but has a Masters of maths and a CRB. He also is with a couple of agents who get him some work but tries not to overbook with them as wants to make sure he has enough slots to let his own students come as no commission obviously to pay out. I would imagine you would get a statutory maternity pay (i was S/E when i had DD and got it although it's not as much as I would normally earn it was enough iyswim)

HTH

Thanks very much - that's very useful.

When you are self employed you pay Class 2 National Insurance Contributions which are currently £2.50 a week. Pay these for 6 months and you qualify for Maternity Allowance (not Statutory Maternity Pay) which is currently £128.73 a week for 39 weeks. You cannot get this if you are getting SMP though, so it may work better for you to stay employed and take maternity leave for your next child.

There is informaiton on DirectGov about personal pensions, including stakeholder pensions which may be a good solution for you.

I only have limited experience of tutoring, but here is my two penn'orth:

• It doesn't pay very well, probably due to the number of PhD students willing to do it for peanuts .
• You couldn't do it with a baby around, you would need to have kids you could leave to amuse themselves unattended for lesson periods - so probably 4+ - or have a childcare solution: an au pair could work.
• Teaching qualifications are irrelevant to most people; children get taught by people with teaching qualifications at school and if they are looking for a tutor they are obviously not getting what they need at school.

thanks very much MrA!

I am thinking of a variety of things including proofreading academic papers and PhD theses which I would also be able to do in the evenings once the DC are asleep. I have to say it's the pension problems - and mortgage limitation - which are worrying me most, otherwise I'd do it tomorrow.

thanks both for your advice.

MrA-- Teaching qualifications are irrelevant to most people; children get taught by people with teaching qualifications at school and if they are looking for a tutor they are obviously not getting what they need at school.

it's comments like this that make me see red!

I have been teaching for the best part of 35 years and working solely as a tutor for 14. Parents deem it VERY important IMO to have someone who is qualified.

It may not be so important for A levels and above, but it is for GCSE etc - for 2 reasons:
1 you have to know how to teach and plan a lesson- not just know your subject as a graduate.

1. you have to know the curriculum and exam system.

I teach dyslexic children and English to GCSE and my rate is £37 for dyslexia and £30 for GCSE etc.

If you did this for 15 hrs a week it's a reasonable income.

You can't do it with small kids around and if you do it properly then you have to prepare the lesson- not wing it when the student comes in the door- or even ask them what they want to learn!

If you want to be serious as a tutor you need to have a professional approach to it as reputation tends to bring more pupils.

Sorry, perhaps I did not express myself well.

I was talking about A-level not GCSE, as this is what the OP was talking about.

I was speaking as a parent, not a tutor, and for me and the (A-level) students and parents that I know, qualified teacher status is actually a turn-off. I should perhaps have said that this is limited to my experience which is in science subjects, like the OP, where experience of how examiners apply marking schemes is less important than the ability to impart knowledge of complex topics in a way that is different to that used in the classroom.