5th February 2016 1:00
By Blue Tutors
Parents looking for private tutors in London usually have a wide range of tutors to choose from, and can sometimes make decisions from hundreds of options based on experience, qualifications and price. Whilst the demand for private tutors has risen, so have the number of tutors available, meaning that there is more choice for parents in the city than ever before. However, parents who live away from cities and transport hubs often have less choice, and sometimes struggle to find tutors. Interestingly, parents who live in students towns such as Oxford or Cambridge can also struggle to find tutors, especially around exam time.
Although student towns are rife with potential tutors, those tutors are also students themselves which can make hiring and securing a tutor an unexpected problem for many parents. Parents might assume that in Oxford and Cambridge there will be a plethora of suitable tutors available, but what they might not realise is that the work loads of many students prevent them from being available to tutor consistently throughout the year. Students at these universities are discouraged from undertaking paid work at all, and are only permitted to work a few hours each week under university regulations. Under these circumstances, how can parents best ensure that a tutor is available for their children?
The main thing to emphasise is that if Oxbridge university students are to tutor, they need to be able to plan and prepare. This means that parents looking to hire a tutor at the last minute before exams are unlikely to be able to find reliable help – students have their own exams to prepare for, and their focus will be on that. The best chance parents have of securing tuition is to plan in advance and make a long term arrangement with a tutor throughout the year. That way a schedule can be worked out that allows tutors the time they need to do their own exams, an arrangements can be made to give extra lessons at other times if necessary. Parents also need to know that term times are short, and students often live far away from their university towns in the holidays. This again will require a flexible schedule which should be worked out in advance with the tutor.