23rd March 2018 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Our interviews always seem to surprise prospective tutors. They’re only ten minutes long, and lots of tutors still expect us to ask them to teach a short lesson. We stopped doing this a few years ago for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Tutoring Standards began, and their tutoring assessment is similar to what we used to do, but it’s better and more thorough, so we would rather our tutors did that. Also, we realised that so many tutors apply to us with no experience, and it’s unfair to judge them on their tutoring ability at that point; they will develop so much over the first few lessons.
So what’s the point of our interviews? We want to make sure we’re taking on tutors who have the potential to be brilliant, even if they’re brand new to tutoring. In truth there are so many aspects of our interview which are important parts of being a tutor. Turning up on time, well presented and knowing how to greet a stranger is exactly what tutors do when they meet a student (or the students parents) for the first time, and that first impression is often a deciding factor for whether the student continues to have further lessons.
We ask our tutors to read Tutoring Standards’ pedagogy prior to the interview, and be ready to discuss it. Obviously we want our tutors to read this so they understand how to tutor, but this also shows us whether the tutor can follow instructions and whether he/she is organised. A large part of being a tutor is preparing well for a lesson and being diligent with admin. When we discuss the pedagogy we’re also looking for the tutor to identify that he/she can improve his/her skills and isn’t already perfect.
We don’t think that our interview is ‘difficult’ and the impression a lot of tutors give is that it’s straightforward and can feel like a formality. This is deliberate, but those tutors are the ones who are diligent, organised and keen to learn, and they’re the tutors we want.