How to Become a GCSE Tutor

As a compulsory level of exams that have been sat by millions of students, GCSEs provide a continual stream of new students for tutors to work with. Acting as a job that offers a new stream of work every year, tutoring is a reliable and financially attractive career path to pursue.

Whether you want to become a GCSE tutor as a full-time job or just something you do on the side to earn a little bit more on the weekends, tutoring can be a highly lucrative career to get into. With practically no barriers to entry apart from traditional education, top tutors can earn upwards of £50,000 a year.

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But how does one actually become a GCSE Tutor? In this article, we’ll outline the three steps you’ll need to follow. We’ll discuss:

• Deciding on Your Subjects
• Finding a Platform
• Passing the Interviews

Let’s get right into it!

Deciding on Your Subjects

Everyone, no matter who you are, had a favourite subject or two in school. Whether you fell into the maths group or the English crowd, it was likely that you always performed better in certain subjects than others. Typically, for those searching questions like ‘How to become a GCSE tutor’, you have also probably continued your education to a higher level.

By assessing your own pathway in education, the subjects that you want to offer at GCSE level might become fairly obvious. If you did A-level English and then a degree in English Literature, you’re probably best equipped to tackle Great Expectations and Hamlet in GCSE and A-level tuition rather than someone that studied maths at university.

When you’re working out which subjects you can tutor, always go for what you know. If you want to offer additional subjects alongside those you’ve studied for the longest amount of time, the generally accepted condition is that you should have done one level above what you’re offering.

That means that if you want to be a GCSE Maths tutor or GCSE English tutor, then you should have done either A-level Maths or A-level English. Going beyond this, if you’re looking to teach A-level, then you should have a degree in that subject (or at least be working towards one!)

The first step of becoming an IGCSE tutor is to outline what you can teach - with your own education always being the first place you go to make that decision. Teach what you’re best at!

A GCSE Tutor Needs a Platform

Ten years ago, being a GCSE tutor was a much harder career path as you would actively have to go out and find new opportunities. Either by advertising in local cafes or getting permission from local schools, you’d have to work to find new students to tutor.

This is far from the case in 2022, with online GCSE tutors being more common than ever before. Even back in 2019, there were over 10,000 full-time online tutors, using online tuition platforms to find students.

Platforms like TutorChase have a continual influx of new leads, bringing students that are in need of support to the tutors that have the required skills to teach them. The ease of online tuition is a huge advantage for both students and tutors, with neither one ever having to commute to a session or work hard to find each other.

If you’re looking to become a IGCSE tutor or a GCSE Tutor, then you should sign up to TutorChase, using the online network they provide to find new clients and launch your tutoring career.

Passing the Interviews

When signing up to any tutoring platform in the UK, there are often a set of questions to answer, as well as an interview to get through. These questions are normally about your education, as well as your specific background in the field that you want to tutor. This is also where you’ll detail what subjects you can teach.

After going through a couple of questions about your passion for the subject and your expertise within maths, English, science, or whatever you want to tutor, you’ll then be asked to give a short example of how you teach.

This commonly includes putting a question up on the shared lesson space and then talking your interviewer through how you would teach the question, explaining the logic behind the question and exactly how you would go about teaching a student how to answer it.

While every interview is different, it’s important to remember that one of the main things that tutoring companies are looking for in their new GCSE tutor hires is a genuine passion for the subject they’re going to teach. The vast majority of applicants will have an A* or an A in the subject they want to teach, as well as a degree or further study in that area.

What sets applicants apart is showing a visible passion for the subject, with that always being half the battle. Always demonstrate how much you love your subject and try and come across as friendly - after all, no one wants a solemn GCSE tutor.

Final Thoughts on Becoming a GCSE Tutor

For those that are still in education or those that are considering continuing on to a master's or PhD, tutoring is one of the best possible careers that you can select. Not only does it offer you flexibility, allowing you to choose when you want to teach, but the additional online element ensures that you can tutor from the comfort of your home.

Going beyond that, being a GCSE tutor is a valuable experience as you’re actively shaping the future of a student’s studies. The difference between a C and a D in GCSE or an A or an A* at A-level can radically shift the future potential options of pursuit that a student has. When you become a GCSE tutor, you’re included in that process, helping to create future opportunities for your students.

If you’re looking to take the leap and become a GCSE tutor, then apply to TutorChase today.