This week, we welcomed our first ever cohort of tutors who have received training entirely online. A total of 125 tutors will be joining us, supporting disadvantaged children and young people across Greater Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool. 

Our organisation has had to work tirelessly this year to shift all aspects of our work online, from tutoring services to recruitment to the training of our new tutors. Due to the ongoing restrictions of social distancing, Tutor Trust’s usual programme of in-person training for newly recruited tutors will remain online for the foreseeable future.  

Our new training programme consists of online learning tasks that can be completed remotely, engagement with pre-recorded material and live sessions carried out over Zoom. Tutors are still required to attend 10 hours of training before they are able to take on assignments. These ten hours ensure they have all the knowledge on their subject, age group and how to carry out the highest quality tutoring. 

Across the 3 and a half weeks that the full training programme lasts, tutors watch approximately 25 of our video tutorials, which give detailed information to prepare them for tutoring. They also answer 75 quiz questions along the way to assess and reinforce their knowledge. These are accessed through Thinqi,  our brand new interactive online learning platform, which 96% rated ‘good’ or ‘excellent’. Feedback opportunities are provided throughout, with a live Q&A session with Tutor Trust staff taking place at the end. 

 

Tutors completing their final stage of online training.

We spoke to new tutor Joe Clarke, a Philosophy and Politics student at the University of Manchester who will be tutoring Alternative Provision and LAC pupils, about how the training went:  

“The training was kept interactive and well structured, with the live sessions providing an important means of connection between tutors and staff as much as is possible in these times.” 

Like many of our new tutors, Joe applied to work for us after seeing the extent of educational inequality that exists in this country, especially after school closures earlier this year: 

“With the current trend of widening disparity in educational attainment between pupils from different social groups, it seems like now is a hugely important time to be doing such work, and its great to be part of an organization that shares such positive goals.” 

Good luck to Joe and all our new tutors who have taken part in our first ever programme of online training; we are delighted it has been such a success and look forward to seeing even more recruits over the academic year.