We sat down with one of our tutors Shyam to allow him to share both his experiences as a tutor and to get to know him better.

Essential Bio

Name: Shyam Chandarana

Age: 22

Course: BSc Enviromental Sciences

Likes: "The Best Movie in the World - Treasure Planet"

Dislikes: People who chew with their mouth open

Joined The Tutor Trust: Septemerber 2015

Subjects: Secondary Maths and Primary English and Maths

Interesting fact: I was raised in Tanzania - Before moving back to England the only reference I had to education here was Harry Potter

How did you first hear about us?

I heard about The Tutor Trust through my university careers service.  I applied online and was the epitome of charm in the interview. I think Lewis (The School's Coordinator) was particularly impressed

Why did you choose to join?

I joined because I already had experience tutoring and thought I'd be a good asset to the tutor trust mission to bridge the attainment gap through quality tutoring.  Having benefited from tutoring myself, I knew the difference a personal tutor could make to a student.

Was working for The Tutor Trust what you thought it would be?  What was your biggest misconception?

That I'd be teaching.  While that's true to an extent, our role as tutors are to supplement and provide guidance in a way that is more personal than a teacher could achieve teaching the whole class.

What has been your biggest challenge to date as a tutor?

Biggest difficulty was trying to get a frustrated student to wrap his head around a topic.  You could tell that he struggled with it before and the thought of doing what he hated on a 1:1 session with me clearly didn't sit well with him.  Eventually I overcame this by teaching the topic using a narrative I learned off Youtube.

During our busy recruitment period in October you came and helped at the office with some administrative work - what did you learn about what goeson in the Manchester Office?

I learned that there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes to keep schools on board and to work out the logistics of scheduling tuition.  The office team work really hard, and really care about both the tutors and charity.  However DBS checks, and the paper work involved is a headache!

You were invited to attend the Spirit of Manchester Awards with us, how did you feel to be invited and be there when we won in our category?

Ah it was such an honour and a humbling experience.  That all these people did so much for other people who wouldn't have had the chance to better their situation and on top of that they did it voluntarily.  During 2016's most turbulent times times the good vibes in that room reminded me that there's always good people working to make the world better in their own small way.  Also meeting his Worshipful, The Lord Mayor of Manchester was amazing!  It blew my mind how down to earth and approachable he was inspite of wearing such an imposing gold chain!