Our mission is to transform lives through tutoring, and that means ensuring as many young people as possible have access to a great Tutor Trust tutor. 

With that in mind we launched our most ambitious recruitment drive ever last summer to recruit 650 new tutors – double the 325 we’d recruited the previous year – so that we can continue to meet the growing demand from schools in the Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds city regions. 

And since July last year, when we held the first of this academic year’s 10 recruitment rounds, it has been non-stop! Since then we have: 

• Spent 792.5 hours (that’s the equivalent of a mammoth 33 days working round the clock!) on Zoom interviews with would-be tutors.  
• Had 660 tutors accepted at interview, of whom 587 have already completed their training. The majority are already on assignments, supported by the Qualified Teachers on our team and a wealth of resources and materials on our online training platform, Thinqi. 

Our new tutors have, between them: 

• Taken part in 75 live training sessions.
• Completed 5,870 hours of online training.

An additional 187 tutors completed transfer training, which means they are able to tutor in a second subject. 

Abigail Shapiro, Co-Founder and Executive Director, said that the response from enthusiastic would-be tutors had been phenomenal.   

“It’s our biggest recruitment drive ever and the quality of applications we received was exceptional.  We had a target to recruit 650 new tutors this academic year, and we achieved it.   

“As always, we had lots of applications from current students, but we also had more than usual from postgraduates and alumni from our partner universities, as well as a number of people who were already mid-way through their career.” 

One of our new recruits is Aaron Hughes (pictured right with his pet dog Benjie), who is currently undertaking his Masters in English Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University.  It was a chance conversation with another Tutor Trust tutor on a dog walk in lockdown that encouraged him to apply for the post.  He was successful at interview and completed his training in March and, since then, Aaron – who is also a qualified basketball coach – has already delivered more than 125 hours of tutoring! 

He is currently tutoring groups of Year 7 to 9 pupils at St Damian’s RC Science College in Ashton-under-Lyne and is really enjoying the experience. 

“Whilst I’ve been used to coaching people on a basketball court, and am used to helping them improve, Tutor Trust prepared me really well to support young people to learn in an academic setting. 

“I also feel really valued as a person. Tutor Trust recognise your work and commitment; as a tutor you are not just a commodity, but someone who is genuinely appreciated and supported.” 

Aaron says his experience in the classroom has cemented his decision to move into teaching for his career – and he is setting his sights high. 

“I want to do a PhD when I’m older and see myself teaching in college or a sixth form.  The end game for me is becoming a lecturer in English at university.” 

Another new recruit, Luca Rizzello (right), joined Tutor Trust in March and since then has been tutoring regularly in two Leeds schools, with a third assignment starting soon.  The University College London History graduate decided he wanted a role that would not only give him a sense of purpose but that would also give something back. Tutoring has more than fulfilled his expectations, he says. 

“It’s even more rewarding that I thought it was going to be. I had one tutee who told me that he had never felt particularly confident in expressing his opinions but that he had felt more confident since he’d been tutored.”

Luca now has his sights set on becoming a journalist. 

If you’d like to become a tutor with us, we’ll be opening recruitment again in the summer. You can find out more on our social media channels and register your interest at our recruitment pages.