How Students Can Prepare for Christmas Amid the Cost-of-Living Crisis?

As students continue to battle rising living costs – with energy and food bills soaring, heightened rent prices and University Maintenance Loans not bridging the gap between money spent and that coming in – many are struggling to offset the growing cost of being a student today. According to research by Save the Student, living costs for students are up 14% since last year and experts have predicted that they will need an extra £439 per month to bridge the gap. Particularly with the festive season approaching – as socialising, eating out and gifting can quickly cause us to go over our monthly budget – many students may be looking towards part-time work, to be self-sufficient and make the most of their Christmas break. MyTutor – the UK’s most trusted tutoring platform – offers students a flexible and fulfilling role, which allows them to make money, gain CV-boosting skills, and even get that warm fuzzy feeling of helping others – but how can you become a tutor, and what skills are needed?

How to become a tutor at MyTutor:

Share your skills with kids who really need it
You’ll be making a real difference by tutoring school kids who might not otherwise be able to afford a tutor like you.

Earn while you study
With the chance to take home from £11.50-£30 an hour, MyTutor pays more than your average uni job – and it doesn’t involve mopping up beer…

It’s perfect for your CV
You don’t need any qualifications to join! Become a tutor and you’ll develop your communication, planning, and organisation skills – all things your future employer will love.

It’s flexible, fulfilling and fits into your schedule
Juggling university, part-time work, hobbies and a social life can be tricky. Luckily at MyTutor we make it easy to find online tutoring jobs, so you can work as much or as little as you like.

MyTutor support you all the way
Online tutoring jobs needn’t be stressful – MyTutor finds the pupils so you don’t have to, give you loads of helpful training and lesson resources, and is always on hand to answer your questions (or just give you a well-deserved pat on the back)!

The skills needed:

Calmness and patience
Your tutees may not always understand a concept from the get-go, or even after you’ve explained it a few times. Everyone’s unique, and the way they come to understand something might differ from the way you originally came to understand it. It’s important that you’re able to remain calm when this happens, and be patient in trying different avenues of explanation in order to help them. The fact they’re having tuition in the first place could mean that they’re not very confident with the subject matter. Getting frustrated isn’t going to help them, or you…let’s be honest, as a uni student you probably have enough going on as it is! Being calm and patient will help them to feel safe. In addition, you can help them effortlessly grasp what they’re struggling with.

Being organised and motivated
Always early to the party? This one’s for you. Tutees and parents will be relying on you to show up on time and prepared for the lesson ahead – it goes without saying that being organised and motivated are essential to this. No one wants to start their lesson only to be greeted with an empty lesson space, or a lesson where not even the tutor knows what’s going on! Especially when everyone has so much going on outside their time-slotted session. By showing up on time, you’ll help build and maintain a great rapport with your student; which you’ll learn is super important to helping someone to succeed.

Strong communication and positivity
You need to be able to articulate ideas and knowledge. As I mentioned earlier, these might not come easily to the tutee, so the ability to clearly communicate and remain positive in the face of any challenges or misunderstandings will be crucial to their learning journey. You’ll also be expected to communicate with parents eventually, which is a form of customer service. By its very nature, it includes being able to communicate well. This will pay off – better customer service, happier customers and good reviews.

Time management
Last but not least, we have time management. Not only will you need to be able to manage time in terms of planning lessons (which fall under being organised), but you’ll also need to manage time during lessons. It doesn’t take long for an hour to fly by, and your tutee will be relying on you to make the most of their time. Keeping activities to an appropriate time (which may be different for each student!) is key.