Tutoring in HK

[cherielee]

Hey,

I'm going to be moving to HK in October. I am TEFL qualified, I have a BA in English literature, I am a chinese born Canadian and I have one year of teaching under my belt.

I want to know how easy is it to get into freelance tutoring? What are my best options? Am I better off going with a tutoring school? And approximately how much will I be making?

Thanks

[jmbf]

Being a good freelance tutor depends on establishing a good reputation and building up your student base. Knowledge of popular language programs and familiarity with the local curriculum (and the difficulties local kids have with English) is key.

Many tutors start off working at a language centre or school (either full-time or part-time) and then slowly start to build up their private student base on the side. If they are good, they will find their income from their private students will quickly overtake their income from the school / centre.

The tutoring industry is quite varied so different tutors will have very different experiences. I can say that if you set yourself up well, work HARD and work SMART then you can do very well.

Once established, an average freelance tutor can usually earn between 30-40K per month. Above this level, good professional tutors with an efficient setup can earn over 100K / month (or even more).

[shri]

@jmbf - was going to point her to one of the epic threads that you and a few others have contributed. Care to point to one?

[jmbf]

@jmbf - was going to point her to one of the epic threads that you and a few others have contributed. Care to point to one?

Unfortunately a lot of the threads about tutoring devolve into arguments about the legality of it and focus more on the bickering between regular posters.

My own thread here has some relevant information : https://hongkong.geoexpat.com/forum/...ead295546.html

I remember this older thread also has some useful information :
https://hongkong.geoexpat.com/forum/26/thread83561.html

[jmbf]

On a more practical note, the OP will have to decide the best way to start. As I mentioned earlier, few tutors attempt to go full-time straight away. Most require the security of guaranteed income from a language centre / school in the beginning. After that they can start to find private students.

Developing your student base requires a lot of effort in the beginning. Advertising and marketing yourself via all means is important (online, physical flyers, tutor agents, word of mouth etc etc). I'd advise trying to limit yourself to a geographical area in order to keep travelling time under control but I realise this is difficult to do in the beginning.

After some time hopefully you will have built up a decent reputation for yourself and then I would advise trying to make the shift from travel-out tutor to tutoring from home. This is a very important move to make if you want to earn really decent money and still have a sustainable and decent work / life balance. Many tutors can't / won't make this move and get stuck in the 30-40K zone that I mentioned in my other post.

Also, I can't stress enough what a difference it makes being able to tutor from home. It is like black and white when compared with travelling out to tutor. I've done both, and travelling out to a lot of students leaves you exhausted at the end of the day. Now, tutoring from home, I can easily handle 8+ teaching hours per day and still have energy for family and other things. The ability to teach in comfort, in a controlled environment and without wasting any time travelling can't be underestimated.