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TutorGroupsTM has been developed in response to the growth in demand for online tuition, and the resulting concerns over internet safety. At present online tuition largely takes place through the use of publicly available email services, and public chat rooms / forums, which are open to anyone to enter. The reality is that communication through these public services can be intercepted by anyone on the web. In addition, there is no regulation of tuition in the UK, no background checks need to be carried out on an individual who wishes to tutor, either online or face-to-face. This guide explains how TutorGroups and the TutorGroups Directory aim to improve this situation by...
- Helping you find a tutor
- Monitoring the tuition you receive
- Helping ensure your safety online
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As there is no regulation of private tuition in the UK, anyone regardless of their qualifications or background can offer their services as a tutor, and place adverts in your local paper, or telephone directory, without any background checks being carried out as to their suitability to work as a tutor. The result is a potential minefield for parents / guardians and tutees who are looking for a reputable tutor to provide professional tuition support.
Whilst a teacher/tutor can subscribe to TutorGroups to work with their existing students safely online, without the need to complete background checks. TutorGroups has also created the TutorGroups Directory a freely accessible and fully searchable online database of those subscribing teachers / tutors, who have also agreed to have their qualifications and personal backgrounds checked, prior to being listed on the TutorGroups Directory.
All Tutors listed on the TutorGroups Directory are Fully Screened before being listed on the TutorGroups Directory. The Tutor Screening process includes :
- interviews with all tutor applicants to understand their credentials, commitment, and motivation to develop a career or second career as a tutor.
- checking all tutors with the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) to ensure their suitability. The CRB will tell us of any offence through the Enhanced Disclosure process that checks both local and national records. Enhanced Disclosure differs from a standard disclosure in that it seeks allegations and complaints, not just convictions. Any tutor with relevant allegations is rejected.
- two references - one academic and one other, such as a former employer.
- examination of their passport, driving license, utility bills and birth certificate to confirm their identity and address.
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This screening process is continuous, and the progress of all ongoing tuition is monitored to make sure it is a success. If any step of this screening process is not completed to our satisfaction then we do not register or retain the tutor on the TutorGroups Directory.
Visitors to examstutor, can review the personal profiles of tutors, and request to join the tutors TutorGroup, to commence either a face-to-face or online tuition course with the tutor. There is no commitment to undertake tuition with the tutor at this stage, instead to ensure that you are making the right choice, an experienced tuition consultant, will contact you by phone within 2 working days of your enquiry, to ensure that the tuition support you require can be provided, and if you are satisfied, make arrangements with you for your first tuition session.
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1. Search for
a Tutor
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2. Request a Free
Tuition Consultation
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3. Start Tuition
Online or Face-to-Face
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 local papers and telephone directories,
do not check the personal backgrounds and qualifications of individuals wishing to advertise with them as a private tutor
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 all tutors listed on the TutorGroups Directory have completed an Enhanced Disclosure Check through the UK Governments Criminal Records Bureau, and have had their qualifications checked, prior to being listed on the TutorGroups Directory.
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Remaining Impartial
Neither Examstutor nor TutorGroups receive any commission, or other form of payment from our approved tuition provider, nor do we request any commission or payment from tutors who use TutorGroups to provide online or face-to-face tuition. No additional costs are incurred by using the TutorGroups service. The only fee we charge is a nominal one off £5 fee paid by you when you join a tutors TutorGroup, which is deducted from your first tuition fee payment, and is charged for creating and providing a TutorGroups area for you to receive tuition.
In creating TutorGroups, our aim is to provide a safer environment for tutors and tutees to work together.
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As well as ensuring the quality of the TutorGroups online tuition environment, Examstutor is also committed to ensure the quality of the tuition that takes place through the TutorGroups service. That is why we have chosen to team up exclusively with our approved tuition provider, a leading provider of face-to-face tuition in the UK, who have over 28 years experience working with tutors, parents and tutees. They work with us exclusively to ensure that all tutors using TutorGroups, have been fully screened, they also monitor all tuition that takes place through TutorGroups, to ensure that it is of the highest standard. If any concerns are raised by tutees, parents or guardians regarding the quality of tuition being provided, these concerns will be fully investigated and if necessary a new tutor will be assigned. Any tutor not meeting the high standards set, will be removed from TutorGroups.
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In addition, payment for any tuition provided is managed by our approved tuition provider, who pay tutors directly on a monthly basis, and collect payment from you for any tuition that has been provided. This ensures that your payment details are not held by the tutor, and your relationship with your tutor can be entirely educational focusing completely on the tuition being provided.
This payment process has also been designed to avoid the need for you to make payments to tutors directly online, and thus eliminates the need for you to provide tutors with your personal credit card details. Instead a number of payment methods are provided, which include postal billing and payment.
Full details of all payment options will be provided during your free initial tuition consultation, prior to you signing up to receive tuition through TutorGroups.
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Please Note : Examstutor receives no commission, or other form of payment from our approved tuition provider, nor do we request any commission or payment from tutors who use TutorGroups to provide online or face-to-face tuition.
No additional costs are incurred by using the TutorGroups service. The only fee we charge is a nominal £5 fee paid when you join a tutors TutorGroup, which is deducted from your first standard tuition fee payment.
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Key to TutorGroups is the aim to help to create a safer environment for online tuition to take place, which can be trusted by parents / tutees and tutors.
Privacy Online
TutorGroups is a private online environment, created specifically for online tuition, with private email, private forums, and private seminar rooms, accessible only to the Tutor and their Tutees. TutorGroups eliminates the need for tutors, and tutees, to exchange personal contact details, or meet online in public forums or chat rooms, which are accessible to anyone online.
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SSL encryption of online communication
between tutor and tutee
 TutorGroups uses the same technology used to take secure online credit card payments, to encrypt communication between tutor and tutee, helping to ensure that communication can not be intercepted and viewed by anyone other than the tutee and tutor on the web.
Dedicated Email Accounts for Tutor and tutee
Within TutorGroups each tutee has their own private @examstutor.co.uk email account, and email management system. Your TutorGroup tutor will be provided with their own private @examstutor.co.uk email account.
This helps TutorGroups ensure all email communication between tutee and tutor is secure. All email accounts reside on the TutorGroups dedicated Sever. When you email your tutor, using your @examstutor.co.uk email account the email remains within the TutorGroups Server, and does not travel round the web in the same way as a personal email account. This prevents anyone intercepting your emails online. In addition the TutorGroups Server is SSL encrypted, the same technology used to protect online credit card transactions. So when you open or send an email for any PC, your email message is encrypted, helping ensure that no one can intercept and read emails sent between tutee and tutor.
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Recording of Communication
between tutor and tutee
All communication within the Seminar Room, TutorGroups private live tuition facility, is recorded on the examstutor database, so that both tutor and tutee can revisit the content of the seminar at a latter date, and in the case of children and young adults the parent / guardian has the ability to check communication between tutor and tutee.
Online Chaperoning
TutorGroups also provide parents / guardians with the ability to access communication between tutor and tutee, allowing them to review emails received and sent by the tutee, forum postings and seminar communication, protecting both the tutee and tutor.
Enhanced Disclosure Checks
of all Tutors through the CRB
We also require that any tutor wishing to be listed in the TutorGroups Directory as being able to provide tuition support, to children and young adults, must have completed an Enhanced Disclosure Check.
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