How Josie transformed her experience as a tutor into a new career

We spoke to Josie about how her tutoring experience opened her eyes to the opportunities that becoming a teacher could offer.

Before becoming a volunteer tutor with Action Tutoring, I’d never seriously considered teaching as a career path. But before long, tutoring rekindled my love for English and showed me how fulfilling working with young people can be.  

Rewarding work

One of my biggest highlights as a tutor was when my pupils received their GCSE results. It was so rewarding to know that the pupils I’d been working with and had gotten to know really well could start on the next part of their journey because they achieved the grades they needed.  

Most importantly, Action Tutoring gave me an insight into the importance of how every child should be entitled to a good education in order to get the right qualifications that they need for their next steps. Teach First and Action Tutoring's missions completely align with each other, so working with Action Tutoring gave me valuable knowledge about education inequality in the UK, and the different strategies that can be used to address this.

'My experience as a tutor taught me so much'

I referred to my volunteering experience with Action Tutoring a lot during the application process for Teach First. It gave me many ways to talk about things like working with young people and dealing with pressure.  

My experience as a tutor taught me so much. I learned how to motivate pupils who were struggling with low confidence, how to develop rapport with young people and gave me an insight into the current GCSE English curriculum, which has proven to be invaluable in my current role as a Teach First trainee. And there really is nothing better than seeing that lightbulb moment when a pupil finally 'gets it’!  

Ready to take a step towards your future? Apply for the Training Programme today.