Making a difference as a private tutor
It’s fair to say I know the value of a great education. You’d be forgiven for thinking that’s an obvious point of view, bearing in mind I’m a professional private tutor.
Like many students, and like many young men in particular, I was on course to be distinctly below average in terms of academic achievement. It wasn’t that I lacking intelligence, rather that my energy was focused elsewhere.
You see, I was going to be a professional cricketer. I’d decided that was what I wanted and it was simply going to happen. Therefore, all this exam nonsense was just getting in the way.
Two things happened that brought me crashing to earth with a mighty bump. The first was the realisation that I wasn’t going to make the grade in professional sport. The second was the disaster that was my GCSE experience.
Yes, I had to re-sit my exams and do it the hard way. It was in college that I was fortunate enough to have the most engaging and inspirational tutor. He believed in me and I started to believe in myself and my own abilities.
Several years later I left the University of Cambridge with a PhD and nobody knows how different it could have been more than me.
That’s one of the reasons I decided to commit to a career as a full-time private tutor. I’d supported myself through university tutoring students and undergraduates and I loved it. After a spell working in the City I realised that I wanted to get back to my passion of teaching and all this time later, here I am, one of the most successful private tutors in the UK.
Realising how close I came to missing out on my calling altogether, I also work with The Access Project. It’s an organisation whose mission is to help as many students as possible to gain access to the help they need to thrive academically.
It’s something I love to do and gladly give my time for free. As rewarding as I find my career, being able to provide pro bono services to those that would otherwise simply miss out on getting a much needed break, feels very special to me indeed.
That’s another reason that whilst we are undoubtedly a premium supplier of tuition, we are ensuring that we’re making even our regular services as accessible as possible, to as many families as possible.
Exciting times lie ahead for MST and all associated with us. So, watch this space!