Founder of private tuition agency, Tutors International, spoke out today on the background to the recruitment advert for a female private tutor in the Times Educational Supplement that sparked such a reaction amongst teachers, the public and the world’s media.
Adam Caller, who founded Tutors International in 1999, said of unexpected interest in his advertisement, which was published in the Times Educational Supplement on 11 November and reported in an article in, amongst others, The Telegraph, “I’m surprised by the attention the advert received. This certainly isn’t the first job of this type we’ve recruited for.”
Tutors International, referred to by The Good Schools Guide as the “Dom Perignon, rather than the Cava end of the [private tutoring] market”, places highly qualified full-time tutors with UHNW clients around the world. Tutors undergo a lengthy and rigorous recruitment process, and are often headhunted from existing teaching roles if they match the exacting criteria. Unlike other tutoring agencies, tutors are not assigned to jobs from a ‘pool’ of available candidates.
“We have been matching clients with private tutors for a long time, and the secret to our success is the ability to extract the particular requirements of the student, and find appropriate skills in candidates for the position. The advert in the Times Ed is typical of a Tutors International advert – it is detailed, it is exacting, and the number of candidates who fulfil the criteria will be very few,” he said.
Criticism of the job ad seems to centre around two areas. The first is that it is inferred from the language of the ad that only women need apply – giving rise to the opinion that the advert is not for a tutor at all, but actually for a British wife for the Arab gentleman. However, it also states that the role might be better suited to someone older than the client (who is 37).
Caller comments, “We even had applications from women who thought they were interviewing for marriage. There’s a very simple reason that we are recruiting a female tutor – if our client is suddenly to appear at social events, dinners, his tennis club, and is generally out and about with a man, everyone will assume he’s gay. It’s a fact, however un-PC, that that is what people will think. It will, however, pass mostly unremarked if his companion is a more mature lady.”
The second area of contention was around the idea of a wealthy Middle Eastern businessman paying to further his education with tuition, instead of, as some commenters remarked, just buying a place at Oxford University.
Mr Caller was surprised by these sentiments: “Why wouldn’t someone want to get into Oxford University on his own merit? This man left school at 19 and went straight into business. He’s become very wealthy and as such, now has the time and money to fulfil his personal and academic ambitions, which include applying to Oxford and getting in on merit, conversing with erudite people on a wide range of subjects, and feeling at ease in new social and business circles.”
About Tutors International
Tutors International is a worldwide organization providing experienced full-time private tutors to work with children of all ages and nationalities, in a wide variety of situations, including international relocation, after-school support, full-time home tuition, support for AD/HD and dyslexia, home schooling for frequent travellers, and college prep and coaching.
Tutors International was founded by Adam Caller who has tutored students of all ages. He has received specialist training in dyslexia and AD/HD and is very sensitive to children's educational difficulties. He has now turned this expertise to recruiting, training and placing other tutors with HNW and UHNW families around the world. Adam is a member of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA).
