Tutors International Founder, Adam Caller, calls for an official Private Tutoring Association to help regulate the standards and behaviour of private tutors.

Tutors International were made aware this week of a rival tutoring agency failing to adequately support a tutor they had placed in a position overseas, via a telephone call from the tutor’s distraught father. Tutors International were concerned that this raised a question around poor practice, unsafe working environments and lack of concern for the welfare of private tutors and their students. This has prompted founder, Adam Caller, to reinstate the need for an officialised Private Tutoring Association.

The gentleman had called several UK tuition organisations attempting to discover who had placed his daughter in her post in Greece. He had apparently received a call from his daughter to say that she was to be left in loco parentis without adequate warning or preparation while the student’s parents were away from home. It transpired that the tutor had no contract with her employers, no first aid training, was unable to drive should an emergency have arisen, and felt she had been abandoned by her agency, who she was unable to contact on the phone.

Founder of Tutors International, Adam Caller, commented, "This is precisely why we need a Private Tutoring Association in this country. It is unacceptable that a private tutor should be so woefully underprepared and unsupported in her new position. It is shameful that a company that places private tutors with families without ensuring they have the essential training, a contract, full understanding of what the role will entail, and the agency’s full support, at any time of day, can be allowed to practice. A professional body of private tutors will ensure that members are held to higher standards, so that tutors and parents can feel reassured as to safe, professional practice and a high level of support for all parties."