Michael Black, founder and CEO of Success Tutoring, says data gathered by his company over ten years suggests there has been a significant shift in both education and parenting.
“We’ve seen a fundamental change in why families walk through our doors,” Black says.
“Parents aren’t just asking us to help their children get better grades. They’re asking us to help build confident, resilient young people who can communicate, think critically and succeed both inside and outside the classroom.”
Black says over his decade in the sector the dial has really shifted in parental reasoning behind seeking extra assistance for their child.
“Parents are looking for tutoring as something that complements school and is a long-term position, not something where they’re just trying to accelerate their child’s learning,” he tells EducationHQ.
“Traditionally tutoring has always been about, ‘hey, I want to get into selective school, I want to get a scholarship’, but now it’s about confidence building.”
Black claims he and his team of 800 tutors across Australia and New Zealand regularly hear parents say, ‘my child has the ability, they just don’t believe in themselves or have the confidence to ask questions or put up their hand to let their teacher know they are struggling’.
“Many classrooms are relying on online learning and devices, and this doesn’t optimise engagement and interactive learning.
“When confidence grows, academic performance almost always follows. We know that hands-on one-on-one learning achieves this outcome.”
Michael Black says the school system hasn’t been able to appropriately cater for those students that are potentially falling behind, which is a critical reason why private tutoring has become higher in demand.
Black says students who become more confident ask more questions, participate more in class and approach learning with a far more positive mindset.
Parents, he says, are also focusing on things like critical thinking and resilience.
While parents remain keen for their children to master literacy and numeracy, they also understand the importance for them to be well equipped to navigate digital misinformation, solve complex real-world problems, and make reasoned, independent decisions.
“They’re also realising that when a child really enjoys what they’re learning, they tend to perform very well,” Black explains.
“We’ve got the three words that we use: motivate, inspire and uplift.
“It’s not just about teaching, but it’s also about building a love for learning for kids and ensuring that what they’re learning, they’re enjoying so then they can do a much better job at it and have a lifelong passion for education.”
Black believes one of the biggest concerns facing families today extends well beyond school results.
“Parents are increasingly worried that children are losing the ability to communicate face-to-face,” he says.
“They’re growing up in a world of screens, messages and social media.
“It stands to reason that when students spend time learning alongside tutors and other children, they naturally develop stronger communication skills, greater confidence and better critical thinking.
“Those skills will serve them for life.”
Black’s company is primarily focussed on K-12 English and maths, with 85 operating locations across Australia and New Zealand and two flagships just launched in the United States and Canada.
“Over the last few years, we’ve worked with more than 20,000 students and we’re constantly collecting that data and finding out what is it that they’re looking for and how can we help them more.”
So why is business booming?
“There’s a few factors – the first is parents are so time poor these days, they don’t have the time to help their kids with their homework. That’s number one.
“Number two is we live in a fantastic country, which is very welcoming to a lot of migrants, and the reality is, a lot of the time English isn’t their first language, so they’re looking for tutoring.
“A lot of them are very motivated academically, so they’ve got very high expectations for their kids, so they’re wanting to put them into tutoring to help accelerate their growth.
“A few other factors include the fact that there’s an extremely high pressure on the school system at the moment. Schools are under-resourced, teachers are under a lot of pressure.”
Black says the school system hasn’t been able to appropriately cater for those students that are potentially falling behind, which is a critical reason behind why tutoring has become higher in demand.
“We know schools are struggling because we’ve got franchise partners that are teachers and they’ve chosen to opt out of that because ... they get into the education space, not to make a whole bunch of money, but to really want to help kids do very well – but the school system doesn’t facilitate that environment.
“I mean, one teacher having to assist 30 kids in one class is not giving the teacher the best resources or the best opportunity to succeed, to really help those 30 kids.”
Black claims a large majority of kids, when placed in that environment, develop gaps in their knowledge.
“But that’s just how the school system is,” he says.
“With providers like us, we’re able to place kids in small groups of six, for example, with one tutor. So we can help the child individually and personalise it.
“But the school system just doesn’t cater for that. So that’s why parents are finding out that, well, if my kids aren’t going.”
Black says he sees the education system continuing to face challenges into the future as governments fail to provide sufficient funding and support.
“The need for tutoring is growing, not reducing, which is why we are actively expanding our centre sites across the country and overseas,” he says.
