Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
The Government revealed plans for some year groups to start returning to school from the beginning of June. Similarly, some industries, including construction and manufacturing, are slowly calling staff back to work as the lockdown eases.Teaching and childcare are in the spotlight as parents balance work and school.
No one seems to have exact start dates or know for definite whether plans will continue to go ahead as the news and updates constantly change. This leaves working parents in a tough situation as they make plans for returning to work and organise childcare. If you’ve got to go back to work, but your child isn’t in a year that’s going back to school, what do you do?
And when the summer holidays roll around soon after schools reopen, it could be an ideal time for parents to arrange extra education to help their children catch up on missed school.
Online teaching solutions and – where possible – childcare may become a hero resource for working parents. If you’ve been made redundant recently, or you’re facing an extended furlough period, now’s the time to consider if you can turn your hand to online teaching, tutoring, or childcare services this summer.
As lockdown begins to ease there is going to be a surge in demand for childcare. Schools are expected to partially reopen from next month but still a lot of students won’t be returning before the summer holidays in August.
If you love children or have had experience raising your own, and looking to work part-time or be a bit more flexible with your hours then working in childcare could be a great money-making opportunity for you.
There are a few things to consider before taking on paid childcare work. You’ll need to get an up-to-date DBS check, which costs £23, and register yourself as a childminder, costing upwards of £35. This makes it easier to earn parents’ trust to look after their kids.
You can apply to be a registered childminder or nanny here. You need to pay an annual registration fee to Ofsted and will have to consider other costs you may need to pay for at the beginning including getting first aid trained and public liability insurance.
Make sure you are aware of your legal responsibilities and duty of care to the children you are looking after. Check out the regulations on childcare and your legal requirements before you take any job on.
If you plan on working from your own home and will be looking after multiple children then there are limitations on how many children you can look after at any one time. You can look after six children aged 8 and under at once, a maximum of three of these children can be under the age of 5, and you can only look after one child at a time if they are younger than 1 year old. You can also work in the family’s home if you prefer but this will obviously limit how many people you would be able to work for, and how much you can make.
One of the easiest ways to get working in childcare is by registering for an agency like Top Notch Nannies, or Sitters for babysitting jobs. They help you find job postings and you know you have their support if any issues arise down the line. Although, due to coronavirus at the moment, a lot of agencies may not be taking on new applications. But it is worth having everything you need ready so you can apply as soon as they open again.
Once you are a registered childminder, work with your local community to market your business and get the word out there. Leave flyers or business cards up on notice boards in public spaces and speak to nurseries and primary schools about being able to advertise your services there.
References go a long way. If you don’t already have experience in childcare a good place to start is by looking after the children of family, friends, and neighbours. You’ll gain experience and an understanding of your role and then they will be able to reliably refer your business on to others.
Payment is normally paid per hour, per child. Average hourly rate is £8 but will vary and in parts of London you can reach up to £12 an hour.
Schools won’t reopen for everyone any time soon. Those with children of different ages face a huge juggling act. It’s not just school-age children who need tutoring, either. Universities face a tough time by not reopening until 2021! Adult learners are just as keen to find ways to continue their education.
Anyone with experience as an educator, tutor, or niche industry skills can take advantage of this new era. Online learning is the way forward!
Tutoring is an easy way to get started in selling your teaching skills. If you are new to it, sites like Skooli and Wyzant guide you through. It’s quick and simple to set yourself up on their websites, after you’ve done that you can start tutoring and earning straight away!
Younger children have missed out on a lot of crucial education over the past couple of months so many working parents will be looking for people to help tutor their children and help with homework and homeschooling to get back on track. You could post advertisements for your services on local community groups and pages.
Even if you don’t normally work in education, if you are a fluent English speaker you can teach English online now! As schools across the globe have closed the demand for learning English has moved online.
You just need a TEFL qualification which you can complete from home and then you are ready to start immediately. Check out websites like Groupon for learning deals, too. You’ll often find 120-hour TEFL courses (the industry standard for TEFL teaching jobs) available at a discount. You could also be a TESOL teacher – this is Teaching English as a Second Language. The course structure (and lesson plans) are slightly different. If you like doing one of them, getting the second qualification could help expand your business!
You can set yourself up as a local TEFL teacher, advertising through Facebook groups and schools. Or, you could join an online TEFL agency if you’re willing to work obscure hours. You’ll deliver online live learning to pupils in places like Japan, Thailand, and China. As these are live, you need to work to their time zone – but the pay can be quite good (up to £40 an hour for experienced tutors).
Online learning has seen a massive spike since lockdown began and people are keen to learn new skills. If you have expertise in anything from graphic design and Photoshop skills, to business marketing and management, you can teach it in a course online. Sites like Skillshare and Teachable make it easy to set up your own courses and you can start earning straight away.
We’ve got a detailed guide to creating an online course for passive incomes here. You can also find out about teaching live classes or giving one-to-one tutor sessions in this article.
Inspired by the idea that teaching and childcare could be a new career for you? Try these articles next!
Some nice ideas, online learning is a way forward as most kids like to learn using their phones or ipads. teaching this way is a good platform.
Lots of useful ideas.
Appreciate the info, especially about the TEFL course.