6 min read · Updated 2026-10-18
In short
Training tutors by shadowing depends on who they shadow, and leaves no record. A short required base before the first lesson, a subject test that clears a tutor for each subject and year, interactive lessons a tutor does something in, and active time counted honestly give every tutor the same start and give the owner proof of it.
A new tutor starts on Monday. The owner spends an hour on the welcome talk for the fourth time this term, the tutor shadows whoever is free on Tuesday, picks up a handful of habits good and bad, and is teaching Year 11 chemistry by Thursday. Nobody quite knows whether they understand the child safety procedures, and there is nothing to show if anyone asks.
The tutor is probably fine. But probably is not a training programme, and the questions a centre most needs answered, whether this tutor knows the procedures and the subject, are the ones shadowing answers worst.
What an owner needs from tutor training
- The same start for every tutor, whoever is free that week.
- Child safety and compliance covered before the first lesson, not in week three.
- Proof a tutor knows a subject at a year level before they are booked for it.
- A short required base, with everything else optional.
- A record of who finished what, and when.
A short base, then the subjects they teach
XTutio's training academy starts every new tutor on a base of six courses, about six hours, before their first lesson: your centre's welcome, three child safety courses, compliance essentials and their first session. On top sit subject templates, from primary maths to senior English and selective test preparation, each adding the subject tests a tutor needs, due within 28 days. There are nine starter templates, copied in as your centre's own to change, and you can apply one when you invite someone. Everything outside a tutor's templates stays open as a library for their own time.
- Invite
Choose their template on the invitation.
- The base
About six hours of required courses before the first lesson.
- Subject tests
A test for each subject and year they will teach.
- Cleared
A pass writes the clearance and a certificate with a code.
Lessons a tutor does something in
Reading a policy is not the same as knowing what to do. Each interactive lesson takes six to ten minutes, opens with the one sentence to remember, and keeps the tutor doing something every few paragraphs, in nine kinds of activity: a quick check, a worked example, spotting the line where a student's working goes wrong, sorting, ordering, marking a real answer against criteria, annotating a text, comparing two versions, and a first session that branches on each choice. Course text names your centre and your safety contact where it needs to, and a lesson about where things are shows your own campuses.
Cleared to teach, checked at booking
Subject tests are drawn fresh on the server for each attempt and sent without the answers, with options shuffled every time. Each test allows a set number of attempts and a wait after a fail. A pass completes the course, writes the tutor's clearance for that subject and year, and earns a certificate that prints on one page with a code that identifies it.
The clearance then does real work. Book a tutor for a subject and year they are not cleared for and the portal warns, or refuses if your centre chooses to block; the cover finder and tutor matching prefer cleared tutors. It sits beside the centre's working with children checks, which child safety covers.
Honest time and live sessions
Time counts only while a course is open, in front and touched in the last two minutes, so a tab left open overnight counts nothing, and a lesson earns at most four times its own length. Admins see each person's active minutes on every course beside what is finished and what is due. Inductions, workshops and refreshers can be scheduled as live sessions, in the app's own meeting room, on a pasted link or face to face at a campus, with attendance marked once.
The same subject tests can go to a job applicant before you hire: one link, one attempt, timed by the server, with staff seeing the score and topics but never the answers. The guide to the training academy walks through setting it up.
A checklist for training new tutors
- A template chosen for each role before you invite
- The base finished before the first lesson is booked
- A subject test for every subject and year the tutor will teach
- Booking checks set to warn or block for uncleared subjects
- Your safety contact named, so courses point to the right person
- A live induction scheduled for the first week
- Certificates printed or saved to the tutor's file
How XTutio helps
The academy lives inside the portal your tutors already use, and its clearances feed the same booking checks as your timetable. See the training academy for every course type and setting.
Questions centres ask
- How long should tutor training take before a first lesson?
- Keep the required part short and specific: welcome, child safety, compliance and how to run a first session. XTutio's base is about six hours, with subject tests and everything else to follow.
- How can I check a tutor knows their subject?
- Give them a subject test for each subject and year level they will teach, drawn fresh and marked automatically. In XTutio a pass writes a clearance that is checked whenever the tutor is booked.
- Can I test a tutor's subject knowledge before hiring them?
- Yes. XTutio can send an applicant a one-attempt link to a subject test, timed by the server. Staff see the score and topics but never the answers.
