Growing competition for top schools and highly qualified roles has driven growth in demand for tutors in the EU and globally (FT, 2013). However, tutoring remains unregulated, without mechanisms to measure performance, with over-reliance on referrals (NESSE, 2011), and with high transaction costs which price many schools and families out of the market. Tutorfair has proven the concept of an open, disruptive and innovative platform for the tutoring sector in EU28 that makes it Accessible, Impactful, Measurable and Socially Responsible (AIMS).
AIMS makes it easier for tutors to start, build and develop their career, with opportunities for networking, training and observations; and for clients to find good tutors in a transparent and fair way, with lower intermediation costs. For the industry, AIMS opens up access to industry wide accreditation and collaboration; and for society, Tutorfair brings a one for one promise to give free tutoring to those who can't afford it.
So far, Tutorfair has achieved TRL 7 with 18,000 registered users and has helped 2,916 students for free through the Tutorfair Foundation. Following successful application of the technology in Central and Greater London, the platform was trialed using a high touch model in one adjacent UK territory (Birmingham) and is being trialed using a low touch model in several adjacent UK territories, with analysis of results incorporated into subsequent development of core features and strategy, and fed back into Tutorfair’s proprietary tutor ranking algorithm.