How to Become a Tutor for Sylvan Learning Center

Sylvan Learning Centers offer tutoring for children in kindergarten through high school. This includes college test prep, helping struggling students to meet grade-level expectations and providing enrichment. If you're a teacher, Sylvan may have a part-time tutoring job for you. Become a Sylvan tutor by following the company's application process and meeting its requirements.

Find a Local Center

Sylvan centers -- both franchises and company owned -- number more than 800 across North America. The tutoring jobs are specific to each location, so you won't find one main job list for all Sylvan centers. The different sites are responsible for making their own job announcements and hiring tutors. Visit Sylvan's website to search for locations in your area. Enter your ZIP code into the "search local centers" box. Click on the center where you want to work and the link will take you to that location's website.

Have Subject-Matter Knowledge

In general, Sylvan looks for tutors who have subject-specific expertise. This means that your professional background should match up with the content that you want to teach. You should have at least a bachelor's degree in education with a valid teaching certification. For example, if you are a licensed ninth-grade English literature teacher, you could apply for a job as a high school literature or language arts tutor at Sylvan. If you teach at the elementary level, you should have experience instructing students in Sylvan's tutoring areas of reading, writing and math.

Know the Curriculum and Standards

As a tutor, your job is to help students succeed in school. Sylvan's educators need to know the local or state curricula and standards to connect the tutoring content to what the student is learning in school. As a Sylvan tutor, you'll need to demonstrate a thorough understanding of the local students' classroom lessons. Working in a school district near the Sylvan location provides you with the necessary curriculum knowledge. However, specific centers may not require you to work in the local district and may focus more on your ability to connect with the educational standards.

Show the Ability to Motivate

Simply providing the students with knowledge isn't what Sylvan expects of their tutors. The educational company wants tutors to inspire and motivate the students. If you want to work at this learning center, you need to demonstrate the desire to truly help children to succeed in school. This also includes knowing how to deal with academic frustration and build the confidence of a struggling learner.