New Year – new opportunities

By Kylie McIntosh
Happy New Year to all our stay at home mums – and dads, SAHM wish you all the best for your job hunting efforts in 2009.

Several years ago when I initially started working from home I was fortunate enough to secure a position with the local university campus as an online tutor.

This is a terrific option for stay at home mums who have previously taught at schools, colleges or universities. And it is particularly relevant today considering the burgeoning online university environment.

How to secure a position

Make a list of Australian universities that provide online courses. For a start you could visit:
www.open.edu.au
www.seeklearning.com.au
http://handbook.curtin.edu.au/
http://www.handbook.unsw.edu.au/2009/index.html

There are a plethora of additional online resources like uni handbooks and lists of universities, both public and private that offer online courses.

Locate the relevant faculty within the uni that you’d like to work with and send an email to the co-coordinator with a summary of your teaching experience and skills. It’s wise to send your details out to several universities to widen your chances of success.

Initially I wasn’t successful but a few months into the uni year one of the online tutors dropped out and I secured a position for the rest of that year. The bonus of working for even just one semester is that you are more than likely to secure work the following year once they know you. The difficult part is getting in the door.

Don’t limit yourself to universities either. Try TAFES and high schools. Even if you don’t find work in the online environment you may be offered tutoring work you are able to do from your home. You can work it around your family so that students visit when it suits you.

Good luck. And please send me details of your efforts so we can explore together what works.