We’ve curated answers to some to some frequently asked questions on Learnmate.
If you have a question that does not appear below, contact our support team.
Becoming a Learnmate tutor is simple! If you meet our minimum requirements, apply to list your tutoring services on Learnmate by signing up for a tutor account. While signing up, we’ll ask you for some information to get to know you better, such as:
We aim to review all applications and respond within one business day.
Learnmate takes child safety very seriously. Tutors need a Working with Children Check to provide tuition to students under the age of 18 and you need to ensure you have one.
We strongly encourage providing your Working with Children Check (or equivalent) to Learnmate for verification and to earn a WWCC badge on your profile.
This helps to build trust in our community.
Yes! Tutors are provided the opportunity to specify how and where the prefer to provide lessons, ie. online, in-person (and generally where) or both, on sign-up and can change these details at any time through their tutor portal on Learnmate.
Learnmate is a community platform that has been built to help students find quality tutors to achieve their goals. To achieve this, every tutor on Learnmate has a unique public profile that outlines information about you, including your:
Prospective students and parents find tutors by searching on Learnmate and can review your profile to get to know you and to see if you’re the right fit for them. The more information you include, the more likely a prospective student will reach out to you.
You will be prompted to create your online profile when signing up to Learnmate and can update or amend it at anytime through your tutor portal.
Talking to students
Learnmate has built its platform to make it easy for students and tutors to connect and manage their tutoring engagement. All out-of-lesson contact with students takes place through Learnmate's messaging tool.
Tutors can view their messages and message students through their tutor portal when logged in to Learnmate and receive notifications whenever there is a new student enquiry or message from a student.
Scheduling lessons
Similar to messaging, tutors schedule lessons through their calendar on Learnmate, which provides a full record of lessons completed, future lessons and which automatically takes care of payments for lessons.
To schedule lessons, login and click on the ‘Calendar’ in the top navigation bar. Then click ‘Add Lessons’ and fill in the relevant details such as time, date of the lesson, fee, lesson notes and any lesson feedback to parents.
Rather than imposing set hourly rates on tutors, tutors are free to decide their own hourly rates on Learnmate.
A tutor's hourly rate is displayed on their Learnmate profile so prospective students know how much tutors charge before reaching out to discuss tutoring. Whether a tutor has set the right hourly rate will likely be determined by the level of interest you receive for tutoring. If it's too high, for instance, you may receive few, if any, enquiries or will have few repeat students. If it's too low, the opposite will likely be true.
Tutors are paid 3-5 business days after each lesson and are paid the rate for a lesson less Learnmate's commission and any payment processing fees.
Learnmate is a cashless community. When tutors are approved as a tutor on Learnmate, they will be prompted to connect a bank account to Stripe to receive payments.
After a lesson has been completed, students are charged for a lesson and the amount owing to the tutor will be transferred within 3-5 business days (largely depending on which bank a tutor uses).
Commissions
It is completely free for tutors to list their services and have an account on Learnmate. Learnmate works on a commission basis, so you only pay Learnmate if you get paid by students for tutoring.
Learnmate charges a market leading commission of between 23-30% depending on your account tier on Learnmate.
For comparison, other agencies, platforms and tutoring organisations (including ASX listed companies!) take between 34-70% of the cost of a lesson. Learnmate's highest commission is lower than the lowest competitor commission rate.
Why does the commission vary?
Commissions are Learnmate's sole source of revenue and vary depending on your account tier on Learnmate. Essentially, the more hours you have completed on Learnmate, the lower the commission you will pay. This is our reward for your commitment and the increasing impact you've had on students around Australia.
There are 4 different tutor tiers on Learnmate, which tutors unlock by meeting the relevant hour thresholds: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Pro:
Your account tier will automatically update as you gain experience on Learnmate. Please note, this does not include Stripe transaction fees on lesson payments.
Where does the commission go?
Commissions are Learnmate's sole source of revenue. Although we try our best to keep it as lean as possible, there are a number of expenses involved in running Learnmate and providing the best service possible for our users. These include:
Being a tutor on Learnmate means you decide how many hours you want to work. Whether that’s taking on a single student for an hour a week or multiple students more intensively.
It is generally expected that tutors who commit to Learnmate are available at least 3-6 hours per week and have a flexible schedule. We discourage tutors from using Learnmate if you have an inflexible or limited schedule as this will make for a poor experience for prospective students trying to find a tutor.
Tutors should ensure they are flexible and reasonably available should students require any additional support, particularly in the build up to and around relevant assessment times. You can manage your ongoing availability through your account on Learnmate.
In conjunction with the Australian Tutoring Association, Learnmate has developed a unique training course specifically for tutors.
Training is split into two modules: (1) Essentials (which covers all the practical essentials of tutoring on Learnmate) and (2) Advanced, which covers:
The Essentials course is completely free.
The Advanced course retails for $79 but Learnmate tutors can access the course for only $29!
Both are accessible after sign-up.
