Apprentus Review Summary

Apprentus is a teacher marketplace that allows anyone to list their classes, with no formal requirements or application process. No commission is deducted from tutors, who decide their own pay rate, schedule, class length (between 30-120 minutes), lesson design and materials, and whether to teach online or in-person.

Apprentus Pros and Cons

Pros:

• No requirements or application process – just create a profile
• Commission deducted from the student, not the teacher
• Can request payout any day
• Tutors decide their own rate of pay, hours, and lesson design
• Wide range of academic and non-academic subjects can be taught

Cons:

• Competition from international tutors charging as little as $1
• Can be difficult to make your listings stand out to attract students
• Designing lessons and preparing materials takes unpaid time

Is Apprentus Legit?

Apprentus is a European teacher marketplace that was established in 2014. Since then, this legitimate company has grown to promote over 80,000 teachers offering more than 700 subjects and activities, earning it an Apprentus Trustpilot score of 4.2 out of 5.

Here is the startup story of Apprentus, as explained by co-founder Gaetan Deremince:

How Does Apprentus Work?

Apprentus is a platform for teachers and tutors to market their classes and experience. Instead of applying and being hired for a particular job, Apprentus tutors are allowed total control of their schedule, class fees and how they teach their lessons. 

Students and parents are able to search for the lessons they require, ranging from popular general subjects such as Math, English, French or Yoga, to lessons that are more particular, like learning repairs and jazz vocal coaching. Teachers that provide these lessons are displayed, along with their availability and fees. Students are able to book based on bundles to have a class with the tutor of their choosing. 

Apprentus Online Tutoring

As Apprentus is a profile-based platform, students contact teachers according to their teaching requirements. Within your profile, you can create a video, description, and provide all the information to best present yourself to prospective students, and they will review the compatibility of your skills to their needs. The lessons can be provided in-person or virtually, through any platform of your choosing: Zoom, Skype, or other. 

Students are charged a membership fee, but teachers and tutors sign up for free. Each tutor creates the lesson and materials based on the students’ individual goals. 

Apprentus Payment Information

As a teacher marketplace, Apprentus tutors decide their own pay rate. There are teachers on the platform charging as little as $1 a lesson, while some request over $100. To decide upon a competitive price for your classes, you will first want to search the profiles of comparable tutors, in terms of the subjects, location, experience, qualifications and method of teaching they offer.

The Apprentus payment method is either via bank transfer or PayPal. There is no set pay day; funds are released to a teacher’s payout account two days following submission of a lesson (or the next business day if this falls on a weekend).

Does Apprentus Take Commission Fees?

Unlike the vast majority of teacher marketplaces, Apprentus commission fees are charged to the student on top of the tutor’s hourly rate, and are not deducted from a teacher’s earnings.

Apprentus Hours

Apprentus tutoring allows you to book as many classes as your schedule allows. There is no limit on the number of hours you are allowed to teach, meaning more flexibility to you. You can arrange your schedule the way you see fit, working a little every day or filling two to three days with classes; it is 100% up to you!

Apprentus classes can be 30, 45, 60, 90 or 120-minutes long.

Apprentus Cancellation Policy

Apprentus gives teachers the choice of implementing one of two cancellation policies for their classes:

1. Flexible = Full refund with 1 day’s notice before a lesson, 50% afterwards. No refund if the Student does not show up.
2. Strict = Full refund with 3 days’ notice before a lesson, 50% afterwards. No refund if the Student does not show up.

Apprentus tutors are able to reschedule their classes in case of emergency, without incurring a penalty. However, there is a fine for any teacher cancellations 0-6 hours before class, amounting to 15% of the lesson fee.

Apprentus Requirements

Apprentus has no specific requirements to join, so long as you have access to a computer with a webcam.

A full list of the company’s terms and conditions can be found here.

Apprentus Recruitment Process

There is no assessed application process, interview, or limited number of Apprentus vacancies; instead, anyone can create a class listing that students or their parents may wish to book.

You can do this by visiting the Apprentus website, click on the ‘Become a Tutor’ button, and sign up with either your Facebook account, Google account, or email address.

You will be prompted to confirm your name, birthday, phone number and email address, before being asked to create your first class listing by providing the following details:

• Class title
• What categories best match your class? (3 maximum)
• Class Description (Do not specify the price, a field is provided for this purpose)
• Class level: Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced?
• Extra information for the student
• What languages are you using to teach the class?
• Duration: 30, 45, 60, 90 or 120 minutes
• Age:
  • Infants (0-3 years)
  • Preschool children (4-6 years)
  • Children (7-12 years)
  • Teenagers (13-17 years)
  • Adults (18-64 years)
  • Seniors (65+ years)
• What are the locations where can you teach? My location, student’s location, or webcam
• When?
• Price

Apprentus Reviews

The Apprentus Glassdoor page gives the company an overall rating of 4 out of 5, with 72% willing to recommend them (though this is from just 13 reviews at the time of writing). Here are the main comments that have been left by tutors:

• Advantages:
  • “good service, had a few students from this platform”
  • “Self-managed -Part-time and flexible hours -Great salary”
  • “Organized platform in terms of choosing your own timing and fees”
  • “You set your own rates and get paid 100%. Students are friendly. The platform is safe. Paid 3 times a week. THE BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE.”
  • “Flexibility, remote work, that’s about it”
  • “the Apprentus platform connects with a good network of students looking for classes. Service is fast, efficient and ahead of traditional similar services”

• Disadvantages:
  • “commission for students, no option of free first lesson”
  • “To get clients, you have to wait and hope that your profile out of thousands matches someone’s needs.”
  • “The only thing I don’t like is that you need to provide your own lesson materials (but it is still not as bad) and that it takes longer to get students.”
  • “Due to a change in algorithms intended to, I assume, promote their sagging earnings, they now use a ratio of how many times a student has rebooked to how many students a teacher has had. This means a teacher with many students may also have had more short term projects and thus gets buried in the rankings, whereas an inexperienced teacher with only one student who has rebooked only once goes right to the top. Unfortunately this means potential students see all the inexperienced or low reviewed teachers and just go to another platform.”
  • “sometimes is difficult to get in touch with the customer service but after few trials, they called me back and supported greatly”

Conclusion – Is Apprentus Worth It?

The fact that commission is not deducted from tutor earnings, like most teacher marketplaces, sets Apprentus apart from its competition. With over 700 subjects being taught, and no formal requirements or application process, the platform is open to virtually anyone. However, there is the usual problem of how to make your listing stand out amidst thousands of other tutors, especially when some of them charge as little as $1 a class. It is thus unlikely you will make full-time money from Apprentus.

You can apply for Apprentus jobs here.

A full list of online teaching companies can be found here.