Learnmate Review Summary

Learnmate is an Australian teacher marketplace that hires tutors for 110+ subjects. Applications are easy, classes are 1v1 with children or adults, and teachers decide their pay (minimum $30/hour) and schedule so long as they commit to 3+ hours a week. However, there are payment fees and a commission of 23-30%.

Learnmate Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Quick and easy application process
• Minimal requirements
• Set your own pay rate and hours
• Over 110 subjects to tutor, for adult and child students
• Options for both online and in-person tutoring
• Positive reviews from tutors

Cons:

• Only Australia
• Commission rate of 23-30% plus Stripe payment fees
• Emphasis on tutors marketing themselves to attract students
• Tutors must prepare their own learning resources, which takes unpaid time

Is Learnmate Legit?

Learnmate is a legitimate tutoring company that was founded in 2015 in Melbourne. Since then they have delivered over 120,000 hours to more than 8,000 students across Australia, with around 1,000 tutors. Their legitimacy is reinforced by being a bronze-accredited member of the Australian Tutoring Association, partnering with Oho to verify Working with Children Checks (WWCC), and by being a finalist in several awards including the My Business – Training and Education Business of the Year (2020) and the SmartCompany Smart50 Resiliance Award (2021).

How Does Learnmate Tutoring Work?

Learnmate tutors may choose to offer online and/or in-person tutoring anywhere in Australia. With it being a teacher marketplace, you will need to create a profile to attract students that promotes your:

• background, experience, qualifications and achievements
• subjects you tutor
• availability and mode of tutoring
• hourly rates
• tutor tier
• rating & reviews

There are over 110 Learnmate subjects that you can choose to tutor, ranging from traditional school subjects aimed at children, to music, languages, coding, or business and life coaching for adults. These are broadly categorised as follows:

• Admission and General Tests
• Arts
• Business and Economics
• Business and Life Coaching
• Coding/Computing
• English
• Health and PE
• Humanities
• Instruments
• Languages
• Maths
• Science
• Technology

Tutors set their own schedule and hourly rate (minus commission), but you must create and customise your own teaching materials for the individual students who book sessions with you.

‘Essential’ training, developed by the Australian Tutoring Association, is provided for free, while they also offer an ‘Advanced’ course at a discounted rate.

How Much Does Learnmate Pay Tutors?

Learnmate tutoring pay is decided by the tutors themselves, from a minimum of AUD$30 up to $150 an hour. It is advised that you first search for comparable tutors in your area and subject in order to price yourself at a competitive market rate. You may raise your prices, but only once a year on either 1 January or 1 July. Also, you must factor in commission charges which mean you won’t retain the full amount…

Learnmate Commission Charges

As is typical with teacher marketplaces, Learnmate charges a commission fee for any successful booking you receive through their platform. This ranges between 23-30% depending on your tier (based on number of hours completed):

• Bronze (0-50 hours completed) = 30% commission
• Silver (50-400 hours completed) = 27.5% commission
• Gold (400-600 hours completed) = 25% commission
• Pro (600+ hours completed) = 23% commission

They claim these commission rates are ‘market leading’ (as in, lower than competitors) though iTalki, for one, only charge a flat 15%.

If commission charges are a dealbreaker for you, then you may wish to consider Alchemy Tuition as an alternative Australian option.

Learnmate Payment Method

Tutors are required to connect their bank account to Stripe in order to receive payments, which arrive 3-5 business days following a lesson. Unfortunately, Stripe deducts a transaction fee (on top of the commission charges) of around 1.75%+$0.30.

Learnmate Hours and Schedule

While Learnmate tutors are generally free to determine their own schedule and workload, it is expected that they commit to a minimum of 3 hours a week with a flexible schedule to allow provision of additional, ad-hoc support to their students around periods of assessment.

Students must be responded to within 24 hours to avoid having your tutor profile deprioritsed or hidden from search results.

Lessons are scheduled through the calendar section of the tutor portal:

Learnmate Requirements

The Learnmate tutor requirements are fairly flexible, with applicants needing to meet just one of the following criteria:

• high school graduate with a high academic track record (ATAR above 85)
• a relevant tertiary degree
• be a qualified teacher or professional tutor/coach
• have relevant experience of 1+ years (either tutoring, teaching, coaching or in the field you are looking to tutor)
• have a relevant qualification, experience or background (such as prior tutoring experience)
• demonstrate you have mastered a skill or domain

Furthermore, you should:

• have a strong grasp of the English language
• be able to commit to at least 3 hours a week of tutoring
• have the ability, experience, knowledge and resources (or are willing to obtain them) to get the best out of your students, e.g. providing materials, plans and resources to your clients
• possess a passion and commitment to helping others achieve their learning goals

To be able to work with students under the age of 18 you will need to submit for verification and maintain a Working with Children Check. This earns you a WWCC badge on your tutor profile.

Learnmate Application Process

To apply, visit the Learnmate sign up page and create a tutor account with your name, email address and password. You will then set up your profile by submitting the following details:

• Profile Details
  • Name
  • Phone number
  • Address
  • How did you hear about Lernmate?
  • acknowledge and agree that your registration as a tutor is subject to review and approval by Learnmate’s support team and you may be asked for further information or to verify details as part of the application process.
  • confirm that you are 18 or older and live in and have a right to work in Australia
  • agree to the Learnmate Terms & Conditions and that you will schedule and seek payment for all lessons through Learnmate and will not accept, request, infer or solicit payment outside of Learnmate’s platform
  • confirm that you have not been convicted or accused of nor have you been involved in the commission of any criminal offences, including but not limited to events involving children that would make you unsuitable to or prohibit you from working with children
• Subjects and Experience
  • Select subject category:
    • Admission and General Tests
    • Arts
    • Business and Economics
    • Business and Life Coaching
    • Coding/Computing
    • English
    • Health and PE
    • Humanities
    • Instruments
    • Languages
    • Maths
    • Science
    • Technology
  • Are you a qualified teacher?
  • Do you have tutoring experience?
  • What subject knowledge or experience do you have that does or will make you a good tutor?
  • Briefly set out how you plan to deliver lessons and what resources you can or may supply to students.
  • Do you have a valid Working With Children check or equivalent (WWCC)?
  • Do you have experience tutoring or teaching students with special needs?
• Public Profile
  • Display picture
  • Tagline (100 chatacters max.)
  • Tell the world about yourself (where you introduce who you are, flaunt your experience, academic history, qualifications and interests to captivate students. Tell them why you should be their tutor.)
• Rates & Availability
  • Mode
    • Would you like to tutor in-person or online (or both)?
    • Location for in-person tutoring (if applicable)
    • If you are willing to travel, set a travel radius (in km) that you are happy to travel from the above location
  • Pricing
    • In-person, 1-on-1 (minimum rate is $30)
    • In-person, group
    • Online, 1-on-1 (minimum rate is $30)
    • Online, group
    • Does your rate depend on other factors such as travel or year level?
    • Free first lesson? Yes/No
  • Timing
    • Days available
    • Start and end time

You will see this screen when you have successfully submitted your information:

Learnmate aims to respond to applicants within 1 business day, but I received a response to my application within 3 hours.

Learnmate Reviews

The Learnmate Glassdoor page gives the company an impressive recommendation rate of 100% and overall score of 4.5 out of 5, though (at the time of writing) there hasn’t been a review left since September 2022. I have collated all the comments from Learnmate tutoring reviews over the last 2 years, and the relative lack of criticism is striking, with the most-common complaint, by far, being about the commission charges, with lots of positivity towards the flexibility and administration:

• Advantages:
  • “Flexible time and good student resource
  • Flexibility, online system works well
  • Great hours and great pay
  • Student reach. Payment/admin is all organised for you. Felt connected to the company via Facebook group and email contact.
  • Very flexible. Can easily access students
  • Friendly admin staff treat you well
  • Fun – Enjoyable -Satisfaction -Easy Going -No stress
  • As the site is widely used I have found it easy for students to find and contact me
  • Easy to join, good way of getting work”
• Disadvantages:
  • “The commission is very high
  • Company take a fairly large cut of your pay, so I felt like I was charging a lot to be paid decently
  • They take out a formidable percentage of your pay
  • Clients do not always respond
  • Less students at a time
  • LearnMate takes quite a decent commission
  • High commission is taken out of income”

Conclusion – Is Learnmate Worth It?

If you live in Australia, there is little to lose in setting up a Learnmate profile and trying it out. It is quick and easy to do, 3 hours a week isn’t a huge scheduling commitment to make, and there are plenty of reassuring tutor endorsements regarding the platform, though their silence over the last 5 months (currently) is perhaps a mild word of caution. While the commission charges are notable and the payment fees are annoying, they can be offset by charging a higher rate, however, it can be difficult to stand out and attract students on teacher marketplaces like this. It thus can be easier to use a tutoring company who allocates students without extra charges, such as Alchemy Tuition and Cluey Learning.

You can apply for Learnmate jobs online.

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