Support an Adult in Passing the GED Test: Become a GED/HiSET Tutor! Training Provided

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Hello, and thank you for your interest!

Are you great at connecting with adults from diverse backgrounds in a genuine, nonjudgmental way? Are you patient, empathetic, flexible, and able to simplify concepts in a respectful way? Do you like to make learning enjoyable, interesting, and relevant to everyday life? If yes, then becoming a GED/HiSET tutor in our program may be a good fit for you! No previous experience needed; training and materials provided.

Please note: Due to the time it takes to complete training and to find a learner who is a good match, this is not a quick-start opportunity, and we generally ask for a 6-month minimum commitment.

Level & Expectations Check:
On average, our GED/HiSET learners are in their 30s--so have been out of school for a while--and often enter the program with academic skills at about a 5th-6th grade English level and 4th grade Math level. This does not mean it will take them years to prepare to pass their exams, but it takes on average at least one year for most learners to prepare for, schedule, and pass the series of subject tests.

Learners may want to achieve this important goal but may not start out with realistic expectations about how much work it will take to achieve it, how long it will take, and how to fit tutoring into their everyday life. So, understanding this and having some initial flexibility is important.

Expectations for adult learners doing practice work (homework) in between sessions should not be what you might expect from a child in school. While extra practice is especially important for the GED/HiSET program, generally these expectations should be lower to start with while learning about your tutee and developing trust, setting them up for a positive, successful experience.

Teaching or tutoring experience and academic knowledge, while valuable, will not necessarily go far in this program if the adult learner isn't comfortable, feels judged or not respected and, thus, stops attending sessions. Therefore, our program is designed to be learner-centered, not teacher-centered. Since many adult learners in this program have had previous negative school experiences, even educational trauma, the most important skill or ability for this program is to be able to establish a positive rapport and trust with an adult learner from the first meeting.
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Basic Description of GED Tutoring: The Adult Literacy GED Tutor provides one-to-one tutoring to an adult in need of improving their basic skills in preparation for the GED or HiSET high school equivalency exams. Tutors may choose to tutor in the areas of Reading/Writing (English) and/OR Math, or in any subject area as needed. We focus initially on building reading/writing and math since those skills translate to the other subject tests.

If you're not familiar with the HiSET, you can learn more about it here. https://hiset.ets.org/ It will be covered in training and is the option we encourage most of our learners to do because the scoring is more forgiving, there's still a paper test option, and it's a little cheaper.

Scheduling/Location:

• 1-2 times weekly
• 1-2 hours per session
• Virtually or in-person at any of our 28 branches, or other public place https://www.saclibrary.org/Locations

Training and materials are all provided free of charge to tutors and learners.

Pre-service training and orientation is required before beginning tutoring; ongoing support is provided through tutor meetings and workshops as well as digital, self-study resources.

We look forward to hearing from you!