Chelsea International Education

What: Chelsea International Education hires experienced educators as online and in-person tutors in a wide array of subjects, paying as much as $140 per hour

Expected pay: $15 – $100 per hour, depending on experience, subject and whether the tutoring is done online or in person.

Husl$core: $$$

Commissions & fees: NA

Where: National

Requirements: A college degree, teaching certificate, at least 2 years teaching experience, Dept. of Education credentials, pass a background check, personal interview and a demonstration tutoring session.

Review:

Chelsea International Education is a great site for teachers and college professors looking to make a few extra bucks. But, unlike Varsity Tutors or Wyzant, the site isn’t interested in hiring tutors, who aren’t already teachers. You need a teaching certificate and at least two years of experience to apply.

However, if you have that, this site pays generously, particularly for those who can tutor in high-demand topics such as higher mathematics, chemistry and physics. Tutor pay ranges widely, according to company officials. Someone tutoring elementary students online, for instance, might make as little as $15 per hour. The same job, if done in person, would pay $25 – $35. However, the pay goes up steeply for those able to coach kids in the subjects needed to get good scores on college and graduate school admissions tests. Pay is also higher for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects in high demand.

Chelsea doesn’t charge a commission on tutor pay; it simply marks up the price of your services. So, for the tutoring job that pays $15, Chelsea earns $36; for the one paying $35, it gets $70. While that’s a high mark-up, it doesn’t come out of the tutor’s pocket.  Tutors at Chelsea International Education appear to make as much or more here as they can anywhere else. 

However, Chelsea demands a lot of background screening for its tutors. That’s no sweat for working educators. The site will contact your current employer, which likely already has these background checks on file. But if you’ve been out of the job market for a while, you may need to pay for some of these background checks.

That’s not necessary with some other tutoring gigs, such as through Wyzant and Varsity Tutors .

What their tutors say: (from Indeed)

This is an easy, structured way for educators to make extra money as tutors without setting up their own company. Reasonable pay rate. The owner is very scrupulous about checking in with her contractors, and providing helpful feedback. Sometimes response times are slow, but not to an irritating degree.