Top 25 subjects for freelance tutors in Qatar
Position yourself as one of the most wanted tutors in Doha
If you are a freelancer with a flair for teaching, this post is the one that you need to read in order to know about the tutoring scene in Doha. You may be looking for a side hustle that helps you earn more or you may just be a passionate teacher with a desire to pass on your knowledge to others. This post is all about which branches of education seem to need the maximum assistance and will help you figure out which subjects are hot in the market. You can then find a common ground, brush up your skills on the subject that you like, and offer your services as a freelance tutor in Doha.
Demand And Supply
Let us look at the number of daily postings in a single platform over the last 2 months. (For the live dashboard, visit here)
There is no doubt that the market is small (this is looking at only one platform — will be adding instagram and facebook soon). However, in each case, an advertisement is a chance to establish a long standing relationship with a student. I’ve personally taught students for over a semester or even a year and it has been an enriching experience overall.
Important Segments
Let us take a look at the broader categories of education that seem to be in high demand across the last 2 months.
Looking at the last two months data, we can see that the top 5 segments in which there were maximum tutoring advertisements are:
- Secondary School Subjects
- Elementary School Subjects
- Music
- Language
- Subjects Related to Computers
Let us now go through the top 5 segments in detail and check the top 5 subjects in each category.
#1: Secondary Level Subjects
No surprises in the fact that Mathematics is the number 1 requirement for Secondary school goers. Chemistry and Physics are in high demand too, followed by English and Biology. Being an Arab country with an open outlook, Qatar shows high demand of English Language teachers, especially native speakers. However, from personal experience, if the tutor has certain level of command over the language, it is something that is valued and can be transferred to the students. Keeping English apart, the remaining 4 subjects are from the science or STEM field. So if you are a teacher with background in Science, you can brush up your knowledge and impart the same to the students of secondary level.
#2: Elementary Level Subjects
Elementary level implies grades 1–8 where students learn basic skills in areas such as reading, writing and math. Let us take a look at the top subjects in demand.
The usual suspects English, Mathematics and Science are present. It is interesting, though, to observe the need of Arabic teachers in an Arabic speaking state — which implies that there is a demand for formally trained Arabic tutors. French claims the #5 position in the most popular subjects in elementary stage. There was an article [1] which said:
French classes are “very” popular among the Qataris, said Alexandra Solnica, Course Coordinator at the French Institute. “People are growing fonder and fonder of French! For our current session, 25 percent of all our students are Qataris and this number, including children, teenagers and adults, is constantly increasing,” she said [1].
In my opinion, Qatar offers great opportunities for polyglots. The country has a considerable population of foreigners from different parts of the world and anyone with the ability of translating ideas from one language to another would be considered a valuable asset. [More on that below]
#3: Music
Logistically, music is not an easy subject to teach. Any other subject could be taught in a cafe over a cup of coffee. But music needs setup, instruments and (possibly) sound-proofing. However, there is a decent demand for music tutors, so much so that it ranks number 3 among the top 5 categories in demand. Let us take a deeper look at the requirements in the Music department.
Piano, Violin and Guitar tutors seem to be in maximum demand in the Music sector. This is a little counter intuitive because one would expect Guitar and Violin to be at the top of the list. However, Piano is often seen in households as a collectible and there is a demand for tutors who can teach the enthusiasts the basics of piano skills. Keyboard and Drums tutors are also sought after, but in a much smaller scale.
#4: Language
As was mentioned above, Qatar is a potpourri of languages and cultures — Arabic which is the main language has different dialects spoken by people coming from different parts of the middle eastern world. Besides Arabic, let us take a look at other languages that are highly in demand.
English tutors are of course the highest in demand, followed by Arabic. What is interesting is the fact that French, German and Spanish occupy an almost equal proportion of the market making it a level playing field for experts in any of these languages.
#5: Computers
Qatar is putting in deliberate efforts in moving towards a knowledge based economy. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the segment Computers move up to the top 3 in terms of demand for tutors in the near future. With more tutors skilled in Computer related subjects, more students can benefit from the knowledge and accelerate the growth of Qatar. So, if you want to upskill yourself as a Computer trainer, here are the subjects that you need to look at.
The list is long, with a clear requirement for programming language tutors. If you are well versed in any of Python, C, C++, Java or even Matlab you will find a lot of demand among the University students. Cyber security and MS-Excel are important for different reasons. The former is more specialized and has very distinct requirements. Excel on the other hand is used by (almost) all offices and organizations. So if you are a VBA expert, and Excel is your strong suite, you can expect some requirements in this technology. Requirements in this domain often transcend students and are posted by employees who need to brush up concepts like Databases, Querying databases and Data Analytics.
Bonus: Timeliness
Timeliness is one of the keys to provide services. One has to be at the right place at the right time to provide what the students need.
Besides the fact that student requirements follow a specific trend (semester-wise or year-wise), it is interesting to note that maximum tuition requirements are posted on Mondays. Sunday being the first day of the week, is when the students come to terms with their needs and post on the following day. As a freelance tutor, you might want to be on high alert on Mondays and Wednesdays to get information about the tuition advertisements and take a break on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays without the fear of missing out.
This was my take on how you could sharpen your acumen as a freelance tutor to make the most of the opportunities available. Qatar is a small country, but with smarter tools, you could make the most of your time to the best of your abilities.
If you want to know more about the analytics of the tutor requirements, feel free to mail me at ashhadulislam@gmail.com, find me on Instagram or LinkedIn for the complete picture. You can check out the live dashboard here.
References
- “French language ‘very popular’ among Qataris” https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/18/03/2019/French-language-%E2%80%98very-popular%E2%80%99-among-Qataris
