If you’re ready for a change and you’re thinking about working with children or lockdown has inspired you to make a positive impact on your community, then this guide is for you.

Working with children is not for everyone and building a values-led business that improves the lives of children takes knowledge, skill, and passion. Taking the time to reflect on your values, goals, interests, and skills will help you make the first step towards starting a business working with children. Here’s how to start:

Starting your own business requires energy, time, and commitment. By reflecting on your own personal goals and values, it ensures that you’re building a business for the right reasons and it’s based around your own skills and passions. Ask yourself:

You need more than just interest to start a business working with young people. However, depending on the type of business you start, the requirements can differ. For example, to become a tutor you don’t need to be a qualified teacher, you just need a passion for helping children build skills and confidence.

• Show your strengths, this will give you an idea of your strengths and where you need to improve which will give you potential career paths.

• Identify opportunities for development by highlighting skills that you can practically enhance.

• Highlight your soft skills that are required to run a business with children. Consider your time management, communication, adaptability, and empathy with parents. A useful reference list can be found on the National Careers Service.

There are plenty of different ways to work with children, you just need to find the best option to suit you and your lifestyle.

Tutoring

The demand for tutoring is at an all-time high, due to the negative impact of the pandemic on education. Children are now struggling more than ever, with many regressing in basic skills as well as losing their interest in learning. What better time to start your own tutoring business? It’s the perfect opportunity to fill the gap that has emerged in education, and doing your bit for the community, while helping children to achieve their future goals.

If individual private tutoring sounds a bit daunting, then setting up a tuition centre with an established UK franchise company, with tuition programmes designed to align with the National Curriculum and a supportive network, may be the opportunity you’re looking for. You don’t need a teaching qualification to set up a learning centre, especially when working with a highly regarded brand like First Class Learning eliminating many of the risks of starting a new business through its proven model. Also, you are supported throughout the process and provided with full training and access to high quality, relevant learning materials, as well as plenty of help with marketing to grow your student numbers.

Summer camps

If you aren’t quite ready to invest in a new career, you could look at a few different opportunities for multi-activity day camps in the UK. This is where young people go to interact and make friends with people their own age in a fun and safe environment. Although this type of role is only seasonal, it would still be rewarding and give you the chance to check that working with children is really for you! These are just two of the many opportunities that offer the benefits that come from working with children. So why not make a change today, embark on your own exciting, new journey and find a more fulfilling lifestyle?