After 35 years working across three different levels of education, Dr Anna Brunken had found herself on the long-term unemployed list for five years.
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After a distinguished career working at high schools, TAFEs, and universities, including RMIT and La Trobe University, the PhD-holder was paying the bills by tutoring college and university students.
Not content, Dr Brunken turned her tutoring sessions into a fledgling online business – AB Tutoring and Editing Services – out of her St John Street home.
“There’s a lot of parents who have kids with multiple tutors, and one of the parents said that, ‘I wish we could do it online – [the children] are online all the time,” she said.
“I then decided to give tutoring a go through Skype, and now I’ve got a lot of clients from Melbourne and around Australia.
“I haven’t even got any from Tassie yet, because I hadn’t advertised here.”
Tutoring students online in English and business studies provides a flexibility not afforded to traditional tutors, according to Dr Brunken.
[Students] do it in their pyjamas and sitting in their bedrooms sometimes.
- Dr Anna Brunken
She said the lives of young people were so connected to the digital world that the online tutor-student relationship comes naturally for many.
Not having to leave your house for tutoring sessions is also a big incentive for students.
“A lot of students at that level have time off during the day, so I can tutor them during a school day, at 8am or at night-time,” she said. “[Students] do it in their pyjamas and sitting in their bedrooms sometimes.”
The new business owner gained the knowledge and confidence to start a new venture through Mission Australia’s New Employment Initiatives Scheme.
The federal government-funded program provides her with a business mentor and helps fund business costs.
Mission Australia also ran courses to help Dr Brunken in generating business ideas.
With her sole-trader business up-and-running, she is now looking to expansion in the near-future.
“I want to get to the point where I’m training up other people,” she said.