How to Become a Tutor with CODECS?

Each year, it is a great honour and joy for CODECS to receive new Tutors among its faculty. More and more students and/or collaborators wish to become Tutors at one course or another offered by CODECS.
To be a Tutor means not only to master specific knowledge but also to own communication and presentation skills, and – last but not least – good knowledge in the fields of adult education and distance learning.
But how can you become a CODECS Tutor? Briefly, here are the 6 steps you need to take in order to become a Tutor.

Stage 1: Submit your CV and Letter of Interest with the Course Manager (CM) or Program Manager (PM).

These documents may be sent:
• by e-mail (you can find the appropriate e-mail addresses on the CODECS website at http://www.codecs.ro or you can use the address: office@codecs.ro):
• by mail or submitted in person at CODECS Head Office in Bucharest or at any CODECS Regional Centre (RC).
Preference will be given to candidates who have attended CODECS courses and/or with experience in distance learning. Also, candidates must have relevant managerial experience, good knowledge of the field they wish to provide tutorship in (management, marketing, finance etc.). If you do not fulfill all the requirements stated above, that does not mean you cannot become a Tutor. There are much more factors considered in this stage and in the next stages.

Stage 2: Skill Testing

This test will take place at CODECS Head Office in Bucharest or at RC’s and its aim is to find out your amount of skills required by a Tutor (communication, social opnennes, flexibility in your relationships with other people etc.). The testing involves several questionnaires and the assessment is later performed by the Human Resources Department inside CODECS.

Stage 3: Interview with the Course Manager or the Program Manager

This interview takes place in Bucharest or CR’s. In the latter case, the Course Manager (or the Programe Manager) may delegate this authority to the RC Manager or Area Manager. Following the interview, and based on the information gathered during the previous stages, we decide to bring on board (or not) the candidate as an Assistant-Tutor (AT) with a well-experienced Tutor already existing in the system.

Stage 4: Assistant-Tutor

A candidate who has become an Assistant-Tutor takes part into 1-2 series of tutorials in the company of a well-experienced Tutor, who acts as a mentor, following his/her development and providing him/her with assistance and training. During these 6-12 months, the Assistant-Tutor will receive all the support from his/her assigned Tutor and they will work together to develop concept presentations for tutorials. After each tutorial, the experienced Tutor will provide feedback. At the end of each series, the experienced Tutor will submit a report with the Course Manager and the Program Manager, based on actual observations (of strengths and weaknesses), to recommend (or not) that the Assistant-Tutor be promoted full Tutor. Based on such a report, the Course Manager may decide to:
• promote the Assistant-Tutor on to the next stage
• keep the Assistant-Tutor in the same position for another series, and – the least pleasant situation –
• stop working altogether with the Assistant-Tutor.
AT’s cannot be kept into the system for more than two series in a row. Upon ending the second series, the Course Manager must either decide to promote the AT on to the next stage or stop the collaboration.

Stage 5: Tutor Training Course

If the decision made by the Course Manager is favourable, the AT must undertake the CODECS tutor training course. This course takes place over a 3-month period, as a distance-learning programme. For this course, you need to submit a paper and –eventually – make a face-to-face presentation where you are supposed to use tutorial techniques.

Stage 6: Tutor

If you succeed in taking the course, then you have obtained a Tutor position inside CODECS. After the above-mentioned course, CODECS will invest money in training you both as a tutor and an expert in the specific area of the course you are to teach, by involving you in a training-session system attended by Tutors from all over the country.
What’s next? Well, we wait for those curious enough to succesfully reach the 6-th stage. Until then, you are all welcome here!

Dr. Rodica Radulescu
Business School Programe Director
e-mail : rodicar@codecs.ro