When you become a volunteer English tutor, you will change a families or person’s life.  You will also change your own life by having personal satisfaction and pride in seeing someone learn English.

LVCC tutors are the backbone of the organization.  We would not be where we are today, helping hundreds of people in CollierCounty learn English, without tutors.  We need more people to teach English to new immigrants and low literate adults.

It’s easy to join LVCC as a tutor volunteer. Here’s all you need to do and know:

• Be a high school graduate.
• Have a desire to help someone else learn to read, write, speak and understand English.
• Devote two or three hours a week to your student.
• Pass a background check

That’s it! You do not need to be proficient in a foreign language nor have a teaching background. All that is required is that you attend a 12 hour workshop consisting of an orientation session and three half day sessions.  The workshops are held at our offices at: 8833 Tamiami Trail East, Naples, Florida 34113 (LelyPlaza).

Our tutor trainers give you the information and guidance you will need to become a tutor.  The workshops are fun and interesting and prepare you to work effectively with students of all ages and backgrounds.  The tutor curriculum includes topics such as working with adult learners, learning styles of non-native speakers, the reading and writing process, vocabulary, lesson planning, goal setting, cultural differences, etc.  There is a one time fee of $30 to cover the cost of the books and workbooks that are distributed at the time of the training.

Unlike a traditional teaching environment where the teacher decides what the class will learn, tutoring is student focused.  Tutors will meet with the student and discuss his or her goals and objectives and create lesson plans to help meet those goals.

At the end of the training period, tutors received a Pro-Literacy Tutor Certification and are matched with a student.  Tutors and students are paired based on information given to us about the preferred days, timeframes, and locations for both parties.  Tutors and students usually meet once or twice a week in our offices, or in a public place such as a library, a community building, a mall, and so forth.

Tutor are assigned a mentor to answer questions and support them in their new role.  About five weeks after the workshop ends, there is a follow up session for the new tutors.  The LVCC staff is always available to help tutors at any time to make this a positive and beneficial experience.  For more information about becoming a volunteer tutor call the Program Director at 239 262-4448 Ext. 304.