How many hours does one-to-one take?

I cannot say up front. We go by the hour, and after a few lessons we see the pace and decide together how many hours it needs. If someone gives you a firm number at the start, ask what they are basing it on.

I attended a workshop and I am still stuck. What now?

That is one of the best uses of one-to-one: the order is already set, what is left is the specific place you are stuck. A few hours is usually enough.

Can you do my homework for me?

No. We work on it together, I do not do it in your place. That is not only a matter of principle — work done in your place does not help you at the next place you get stuck.

My budget is limited, what do you suggest?

Say so openly. If you are at the beginning, a group workshop does the same job for less in most cases, and I have no problem pointing you there.

One-to-one lessons or a group workshop?

Not the cheap and expensive versions of the same thing

This is the misunderstanding I meet most often: one-to-one is taken to be "the private version of the same workshop". It is not. A group workshop has a prepared order, built on knowing where most people get stuck. One-to-one has no prepared curriculum; it is built around where you are stuck.

So thinking "one-to-one if my budget allows, otherwise the workshop" leads you astray. The right question is: do I have a defined problem in hand, or do I need a starting order?

What a group does well

The most valuable part of a group workshop is not the content but the structure: a session at a fixed time, a small piece of homework, and other people stuck in the same place at the same time. Where people give up is usually not where the subject gets hard but the first moment they get stuck and do not know who to ask — and that is exactly where a group helps.

Its second benefit is discussed less: somebody else’s question. Questions that would never have occurred to you alone come up in a group, and they are usually where most of the learning happens.

What one-to-one does well

What one-to-one buys you is not speed but accuracy. A group workshop follows an order that has to suit everybody; one-to-one looks only at where you are stuck. If you have a project in hand or need to set a specific tool up at work, the difference is large.

There is also the calendar side: if the workshop schedule does not suit you, or you prefer to go at your own pace asking questions as you go, one-to-one gives you that.

There are also cases where one-to-one is the wrong choice, and I say them up front: if you are looking for a career programme spread over months, one-to-one is the expensive way to do it; if you have never touched the subject and budget matters, a group workshop gives you the same start for less.

A short list for deciding

I wrote the last item separately because it is often missed: five people from the same desk each taking one-to-one lessons is both expensive and slow. In that case a day built on the team’s own work gives a better result.

Never touched the subject and need an order → group workshop.
A defined project, or a specific place you are stuck → one-to-one.
The workshop schedule does not suit you → one-to-one.
Budget matters and you are at the beginning → group workshop, then one-to-one if needed.
You attended a workshop and want to go deeper on one subject → one-to-one.
You are a team doing the same job and all learning the same thing → neither; a corporate day fits better.

Using both together

The sequence that works most often is this: start with a group workshop, then take a few one-to-one hours where you get stuck or want to go deeper. The workshop gives you the order and the pace, the one-to-one closes your specific case.

The reverse is possible but needed less often. If you are not sure, write to me — tell me what you want to do, and if I think one-to-one is not right for you I will say so. That conversation is free and it is not a sales call.