Au pair

"Au Pair" is a French term that means "on par" or equal and describes a young person who lives on equal conditions within a family from a foreign country. The Au Pair helps the family look after the children and/or do some domestic activities while staying with the family; the Au pair's work is generally remunerated with a weekly stipend or pocket money.

The Au Pair is most of the times a young lady, rarely a young man. She becomes part of the family. Both parties must respect the cultural differences and tolerate each other.

AU PAIR USA

I. Participation conditions for Au Pair USA:

• Be 18 to 26 years old
• Enjoy caring for children
• Have minimum of 200 hours practical childcare experience
• Have completed secondary school education
• Speak English to a good standard
• Have a clear criminal record
• Commit to 12 months living with an American family
• Not previously have been an au pair in the USA
• Driving license
• Non-smoking

It a plus:

• Experience in a kindergarten
• Attending seminars/educational pedagogic medical courses
• Musical skills (piano, violin etc), sports background, handcraft skills

II. Au Pair responsibilities:

• Supervising and playing with the host family's children
• Awakening the children, getting them ready for school
• Preparing meals for the children
• Playing games, doing art projects
• Bathing, changing and dressing the children
• Putting children to bed and being on watch while children are sleeping
• Driving children to school and appointments
• Straightening children's rooms and picking up after children
• Doing children's laundry
• Work is estimated at approx 45h/week

III. Au Pair benefits:

• Free flight ticket paid by host family
• Free room and board
• Approx 200$ net weekly stipend
• Medical insurance throughout the program duration
• Education stipend of up to 500$ to attend community college courses, seminars etc
• Enlarge cultural background

IV. Steps:

• Enrollment
• Interview with INFOAMERICA representative; you have to prove you are responsible, friendly, you have child care experience and like to work with children
• Pay application tax of 100 $
• Fill in the electronic application
• find the host family
• interview with the host family
• 32-hour long online training course
• job offer acceptance, pay program fee (200$), pay program deposit of 400$, which will be reimbursed to you after 12 months of program, pay flight fee (50$-200$ depending on destination), embassy interview, departure to the USA

    Documents needed:

• Au pair application, completed
• 2 non-family childcare references (to be verified by Mikes Agency)
• 1 non-family personal character reference (to be verified by Mikes Agency)
• medical checkup report
• criminal background check
• copy of driver’s licens
• copy of passport (expiring no earlier than 18 months from application date)
• 1 passport photo
• “Dear host family” letter
• copy of school diplomas/certificate
• photo collage (1-2 pages)