Our Au Pairs
Our Au Pairs are between the ages of 18-30 and mostly female – although we have made many successful male Au Pair placements. Our Au Pairs are competent in conversational English and have at least 100-200 hours of documented childcare experience (on average our Au Pairs have 1300 hours of childcare experience)! Our Au Pairs go through a rigorous screening process – including police and medical record checks, childcare and character references and a personal interview to assess their English speaking ability and suitability caring for young children.
The primary duty of an Au Pair is to care for your child or children. Your Au Pair is not responsible for housework that does not relate to the children. Any cleaning or duties that distract your Au Pair from their primary function of childcare are not within the rules of our programmes. Our Au Pairs participate in four different programmes.
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Au Pair 123
– Our core Early Childhood Education (ECE) programme, approved by the New Zealand Ministry of Education, for families with at least 1 child under 5.
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Au Pair Whiz
– Our professional, qualified Early Childhood Education programme. An Au Pair Whiz has an Early Childhood Education degree or diploma with a minimum of 6 months practical experience or has 1 year of full time experience caring for children under 5 years of age.
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Au Pair Mate
– Our flexible after school care programme tailored for families with children over the age of 5.
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Au Pair Assist
– Our short term, maximum of 3 months, mother’s help programme for families with at least 1 child under 5 and immediate childcare needs.
Some agencies will charge each Au Pair a significant fee upon placement into a family - making the family as well as the Au Pair pay for the agency’s services. This can mean that many qualified and passionate Au Pair’s cannot afford to apply for a position within your family. Furthermore, the Au Pair can feel that they have paid for an overseas experience when in reality they are in the country to care for your children. Such misaligned expectations can cause conflict and even force your Au Pair to leave.
At Au Pair Link our families are our customers and your childcare needs are paramount. We seek out Au Pairs that are passionate about children and who will be the right fit for your family. An Au Pair’s primary function is to care for your children - so we don’t think it makes sense that they should pay us to do this!
Getting an Au Pair will help give you and your family greater flexibility, an extra pair of hands in the home, a fun cultural experience and so much more. Getting an Au Pair is not just for the rich and famous – in most instances an Au Pair is more affordable than other mainstream forms of childcare (a fact that makes Au Pair’s highly popular throughout Europe and America today). At Au Pair Link we carefully screen and place our Au Pairs based on your individual family needs – helping to ensure that you and your Au Pair will have a memorable year.