Au Pair Induction & Online Training Course

Our au pair induction last Saturday at Eurocenters language school was a great success. The au pairs who attended liked our presentations, the free trial lessons provided and the chance to meet other au pairs. For us, it was a wonderful opportunity to meet so many lovely au pairs in person.

We now have a further unique opportunity to offer for au pairs; a brand new online accredited au pair induction course, delivered by Milton Keynes Language Center and agreed for Smartaupairs at half price!

To benefit from this half price offer –

Enrol your au pair online before 30 September as follows:

Enter promotional code SMART0909 (must use capitals) on

http://www.mklc.co.uk/aupair.html

and pay by PayPal as instructed. The name of the student to enrol must be your au pair as this will be the name for the exam and certificate.

The course is designed to be a 30 hour course divided into 4 sections, covering topics such as Getting To Know Your Family, Health & safety, Food & Recipes and ‘Out & About’. Throughout the course your au pair will have access to support from a tutor plus a student forum. At the end of the course, when all the assessments/tasks have been completed successfully, an official certificate will be issued.

The Au pair course is one unit of a larger course titled ‘British Culture’; other units in the course being: British business etiquette, British heritage, People in history and Famous Britons.

We feel this will be a fantastic benefit for all au pairs keen to embrace the cultural experience!

New Au Pair Course

Smartaupairs is contributing to a brand new ‘au pair’ course which has already received accreditation through the OCN, the Open College Network. The course is designed by Milton Keynes Language Center and will be online. It will be a 30 hour course set out over 4 sections.

The course is designed to be a 30 hour course set out over 4 sections, covering topics such as Getting To Know Your Family, Health & safety, Food & Recipes and ‘Out & about’. Throughout the course you will have access to support from a tutor plus a student forum. At the end of the course, when all the assessments/tasks have been completed successfully, an official certificate will be issued.

The Au pair course is one unit of a larger course titled ‘British Culture’; other units in the course being: British business etiquette, British heritage, People in history and Famous Britons.

In addition to the OCN accreditation, we are hoping to gain endorsement from BAPAA for this course, which provides an excellent starting point for every au pair candidate travelling to Britain or recently arrived with their British host family.

The course will be sold at £60 including exam fee and certificate and will launch from 1^st September 2009.

We also hope to include the course in some of our promotions at a reduced fee so ‘watch this space!’

We feel this will be a fantastic benefit for all au pairs keen to embrace the cultural experience!

More Choice of Specialist Candidates

Our specialist candidates are very popular with families looking for that ‘little bit extra’ from the au pair placement.

These Specialists are candidates who are either Native English speakers, Mother’s help candidates (more responsibility and/or longer hours) or ‘tutor-au-pair’ candidates (able to assist with homework support).

The candidates below may be placed at any time and their profiles are just examples of the caliber of specialists we regularly place through smartaupairs.

For more practical information about
Mother’s help positions click here.

For more practical information about
Tutor au pairs click here

SPECIALIST (5147)

Lisanne from The Netherlands

Lisanne is a 21 years old Dutch girl and a Specialist candidate. She completed 2 1/2 years of a teacher training course and also did practical training but decided it was not her ideal future career and wanted to take a year out before making definitive decisions about her future studies (Sep 2010) and wants to spend the ‘year out’ as au pair.

• Tutor or Mother’s Help candidate
• Extensive childcare experiences due to her education and a lot of babysitting
• Internships at Nursery for babies and toddlers, at Primary schools for children with learning difficulties (ages 6-11) and at a Montessori school (ages 6-9)
• Very good English skills
• Start date: July 2009 for 9 – 12 months

SPECIALIST (5165)

Erin from Canada

Erin is a 21 years old Canadian girl and therefore a native English speaker. She has got lots of childcare experiences as she has worked as a Supply Early Childhood Educator to take part in essential routines and assisting children during those routines such as toileting, sleep time and supervising outside. She also worked as a “Before and After School Program Teacher”.
Erin loves horse back riding, is a condident rider and gave children horse back riding lessons in summer camps. She has done a lot of babysitting as well.

• Native English Speaker
• Early childhood Education first aid CPR
• Extensive childcare experiences with babies, toddlers and school aged children
• Start date: September 2009 for 11 – 12 months

SPECIALIST (5174)

Edith from Sweden

Edith is an 18 years old Swedish girl and has got lots of experiences in supervising children. She has provided live-in care in a family in Sweden while being a part time student in high school and she has also been a summer au pair in England already. Edith gained many experiences in babysitting as well. As she loves dancing she arranged a dance camp for children that she has written the stories for and she has been the chorographer for the shows the children performed.

• Mother’s help candidate
• Extensive childcare experiences with babies, toddlers and school aged children. Her mum is also a nanny so full support.
• Very good English skills.
• She has already lived away from home since she was 15 while providing Live-in care
• Start date: July 2009 for 6 – 12 months

New Program Manager at Smartaupairs & Program Development

It is with great pleasure that I announce Tuuli’s promotion to Au Pair Program Manager. Tuuli started with Smartaupairs in summer 2008 on a work placement/intern program from Lancaster University, where she was in her 3rd year of a degree in Business Management.

Tuuli is originally from Estonia and grew up in Finland, giving her a head-start in cross cultural understanding. Lancaster University added to the multi-cultural experience as their student community is made up of almost 100 different nationalities.

She was keen to find a work placement in a small yet ambitious company and when we interviewed her for the role we were impressed by her both her skills and her drive to succeed. From the very beginning, she showed a positive and innovative approach and her results driven capabilities have much contributed to the success of Smartaupairs.

As we have many more plans for success and growth for Smartaupairs, we were very keen to offer Tuuli this promotion. She will be fully responsible for the daily placement process, i.e. liaison with host families, au pairs and agencies abroad to ensure we offer consistently high service levels to all stakeholders.  In addition to this, we will work together on developing new ideas, different services and communication campaigns.

With Tuuli in place, we can focus on further strategic development for Smartaupairs. Our Tutor program and the introduction of Native Speakers have seen phenomenal demand from host families requiring with ‘just a little bit more’. My focus will be of bringing host families more options in the ‘gold quality’ bracket and above. I am already talking with agencies in Australia and New Zealand to bring us more native speaking au pairs.

We are also in the final stages of a new agreement with a European Agency network who has traditionally only sent au pairs to the USA and are used to screening for ‘the very best’. We are looking forward to placing their top calibre candidates, who will have significantly better than average language skills due to their national education system and their level of prior education. Many will be skilled drivers and have at least 100 hours of childcare experience and be committed to the au pair program for an academic year. Their au pairs will come predominantly from Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands.

And finally, we are working closely with one of our partners in The Netherlands to attract Childcare trainees. These will be young people who will have completed the first part of learning to be a professional child carer with Dutch SPW qualifications similar to the UK NVQ2/BTEC2 level. We want to enable these applicants to continue their learning in the UK during their stay with a host family, allowing them to complete level 3 during their stay with the host family. Their formal training will be limited to one Saturday each month whilst their informal learning will be ongoing with your children!

Smartaupairs Au Pair Welcome Pack

Smartaupairs is dedicated in offering the best service for both host families and au pairs.

Upon arrival to the UK host family, each au pair receives the newly improved welcome pack in a handy, re-usable folder.

The welcome pack includes plenty of useful and fun information for the au pair stay:

•    “The Au Pair Handbook” - A handy guide for the au pair stay. It provides plenty of practical information from au pair duties to free time and travel

•    O2 Sim Card – allows to convert the mobile phone onto a UK network instantly.

•    Smartaupairs Lanyard – A convenient and stylish way of keeping the home keys/other little gadgets in one place.

•    Stickers & Balloons – Great ‘ice-breakers’ for children, they love to get a sticker if they do something well and many parents prefer these kind of rewards to giving sweet treats.

•   ‘Get Kids on the Go’ – leaflet – Ideal for early days, when language skills may not be so strong yet. Sport and play is an ideal way to get to know each other, without the need for much language.

•    Stay Safe! – leaflet & personal alarm order form -  The leaflet provides the au pair with useful tips to keep oneself & one’s belongings safe. In addition, the au pair may order an affordable personal alarm, which is small enough to attach to your keyholder.

•    Access to the exclusive aupair2aupair.com website.

And, if your placement in the UK is arranged by Smartaupairs, you will also automatically receive e-mails from us to inform you of au pair excursions, discounts on language classes and other benefits!

Smartaupairs Now Member of IAPA

Smartaupairs has joined IAPA, the International Au Pair Agency Association. After being on the executive committee of BAPAA since 2007 and representing The British Au Pair Agencies Association on ECAPS, the European Committee of Au Pair Standards, I felt it was time to take Smartaupairs to the next level.

In the last few years IAPA has become more important in the au pair industry and have really gained ground. Many au pair agencies all over the world realise that being part of a trade association is a great way to share best practise to find professional business partners.

It is likely that the au pair program will continue to gain popularity as in the current economic situation young people may not have many job options after full time education and this is a great program to help them to gain more practical skills before they start looking for a job or possibly before they decide on further education.

Go to http://www.smartaupairs.com/

Live-In Tutor Program

In addition to our regular au pair program, we have found that there are more and more families who are looking for that little bit ‘extra’ and when only the very best candidates will do, we need to look at slightly different options to the regular au pair role.

We have designed a live-in tutoring program due to popular demand from families who need an educated young person who is willing and able to take on more responsibility and really interact with your children and help them with home work and contribute towards their learning requirements.

It is an ideal role for a newly qualified/part qualified teacher or someone with an interest in a teaching career.

For this program we are selecting applicants who fit the following criteria:

• Minimum commitment 6 months (ideally 9-12)
• 21+
• Flexible about location
• Good/excellent English
• Experience or qualification in teaching, home-work support

We will be able to place them with families who are

• Looking for help with school aged children
• Allocating tasks directly related to children only and with focus on education & development
• Allocating tasks like a nanny but for older children, such as; planning + preparation/tidy up after meals, preparation of school bags/uniforms/sports-kit, laundry for children, tidy children’s rooms, transport to/from school, transport to/from children’s activities, planning/organising activities for the children, help with homework revision
• During school holidays – more hours, more activities for the children (extra pay)
• Able to give access to local language classes or other studies such as teacher training, Vocational childcare qualification
• Wiling to give 2 weeks paid holiday for every 6 months worked
• Extra pay for extra hours and ‘other tasks’ such as additional cleaning, laundry for parents, additional babysitting may be agreed.

Pocket money is minimum £100 per week for 25 hours (tutor) + 2 evenings babysitting, which still means you are under the level for Tax/NI contributions, so the paperwork remains simple! (This tax year (2008-09), the basic Personal Allowance – or tax-free amount – is £6,035)

For more information about the placement fees, please see our fees page.

Please call us today on 0800 917 81 66 to discuss your search for a tutor or register online today.

go to www.smartaupairs.com

Personal Ponder (Nicole Kofkin)

Cultural exchange is child’s play

Running an au pair agency as my own business means that I am fortunate to be involved in encouraging young Europeans to embark on a cultural exchange experience.

In addition to this I host au pairs in our own family also and the experiences have always been positive, even though there is the occasional moment when you realised that a slightly different approach to a particular situation may have worked better.

My current au pair from France has possibly been the most successful, which is ‘no mean feat’ considering the others were all great. It was nice that from day one we were able to get to know each other better as I speak French, which helped for the more challenging conversations. By Christmas we rarely switched to French as her English language skills had improved so fast, we could cover every topic with easy.

She enrolled in a Childcare Apprenticeship course and invested a lot of effort into learning all about childcare. She enjoyed volunteering in a local nursery as part of the course and relished the opportunity to improve her English language skills through the course material, the NVQ was not very difficult but some of the learning material on the BTEC proved to be a bit harder. She worked on her ‘homework’ many hours during the weekends, even though I would have been happy for her to do some whilst looking after the children. I think in the entire year she has been with us there was never a single cross word. I hope she says the same about us…….

But now to the point, my French au pair has introduced her to another form of cultural exchange, or, more correctly, her brother did. Her brother Karl and his lovely wife Mary visited us with their oldest son M in the Easter holidays. Although my children speak only very basic French (well done Club Français) and he spoke even less English, the communication seemed remarkably easy and the boys got on very well. Karl suggested after a few glasses of wine that it would be a great idea if my boys E (5) and J (8) would come and visit them in the summer holidays, Anne Laure would ofcourse come with them……. And I agreed, it seemed like a great idea and say we would like to offer to return the favour and host their boys for a week at our home too.

And although the idea was a ‘spur of the moment’ thing, it actually grew on us and we researched available dates and then flights were booked.

So here we are, it is July and I am busy in the office. So much so that at this time of year I am unable to take any time off to go on holiday. We have a Spanish summer au pair in our home and her stay was agreed before the boys cultural adventure was agreed. And the boys are in France .

We speak every day on the phone and I cannot wait to hear all of their stories. So far they have told me that they have spoken French (ofcourse!) been to the market, ridden the donkeys, made a bracelet for me, been on a boat trip on a lake and been to the beach. It seems they are having a fantastic time and J. is totally happy with E. having the odd moment of ‘is it time to go home yet’. It naturally helps that they are not with only strangers, as they know Anne-Laure so well, having lived with her all this year.

As a business, I think it is unlikely that I would invest in starting programs for cultural exchange for children, as this must be a very complicated product to get it right. As an individual and a mum however, I would certainly recommend it to families as a consideration for their children. I am picking them up from the airport tomorrow and I seem to be far more excited by that prospect then they are.

Looking forward to a week with the French boys here in a weeks’ time, I hope I can be part of their very first positive cultural exchange program also and set them up with a passion for exploring other languages, cultures and destinations.

Nicole Kofkin Joins Executive Board

The British Au Pair Agency Association (BAPAA) has asked Nicole Kofkin to join the board and the invitation was made official with an appointment during the AGM on 8 November.

Smartaupairs is proud to be a member of the Trade Association for au pairs and is now looking forward to contribute to enhancing standards for the industry.

On her appointment to the board of BAPAA, Nicole Kofkin comments;

All of the host families really appreciate that we are members of BAPAA, they are looking for quality and security and this is why families come to a trusted agency. Smart families are very aware of the risks of using the internet or an unregulated agency to recruit au pairs.

I believe BAPAA has a fundamental role in taking the au pair experience forward. It is an exciting time with new opportunities and lots to learn. BAPAA is working with ECAPS to achieve pan-European standards for the au pair experience, making sure it is valued as a real cultural exchange program. Other countries, like the Netherlands, have already implemented the ECAPS standards and are working closely with the Dutch immigration and visa authorities. Their efforts mean that Dutch families are able to host au pairs from a much wider range than families in Britain, for example a Brazilian au pair or au pair from Sri Lanka.

Sharing knowledge and ideas with other members is equally vital. As a strong network of experts, you are able to face future challenges and turn them into opportunities. Au pairs are not always aware of the risks of finding you own host family. If you are placed by a BAPAA agent you will have access to a 24 hour helpline, an excursion program, a online ‘find a friend’ website for au pairs and much more. We need to make sure the benefits are communicated to all prospective au pairs.

And the future of the British Au Pair Agency Association?

The au pair experience is a fantastic opportunity for intelligent and ambitious young people to broaden their horizons. Who knows, in the next few years more countries may join the au pairs scheme, from further afield possibly.

Smartaupairs and Visit Britain

Our link on the Visit Britain site is live!

I am very proud that smartaupairs has been chosen to supply au pair information for Visit Britain.

This is a site with multi million visitors and it will bring the au pair experience to the attention of many prospective au pairs. It is rewarding to see that our incoming tourist industry recognises the value of au pairs to the youth market as they come here to discover and explore, invite friends & family and go sightseeing together.

This site launched recently in the USA; Australia and Ireland are live too, here is our page:

Smartaupairs on Visit Britain website

You can click through to the interview with the au pair expert (me!)

The site is being rolled out to other countries and translated into many languages.

Here is one that wins the prize for most incomprehensible.

Enjoy!