For Au Pairs
Placements in UK, Europe & China
If you are a flexible person, who is easy to live with, has a good amount of experience with children and good references to prove this, then we would like to hear from you!
Register Now to be an Au Pair in UK, Europe or China.
Please be prepared to send us your:
- CV, with a full description of your childcare experiences, written in English.
- Photos of yourself with children
- Childcare references and a character reference (not from family members or close friends). We supply forms for Character & Childcare References.
- Copies of other important documents like driving licence, school graduation certificate, degree, passport
Furthermore:
- please organise for a police check on yourself (this must be recent).
- please obtain a medical certificate from your doctor (this must be recent).
There is no charge to register with Heavenly Au Pairs.
Regardless of whether or not you choose to register with Heavenly Au Pairs, we advise you to always find your host family through a reputable agency – don't try to find one by yourself. Why?
- An Au Pair Agency has the experience to make a good match, so the placement will be a success.
- To ensure your safety and security.
- The Au Pair Agency will have informed the Host Family about the Au Pair Programme and will make sure you are treated fairly.
- To help support you when you are in your destination country; if you have questions, problems or need advice.
- To help you settle in, find friends, language school etc.
You will be a great Au Pair if you:
- are caring, cheerful, honest, respectful, friendly, helpful, patient and flexible!
- genuinely love children -to look after them, play with and teach them things.
- can already speak the language quite well.
- are open to new cultures- including new foods!
- can cope well despite any homesickness, which you might suffer from.
- are independent, but also enjoy being part of a family.
Being an au pair for the first time, in a foreign country, is both very exciting and a little bit daunting! The most important thing is to choose your future host family with great care. Do not be afraid to ask the family whatever you feel you need to know, and ask again if you are still unsure of the answer. Heavenly Au Pairs operates with the highest integrity and will only work with good, decent and honest families, but you still need to be careful to make sure you choose the right family for you. If you are unhappy with your chosen family and you cannot work together to resolve differences, then of course you can leave, but that is an unpleasant situation for you, for the family and very much for the children involved and should be prevented.
Choose your family with care!
For Inbound Au Pairs, many of our Families are in London and we are London based aupair agency but we also have good families throughout the UK who are looking for great au pairs.
For Outbound Au Pairs, we can offer you Families all over continental Europe and in the major cities of China.
We have a wealth of information for au-pairs about how to present yourself accurately to the family and to speed up the process of finding a good family.
Tips for completing the Au Pair Registration form
Please remember that the Family who reads your Registration form does not know you yet. It is your responsibility to inform them of all the things that might help your application. They will be most interested to know how much childcare experience you have and what ages those children were. In addition to this, they will want to find out, by reading your registration, if you are a nice, kind, honest, reliable person, who they would enjoy including as part of their family.
Please give as much detail about your childcare work as possible, all babysitting, summer camp positions, leading children's church groups, tutoring, care of your young brother/sister etc.
If you would like to send us any additional information about your work with children, or qualifications, on separate pages then please make sure your name appears clearly on the top of each page and send it to info@heavenlyaupairs.com.
Please note, we will only accept registrations from good candidates who have verifiable experience with children; this includes candidates who have been looking after young siblings often by themselves.
Please see our Blog to see if you are eligible to apply to become and Au Pair in the UK.
How to make your placement a success!
If you have read our page on 'What is an Au Pair?' and understood this then you will have a good understanding of what the role of an Au Pair is. This understanding, together with some common sense should be enough to ensure that your placement is a success. Most placements work out very well, but occasionally some do not. This might be the fault of the Au Pair, or of the Family, or just a mis-match of expectations/personalities.
- We do everything possible to prevent a placement from failing, as it is an unpleasant situation for the Au Pair, the Family and above all, the children. You can help by answering the Registration form honestly, so that the family knows who you are and what you can or cannot do before they choose you.
- Always stay in contact with the family, before you arrive and during the placement if you are away. As part of the family you are an important person and must be contactable at all times, should the family need to tell you or ask you something. Always keep your mobile phone with you.
- Treat everyone in the family with respect. That way they will also treat you with respect.
- Do not 'clock watch' – if your hours end at 7pm, and it is 7.10pm then don't drop everything and go out (unless you have an appointment which the family knows about and the children are looked after). A true member of the family would not do this. If you usually find you are doing longer hours and are unhappy about this, find another time to sit down and talk this through with your host parents.
- Never leave the children unattended.
- Try to fit your lifestyle around the family. Attend language school and meet your friends in your spare time.
- The more helpful and kind you are in the family, the more they will like you and include you. This means they will take you into their hearts and really treat you as part of their family. The more they talk to you, the better your English will become!
- Remember that you are here to help the family. They will of course ensure that you are safe and happy, but as an adult they will expect you to be able to look after yourself. They do not expect to care for you like another child.
- Keep yourself and your room clean and tidy.
- If you are unsure what you should be doing, ask until you understand.
- When you arrive do make an effort to make friends, with local people or other Au Pairs as quickly as possible. This will really help you to settle in.
- With great technology such as skype it could be tempting to call home every day, but our advice is not to do this. Research has shown that young people who contact their families too often are at greater risk of developing homesickness. It is therefore recommended that you call home just once per week at an agreed time. That way you will not spend too much time focussing on 'home', but shift focus to your new environment instead. When you put your efforts and thoughts into your new location you will either keep homesickness as bay, or conquer it.
- If your placement works well it could be one of the best, most fun and rewarding times of your life. I know many people today at the age of 40 who are still in touch with their au pairs from their own childhood! That's success!
Register Now to be an Au Pair.