Au Pair Selection / Matching
Au Pair Selection / Matching
Matching Process - Screening and Phone Interview
The matching process is half the battle. It truly accounts for 50% of a successful Au Pair year for your family.
Pre-selecting the Best Candidates
First, prescreen the best candidates from your Au Pair agency. The application and host family letter are important components, along with her references will give you a good clue if her background is suited for your family. Try to match her childcare background closely to your own children. If you have two or more children, look for an Au Pair that has siblings.
Common mistakes that host families make when selecting an Au Pair are:
Selecting somebody with poor English skills, poor driving skills, party girls where the primary focus is not on your children, boyfriends at home can be a problem too.
Please read all advice for pre-selecting and phone interviews!!! Here we go.
Having started babysitting at around age 14 – 16 shows that the Au Pair really loves children enough to want to babysit.
It depends on how many children you have and their ages. Try to match the Au Pairs childcare background as closely as possible to the children that you have.
All legal Au Pair agencies prescreen girls, however, that doesn’t mean that she will be suited for your family or that she has the right motivation.
Be cautious of (view Section "Phone Interview" below for more details)
• Childcare provided only to her cousins or immediate relatives.
• Childcare experience only in a nursery, kindergarten, daycare center.
• Childcare only in a summer camp.
• Very little childcare experience, ie. just one child over the course of one (1) year.
• Poor English language skills. Poor comprehension of English often causes a lot of misinterpretations and miscommunication.
• A recent driver’s license in her home country.
• Au Pairs from wealthy families. Some Au Pairs grew up in well-to-do families with their own housekeepers and nannies, meaning she is not used to doing household chores and will not be good about straightening up after your children.
Comments
Good luck with your website!
Edina Stone
Founder & CEO
www.aupairclearingh ouse.com