An Educational Adventure

A fULLFILLING EXPERIENCE

For Families:

In modern day life it can often be difficult to combine personal life and working life and very often requires external support... For those families were both parents work is a  common dilemma to find someone for looking after their children. We want someone who assists in their personal development, someone who plays with them, someone with education, who helps them to complete their homework and, if possible, who  facilitates the practice and learning a  second language at home… Definitely, a young person, excited with the idea  of being  part of your family  and who your children are confortable with.

For young people:

Nowadays going to College or University to learn a language is not enough. More emphasis is being put on immersion into the language through its country and its culture. Unfortunately, learning languages is, very often very expensive, mainly because when you want to learn a language you must stay in a country many months… If your goal is learning a language, one of the most profitable options for studing is becoming an Au Pair. There are many reasons for that:

• Au Pair Programs are regulated, so Students are protected,
• Au Pair Programs make possible long stays in the host country, as you have the guarantee the accommodation, maintenance and pocket money.
• Au Pair Programs mean a linguistic and cultural immersion  with a host family.

But, What´s an Au Pair Program?

An Au Pair Program is an opportunity for young people (18-26 years old) to stay with  a host family with the benefit of learning and improving a language and living a cultural experience all of this under a specific regulation. The young student lives in a host family, being part of the family participating  in childcare and light homework, in exchange for accommodation, maintenance and pocket money. The rooms may not always be the standard of big city hotels such as the Hilton London or the britannia hotel manchester, but they are usually very nice and quite comfortable. The length of the stay ranges between 1 month (mainly summer season) and 1 year approximately (coinciding with school year).
So, Au Pair Programs are not really jobs but a paid activity based in a intercultural exchange.

Is Legally Recognized?

Council of Europe regulates  Au Pair Programs through the Agreement signed in Strasbourg the 24th of November of 1969. This agreement was also ratified by Belgium, Demmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway and Switzerland.
The sign of this agreement is the result of the following items:

• Considerating the aim of the Council of Europe is to achieve greater unity between its members, in particular for the purpose of facilitating their social progress;
• Noting that in Europe more and more young persons, especially girls, are going abroad to be placed "au pair";
• Considering that persons placed "au pair" belong neither to the student category nor to the worker category but to a special category which has features of both, and that therefore it is useful to make appropriate arrangements for them;
• Acknowledging more particularly the need to give persons placed "au pair" adequate social protection inspired by the principles laid down in the European Social Charter;