Do you love being around children? Are you looking for a way to work overseas with little outgoings? Apply to work as an au pair. You can find jobs all around the world, from Europe, to North America to Oceania. This is a great way to integrate into a different country, earn money and travel and see new places.
Top Rated Au Pair Programs
Featured Companies
These companies are hiring au pairs and nannies now:
Global Work & Travel
Join an international host family and care for children, with living expenses covered. Find placements in UK, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Australia, USA, Canada, New Zealand and China.
Mômji
Do you speak English, German, Spanish or Chinese? Mômji offer childcare jobs throughout France. Find part time work in cities like Paris, Lyon, Lille and 8 other French cities.
InterExchange
Work as an au pair in the USA, Australia, France and New Zealand with InterExchange! Experience a new culture and create life-long memories along the way! InterExchange help you apply for your visa and find a great host family, and provide support throughout.
Instituto Hemingway
Instituto Hemingway offer au pair jobs in Bilbao, Spain.
Top Reasons to Au Pair
Living and working with a local family will mean that you will get to know a new foreign city very well. You will immerse yourself in local culture and local languages, while earning money and doing something you enjoy. You also get to experience a city like a local instead of like a tourist. More benefits include:
• Low cost way to live overseas as free accommodation is provided
• Get paid
• Make friends
• Gain experience
• Lots of free time to travel and explore new places
Popular Places to Work
You can find positions all around the world. Popular destinations include the UK, Ireland, Netherlands, France, Spain, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. If you are open to new cultures and experiences you can even find au pair placements in places like Asia and Latin America.
FAQ
How do I get a job as an au pair?
The easiest way to work as an au pair is to register with an agency complete an online application.
Usually you will need to fill in a profile providing information about yourself including your experience. This will then be processed before being adding to a database which host families can then search and recruit you.
Do you need qualifications to be an au pair?
Most companies will require some childcare experience, this can include babysitting, volunteering or working at a nursery or playschool, coaching children’s sports, working with a church group, tutoring children or any type of activity benefitting children. If you have ever been to work at a summer camp this experience also looks great to employers.
What’s the difference between an au-pair and a nanny?
An au-pair will usually live with a family in one of their spare rooms and will live like one of the family. They will get accommodation and food for free and a small amount of extra money for taking care of the children. Usually you would act as kind of a ‘mother’s helper’, collecting kids from school and helping to feed, bathe and play with them. You would also sometimes have sole charge of the children. Families may also want you to give their kids basic English classes or just to speak to them in English.
For nanny jobs you will usually require some kind of childcare qualification or have worked with kids before. This is ideal if you’ve just finished a child care college or university course and want to go on to do this type of work for your career. For nanny jobs you have a lot more sole responsibility for the children and may also be required to look after babies. Nannies can live in with the family or find their own accommodation and are usually paid a bit more than au-pairs.
For both jobs you may be expected to do some light cleaning, washing, ironing etc and cooking for the kids.
Is working as an au pair hard work?
Being an au-pair or nanny can be tough, but it’s also a very rewarding experience and one where you could make friends for life. The hours are long but the work is fun, you’ll be getting paid to play games, run in the park, paint and bake cookies.
At times it can be a bit lonely being an au-pair or nanny, so make sure you connect with other nannies or enrol in a language class for a few hours a week to meet other foreigners. Look on social networking sites to find other nannies in the same area. Your family may also be able to put you in touch with other families who have au-pairs. Meeting others in your situation will mean you’ll have a much more rewarding experience.
Your experience also very much depends on the family you work for. Going through an agency is a safer and better way of finding a good family, rather than looking on social networking or free classified sites, as families will usually have been vetted by the agency.