What do we mean when we say au pair? The universally accepted understanding of the term is a home help assistant, usually of foreign nationality. Thousands of young people eager to learn a new language and culture choose to become au pairs or nannies, living with a host family and helping with the childcare and light housework in return for a weekly 'pocket money' (although some sites are offering au pairs as affordable helpers for the elderly, but that is a subject for a separate article). The term itself is French, meaning 'on par' or 'equal to' - referring to the relationship between the host family and the au pair; the au pair is not a servant but an equal who should be treated as a member of the family.
Traditionally the process of matching au pairs and host families required the services of 2 different agencies, one located in the home country of the au pair and the other in the country that the prospective job was situated. So the au pair would deal with one agency and the host family another. The advantage to this was both parties could be sure that everything was legitimate and could rely on the agencies to conduct interviews and vouch for the integrity and character of the au pair or host family, therefore resulting in a much safer and more successful experience.
When the internet came about things changed for the au pair service industry; agencies could now deal with au pairs and families through their company website, local agencies were no longer necessary. So for example prospective au pairs could apply directly on the website of an agency in their target country ( the country in which they want to find a host family ), this saved them any fees they would normally have paid a local agency. Of course the drawback was that the agency in the target country could not interview the au pair on a one-to-one basis.
The next progression was internet servers that could store databases and programming languages like ASP, ColdFusion & PHP that could interact with those databases. This enabled these internet sites to become fully automated, matching au pairs and host families as soon as they register.
This in turn reduced the need for employees within the agency manually matching applicants and hence enabled these sites to offer their services at much reduced rates; normally a membership fee which is less than the traditional agency fee.
These automated sites were for obvious reasons very popular until a couple of years ago for the following reasons.
There were many downfalls of the automated service however; the agency, family and au pair became separate entities, most of the time never communicating directly until the day the au pair arrives at the host family's home; which in reality may turn out to be very different than the description offered by the family. Families did not get a personal service and were now required to put a lot more time and effort into emailing and calling prospective au pairs, a lot of whom were not that serious about becoming au pairs - au pairs may feel that there is no real commitment to the automated registration process as there wasn't an agency calling them to check up.
There was also the problem of 'scam' au pairs and families; automated sites do no filter registrations or check whether they are authentic applicants. There have been many cases where phony au pairs contact families saying they wish to become their au pair but cannot afford the flight ticket or the visa costs, the family would then send money to the au pair to help her but then never hear from her again.
It is estimated that 45% of all applicants on automated au pair and nanny matching sites are Nigerian 419 Fraudsters. For example au pairs have been conned into sending money to families that do not exist. The scamsters will register on automated sites posing as wealthy families living in big homes, offering very generous wages, thus encouraging au pairs to get in contact with them. After picking a girl they would then send her an offering of goodwill; a ridiculous sum of money that would seduce the girl into believing anything they said from now on. Before the money can clear in the bank account - which it never will - they would convince her they need some of it back, because so many girls trust the families wholeheartedly they would do this without question. Check on the aupair-agency.com au pairs site.
As a result of this growing situation most au pairs, nannies and host families have now turned back to the traditionally agencies, feeling that a more personal service is required to ensure that they find the au pair or family that is a good match. With the more traditional agencies au pairs and families can call or email if they need advice or assistance, they can speak to someone who has experience in the industry and trust that any worries they may have will be rectified. Traditional agencies also eliminate the likelihood of fraudsters getting through the registration process as each registration form is checked carefully.
Soraya is currently doing a BA in Media studies at Cardiff university and is a marketing consultant for aupair-agency.com aupair-agency.com - Almondbury au pair and nanny agency
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