The joy of working with children and the opportunity to add to your pocketbook are great reasons to start working as a nanny. But how exactly is this possible? Below, we will help you answer questions that will help you and give you important tips that will increase your chances of getting that coveted job.
How to become a nanny
A nanny is a domestic worker, or less commonly, an independent contractor, who looks after children in a family. Her duties include looking after the children, caring for them and raising them, accompanying them to school, and supervising and assisting with homework and schoolwork.
Mary Poppins is perhaps the most famous nanny in the world, who with her heart, songs, adventure stories and magical flying umbrella brought two children closer to their troubled father. While there is some truth to the Disney films based on P.L. Travers' Mary Poppins novels, the day-to-day work is not quite like her.
Babysitting tasks
The scope of work varies from case to case and is specified in the contract. Typical tasks include:
- Caring for children.
- Cooking for children (by arrangement), for the whole family.
- Doing homework, lessons, and in some cases foreign language lessons.
- Teaching children, often preparing them to perform tasks in the community.
- Pick up and drop off children from school, clubs, music classes, etc.
- Shopping and errands for children (at home), for everyone.
- Cleaning children's rooms (by arrangement), cleaning the entire house.
- Laundry for children and, by arrangement, washing of all household linen.
- Pet care.
- Care while traveling, at night/weekends.
- Games and leisure.
As already mentioned, the main task of a nanny is to look after the children in the family. The care takes place in the family's home or on its premises. Today, however, there are types of nannies who are present in the family only during working hours. The extent to which night shifts, weekend work and looking after the child while travelling are part of the nanny's duties is regulated in the individual contract. However, she is generally expected to take on these tasks.
In addition to caring for and taking care of children's emotional and physical well-being, they are responsible for the upbringing and education of children: from early play development and strengthening social skills to helping with extracurricular activities and preparing for exams. Foreign or multilingual nannies are often entrusted with teaching a foreign language.
Daily duties include accompanying children to and from school, for example, sports/music classes, running errands and cleaning the children's room. In addition, she often helps with all household chores. For example, she does laundry, looks after pets, flowers, goes shopping, runs errands and cleans the house. These tasks, which are not directly related to caring for the child, distinguish her duties from those of a caregiver. The scope of these additional tasks, which are part of the job, is also specified in the individual contract.
Working hours and professional relationships
The working hours of different nannies can vary greatly. Depending on the needs of the family, it can range from part-time to full-time. Some families need a nanny at night and on weekends, while others only need their own working hours during the week. A certain willingness to travel is often required so that children are supervised during holidays when parents are away on business. Overtime is also often required. The extent to which this is paid separately is determined on a case-by-case basis. These are points that should be regulated in each contract to avoid disagreements in the future.
In most cases, they are agency workers who receive a fixed salary and any bonuses. They are subject to normal employment and social security legislation. They are entitled to paid leave, continued payment of wages in the event of illness, depending on health insurance, daily allowance for temporary incapacity for work, maternity and birth allowance and sick pay in the event of long absence from work due to illness. In addition, like any employee, they are subject to social and pension insurance, and the employer pays the normal share of compulsory health insurance. Accident insurance at work is provided by the employer. As employees, nannies can expect maternity and parental leave.
Nowadays, they are more often self-employed on a contract basis. In this case, general conditions such as working hours and tasks are regulated by contract, but they must take care of social and health insurance. There is also no statutory protection against dismissal in this case.
What qualifications are required?
Unlike teachers, they do not require education, but are usually people who have changed professions and have undergone training in the social field or have higher education. They can be both childcare workers and nurses, as well as teachers and graduates of social education faculties. Employers usually recognize certificates of educators and licenses issued by youth welfare agencies. Several years of work experience and professional certificates suitable for care are accepted, but it is rare for someone to enter this profession without previous experience and training.
How much does a nanny earn?
A question that naturally arises among interested parties. Depending on various factors:
- Contract type: employed or self-employed
- Overtime and night work
- Readiness for business trips
- Number of children to be cared for
- Place of residence
- Monthly number of working hours
- Experience and recommendations
On average (we take prices in Kyiv), with full employment, you can count on a net income of about 40,000 hryvnias per month through an agency!, or from 200-250 hryvnias per hour. Overtime, weekend and night bonuses, as well as travel bonuses may be paid additionally depending on the contract. As a self-employed person, your net income may be in this range. However, you need to calculate additional expenses in advance in order to calculate a good gross hourly rate.
In any case, it is important to have professional liability insurance. In addition, regardless of whether you work for yourself or for an employer, your contract should be multi-page and cover all possible cases. This includes overtime pay, night work, weekend work, reimbursement of travel expenses where possible, the right to food, accommodation and vacation. As a self-employed person, you should provide for a certain amount of paid and unpaid vacation. The contract should clearly state the employer's liability in the event of illness, absence, and notice period. It is especially advisable to include these points in the contract, since in the case of self-employed persons they are not provided for by law.
Tips for getting a job
Gain experience
Careers often begin with caring for babies and toddlers from your own family, circle of friends.
1. Experience in one's own family
Do you have younger siblings or cousins? This is a great opportunity to quickly, easily gain experience by working with other families. You usually spend a lot of time with younger siblings - playing, going to the playground, reading bedtime stories. These are everyday things that you do as an older sibling without even thinking about it. But this is exactly the kind of experience that will help you.
2. Children of friends/neighbors
Of course, you can get this experience if you do not have younger relatives. In this case, you will certainly have the opportunity to look after the children of neighbors, friends. The big advantage here is that the parents already know you, they can decide without hesitation whether they can leave their child under your supervision. By looking after the children of friends or acquaintances, you become one step closer to the goal of working in the desired field.
Prove your experience
Parents who leave their child with other people assume that they are trustworthy and have experience. So how do you prove your experience if you have never worked as a nanny before?
1. Prove your expertise with recommendations
It is beneficial to confirm your experience with a short written recommendation. Friends and relatives to whom you have already demonstrated your skills will probably be willing to provide a kind of recommendation. This can later be added to the application as a recommendation. In the recommendations, it is useful to indicate how long you worked for the family, how old the children were for whom you looked after, what tasks you performed. This makes it clear what experience you have acquired and whether you meet the requirements of the family. These recommendations can certainly help.
2. Experience through certificates (diploma)
You can take a special training course. Such courses are offered, for example, by the Red Cross. There, future nannies learn what is important when communicating with children. In addition, important things such as behavior in the event of an accident or illness of a child are taught. Successful participation in the courses is confirmed by a certificate - a diploma. This is very popular among parents and, hopefully, the issue will soon be a thing of the past.
Conclusion
If you want to work as a nanny, just search for vacancies on online job boards or contact agencies. You can also contact families looking for a nanny through ads, or provide yours and let them find you! Unfortunately, we don't have magic umbrellas that can fly.
