Isa Maria Steiner, an au pair from Germany, takes care of the one-year-old son of her host family. [Provided to China Daily]

Market prospects for sector promising in china as household incomes increase

It was difficult for Yang Kun, 33, to find a well educated nanny she could trust to take good care of her one-year-old son. To provide a bilingual environment for her boy she even toyed with the idea of illegally hiring "a Filipino maid", as she put it.

That's when Yang, of Beijing, decided she would give au pairing a try. Enter Isa Maria Steiner, 19, a student from Germany, who came to Yang's family as an au pair after graduating from high school in July.

For the past four months Steiner has attended Chinese lessons every morning and teaches her host brother, Tiger, English while playing with him. Working conditions stipulate that she has to work four hours a day and have two free days a week.

"Sometimes it's amazing to see that he understands English even better than I do," Yang says. "I think I'm going to get another au pair when Isa has to leave."

Au pairs are student-age people, mostly women, who travel abroad to learn about another culture and earn their keep by doing housework for a family. That work often involves caring for children, and can include giving language lessons.

Au pair work has existed in the West for more than a century, but has been introduced in China only in recent years, giving birth to a new industry - agencies that introduce foreign au pairs to affluent Chinese families.

For most Chinese au pair host families, English teaching is the top priority. "The au pair program has gone through localization in China," says Yang Zheng, president of HHS Center, the biggest au pair agency in China. "Most Chinese families expect the au pair to be an English tutor, whereas au pairs in Western countries help more with the housework and childcare."

The average cost of hosting an au pair is about 100,000 yuan ($15,700, 11,700 euros) to 120,000 yuan a year, Yang says. This includes the au pair's stipend.

"Most of our customers have a yearly household income of 5 million yuan. We're not going after super rich families, but that is how it is at the moment," he says,

Despite the cost, the market prospects for foreign au pairs in China is astounding, Yang says. The company's revenue rose from 5 million yuan in 2009 to 7 million yuan last year, and the figure is expected to exceed 8 million yuan this year. The top four source countries for the au pairs are Austria, France, Germany and Switzerland.

There are about 3 million families in China with annual household income of more than $100,000 (74,300 euros), says a recent report by Taylor Nelson Sofres, the world's second largest market research and consulting company. The Chinese figure surpasses those of Britain, France and Germany.

HHS International Cultural Exchange Center, which employs about 100 au pairs, is considered to be the pioneer of the industry in China. It brought about 50 au pairs to the country in 2009 and a little fewer than 100 last year. To date, nearly 500 au pairs from other countries have stayed with Chinese host families in cities including Wuhan, Dalian, Lanzhou and Chongqing.

Yang says the business of sending Chinese au pairs abroad is barely profitable. Nevertheless, HHS sends about 80 of them abroad every year.

"The limited potential is partly due to the economic slump in Western countries and Chinese au pairs being less competitive."

Yang estimates there are about 20 agencies in China that solely provide au pair services and another 20 with au pairs as part of their business. HHS dominates the business of bringing in au pairs from overseas, with 90 percent of the market, and in sending au pairs overseas it has 50 percent of the market, he says.

"But (the 20) companies mostly have fewer than 10 staff, and the industry is not widely recognized. The biggest challenge is a lack of awareness by Chinese of the industry's very existence."

Liu Yu, manager of the Au Pair Department at Beijing Jindongfang International Education Company, one of the earliest agencies to introduce au pairs, says most Chinese have no idea what au pairing is.

"But once they become aware of it they're really interested. Every week our office has at least 40 calls inquiring about the program."

Liu says revenue of his department for the first 11 months this year has been about 3 million yuan, triple what it was for last year. He says that more than 40 families in China have applied to his company for a foreign au pair this year, compared with fewer than 10 last year and two the year before.

"Au pairing is not yet a cash cow, but it has the potential to be," says Zhang Haibo, founder and general manager of Au Pair ABC Service Centre. "Making it a commercial product is necessarily a slow process, and it will take at least 10 to 15 years for the masses to accept it."

Au Pair ABC Service Center has its genesis in Jinghua Language Training School in Qingdao, in East China's Shandong province. The company is developing its own service model by providing professional Chinese-language training for foreign au pairs. Job location is obviously an important factor when au pairs decide to come to China.

"Many au pairs, especially German students, choose to stay in Qingdao, a beautiful coastal city which was part of the imperial German concession in the early 20th century," Zhang says.

As with any nascent industry there are teething problems, and many of the Chinese au pair agencies are looking to the government for policies that will ease their way.

"If au pairs want to stay longer than 12 months it is difficult for them to extend their visa," Zhang says.

But even with that time cap on their stay, the fact that canditates from many countries are lining up to sign on as au pairs in China suggests many think a stay of a year will provide ample rewards.

"I (came) to see how Chinese people live and try to become integrated," Steiner says.

"Though I am still treated as a foreigner because of my European appearance and the language barrier I can feel like part of the family when I am at home."

Asked to nominate her most striking experience in China, she says: "I ate chicken feet, sheep spine and many other things that some other Europeans wouldn't have touched and found that most of them are very tasty."