Up to 80,000 a month? High-net-worth families are popular with "child growth companions", and the industry says that non-high-value women are more popular
On the recruitment website, new positions such as "child growth companion" and "family growth companion" are attracting the attention of job seekers due to high educational requirements and salary returns. The monthly salary ranges from 10,000 to 80,000, and it is required to start from the limited Qingbei graduation to the "Haiben Haishuo". Some insiders told Red Star News that child growth companions are becoming a must on the road to some family parenting.
There is currently no standard or definition for this "emerging industry". When asked about the threshold and rules of this industry, some company leaders said that they hope that more institutional documents will be introduced, "just like teachers must have teacher qualification certificates, only by standardizing, an industry can go further." ”
According to reports, female chaperones are more popular than male chaperones. For female escorts, more families will choose groups with less outstanding appearance. Some insiders told Red Star News that 80% of the current growth companion group practitioners are women.
↑Growth companion communicates with children at the employer's home Photo courtesy of interviewee
The monthly salary starts from 30,000
Returnee master's degree part-time child growth companion
With a salary of 30,000 a month, no specific KPI assessment and clock-in and clock-out requirements, and no need to consider renting and commuting, Zhang Min (pseudonym), a 29-year-old returnee master, works as a life-in child growth companion in Beijing.
What is a Child Development Companion? Where did this emerging profession come from? At present, authoritative statements and definitions of the profession are still blank. However, on the major online recruitment platforms, the social demand for recruiting this position is not few.
Red Star News reporters saw on the recruitment platform that including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou 4 first-tier cities, as well as Chengdu, Hangzhou, Wuhan and other new first-tier cities, can search for "child growth companion" and "family growth companion" and other positions, and the number is not a few.
For Zhang Min, her first contact with the profession of child growth companion was in 2022. And choosing this profession is actually an accident in Zhang Min's view.
In 2020, Zhang Min graduated from a well-known university in the UK with a master's degree in psychology. In addition to the identity tag of "Haishuo", she also holds a bachelor's degree in education from a 211 university in China. After returning to China, Zhang Min joined a magazine in Beijing as an editor of a children's publication, a job that prepared her to become a child growth companion in the future.
"We often deal with school teachers and get to know many parents of high-net-worth families through interviews. It is probably for this reason that I have the opportunity to become a growth companion. Zhang Min told Red Star News that at the end of 2021, a mother who had been in contact with Zhang Min for a long time found her, hoping that she could help pick up her 8-year-old child from school during her business trip. If you have time at night, go home to accompany your child and complete a certain amount of English reading with your child.
The part-time salary offered by the mother to Zhang Min was 6,000 yuan per month, which was an opportunity that Zhang Min, who had a salary of just over 10,000 yuan, was not easy to refuse: "It does not affect the normal work, I only need to complete irregular transfers and a few hours of English reading, I think I have the time and ability to bear." In Zhang Min's view, this part-time job was actually the early prototype of a child growth companion, but she did not realize that it would become her future career track.
During the epidemic, many students took classes at home, and more and more parents found Zhang Min through their first mother: "Help practice spoken English, help check homework, help do some kindergarten and elementary school entrance planning..." At most, Zhang Min needs to provide care for children from three families at the wrong time in a month, ranging from 7 to 12 years old.
Zhang Min said that by the beginning of 2022, the part-time side job of taking care of children can already provide her with a monthly income of tens of thousands of yuan, far exceeding her main salary as a magazine editor. In March 2022, Zhang Min resigned from the magazine and began to "help" parents full-time. However, Zhang Min adjusted her working style, she no longer provides companionship education for her children on a one-to-many basis, but provides live-in services for a single family, from picking up and dropping off children to and from school, to providing family psychological services, formulating full-discipline learning plans for children, and sparring various professional skills.
At present, all-round live-in companionship has replaced the short-term service in the past part-time period, and Zhang Min's growth companionship fee has also risen from a few thousand yuan per family per month to about 30,000 yuan. Since he started working full-time in the industry in March last year, Zhang Min has added a new title to himself: "Senior Child Growth Companion".
Counting the more than a year since she became a child growth companion, plus the children she took care of part-time, Zhang Min has served no less than 5 families, and her fee has increased from 56,000 yuan per month for short-term service during the part-time period to more than 30,000 yuan per month for full-time service now. Zhang Min said that she believes that for more high-net-worth families, child growth companions will become a must, and their income may not stop at 30,000 monthly salaries.
Regarding Zhang Min's claim of a monthly income of 30,000 yuan, the Red Star News reporter wanted to check the relevant income certificate that could support the claim, but the other party believed that it involved privacy and rejected the reporter's claim.
A day's work of a live-in "growth companion"
In Zhang Min's view, the work of a live-in "growth companion" seems simple, but it is not easy.
She described a day at work to Red Star News: At 6 a.m., she would get up at the same time as her current employer's 8-year-old child, and after washing, she would read English for about 30 minutes. Around 7 o'clock, Zhang Min would drive the children to school.
After returning home, although Zhang Min no longer needs to accompany her children, she needs to report to her employer the work situation of the previous day and the child's learning status, make a work plan for the new day and obtain parental consent: "This includes the content of the child's interest practice tonight, the selection of books for the child to read at night, or the arrangement of parent-child activities between mother and child based on the child's recent state." ”
She told reporters that when the child comes home from school, she will help check the child's homework and provide additional tutoring with related homework. After completing their studies, they will proceed to the program such as English speaking training, social etiquette learning, etc.
In Zhang Min's view, the biggest significance of this job for children is not in learning guidance, but in the greater effectiveness of scientifically formulating parent-child activities between children and parents, and relying on his own psychology major to help children and parents sort out their emotions in time and assist in achieving a happy childhood. At the same time, in view of his study abroad experience, Zhang Min will often share his own study abroad stories with his children, briefly telling the current international situation and the cultural heritage of various countries, so as to stimulate children's yearning for future study abroad.
Why is a growth companion expensive?
"Becoming a child growth companion, will you be sorry for your educational background when you were born in a prestigious school?" This is the question Zhang Min is asked the most. Whenever faced with such a question, she always gives this answer: "If this person's own grades are in a mess, then will you, as a parent, hire him to do knowledge tutoring for children?" If this person has no study abroad experience himself, who will ask him to make plans for his child to go abroad? ”
In the children's growth companion industry, Zhang Min's income is not the best, and his master's degree is not at the top of the pyramid. Even her status as a returnee does not make her completely stand out.
Shenzhen Luming Education Consulting Co., Ltd. is a company that mainly trains growth companions and delivers to families in need, and its person in charge Ms. Mou told Red Star News that in the reserve growth companion talent pool established by the company, more than 6,000 resumes have been absorbed in just one year, of which more than 60% are master's degrees, 30% are from double first-class universities with bachelor's degrees, and another 10% are doctoral degrees.
From the perspective of the industry's income, although there are no exact statistics, Red Star News reporters saw on the recruitment website that the recruitment salary in the industry ranges from 10,000 to 80,000, most of which are concentrated in the range of 20,000-30,000 yuan per month.
↑ On the recruitment website, the salary of "child growth companion" is mostly concentrated in the range of 20,000-30,000 yuan
In Ms. Mou's view, the job requirements of growth companions are differentiated, and there is an obvious gap in salary span, which is a major feature of the industry: "The reason for this gap is that each family has different requirements for companions, and the more stringent the requirements, the higher the salary. ”
Red Star News reporters also noticed that ordinary growth companions with a monthly salary of more than 10,000 yuan are mostly required to be able to drive, help with homework to a certain extent, and be fluent in English. If it rises to a monthly salary of more than 20,000, it will put forward clear requirements for the academic degree of a prestigious school, teaching experience of the IB curriculum system, English level or other professional skills. If it involves a master's degree from an overseas famous school or increases the requirements for professional skills such as equestrian, programming, golf, etc., the salary may reach 30,000 and above.
On a recruitment website, a recruitment company in Shanghai posted a monthly salary of 40,000-80,000 yuan, and the job demand for recruiting "growth companions" in Beijing is particularly eye-catching. The job posting reads: Applicants need to accept live-in jobs, and must have graduated from Qingbei and have rich teaching experience.
↑There are growth companion positions released by enterprises, requiring Qingbei to graduate, and the salary can reach up to 80,000 / month
The Red Star News reporter tried to contact the person in charge of the recruitment company, but the other party did not respond as of press time. However, judging from the resume submission, the number of resume replies for this position is more than 10 times a day.
"Generally speaking, the monthly salary of growth companions exceeds 30,000 and above, and there is a high probability that there are additional job requirements, or the companion needs to follow the children for long-term study abroad." Ms. Liu, founder of Shanghai Mengfan Family Consulting, who is engaged in the growth companion industry, explained to Red Star News: "Most of our practitioners are still ordinary bachelor's or master's degrees, and education is not the only criterion for a family to choose a companion. ”
Some employers say that "work experience fraudsters are common"
Ms. Liu, who has experience as a companion, told Red Star News that due to the large demand of potential customers, she and her partner founded Shanghai Mengfan Family Consulting Company at the beginning of this year to select suitable companions for customers.
"At present, demand is mainly concentrated in economically developed first-tier cities, but there is a trend of extending to new first-tier cities with developed economies." Ms. Liu said that the customers served by her company have gradually moved from Shanghai to Wuhan, Chengdu, Xi'an and other places.
Ms. Ma, who lives in Hangzhou, hired a live-in growth companion for her 5-year-old child at the beginning of this year with a salary of 25,000 yuan per month. The reason why she needs a chaperone teacher is because her child is about to face the transition from "kindergarten to primary school", and how to enter an interested private primary school in the future is a difficult problem in front of her.
For Ms. Ma, the growth companion she needs must have certain "resources" of private primary schools, and at the same time, she needs to know the assessment methods and learning content of private primary schools, including the subsequent cultivation of children's club ability: "I don't need a tutor who specializes in non-language and mathematics, I need a helmsman who can make educational plans for my children." ”
Ms. Ma and her husband run a business in Hangzhou, and the busy couple has little time to worry about their children's education. Ms. Ma said that her requirements for child growth companions are, first of all, to help children plan their path to enter private primary schools, complete the stage of teaching in a planned manner, and submit a work summary and the next stage of learning planning to parents on a monthly basis. Secondly, Ms. Ma asked the companion to graduate from psychology, pay attention to the child's emotional changes in time, and at the same time put forward constructive suggestions for the harmony of parent-child relationship. In addition, the chaperone is required to be fluent in English and able to have daily English conversations with the child.
In Ms. Ma's view, her requirements are not high. However, after interviewing many applicants through consulting companies, she could not find her favorite companion: "She said that she had been a companion in the direction of studying abroad, but she talked about the process of international school; Speak English well, but don't talk as well as the average college student. Ms. Ma told Red Star News that she has interviewed about 4 job seekers, and in resumes, work experience fraud is very common.
Ms. Liu, who is the person in charge of the company, also feels the same way: "During our interviews, we also found that many industry 'little whites' would fabricate work experience, obviously only as a tutor, but said that they had been a companion. ”
Although it is an emerging industry, Ms. Liu's company has gradually established talent screening criteria: "Compared with academic qualifications, study abroad background, etc., having certain experience is an important reason why most employers give high salaries." Ms. Liu said that after seeing the rise of the industry, many people have plans to change the track: "For example, in the past, engaged in the financial industry and engaged in the shipping industry, suddenly put in the resume and hope to become a growth companion." Ms. Liu knew that they were here for a high salary.
But sudden transitions are often difficult to get a high salary: "This industry is not without thresholds, especially when facing young children, as a professional chaperone needs to deal with children's inexplicable emotions; For children who are under pressure to go to school, the companion needs to do systematic study planning, and these professional requirements are easy to detect if there is no professional background. ”
"The industry welcomes people who are less good-looking"
"Generally speaking, the selection of growth companions in the industry will carry out comprehensive and hierarchical screening according to the general requirements of customers." A person familiar with the matter revealed that service companies in the industry will divide customers according to asset scale and summarize the general law of the group's demand for companions.
For example, the person in charge of a listed company or a star, the company summarizes the general requirements of the group for growth companions, mostly to serve students studying abroad or international schools, and use this to screen talents; Then there are the middle and senior leaders of well-known enterprises, which often require special professional skills and a pure English accent and study abroad background; In addition, there are some families where the demand for chaperones is more similar to the traditional "tutor" of the past.
The emerging industry seems to be in the limelight, but there is no uniform answer to how to define this high-paying industry. In Ms. Mou's view, unlike traditional industries, this newly emerged position does not have a unified connotation standard, "but overall, the growth companion can be understood as a supplement to the role of parents, filling the lack of companionship for their children caused by parents' busy work, or the lack of education caused by lack of professional knowledge." ”
"But there are also unwritten rules in the industry, such as male chaperones are not more popular with families than female chaperones." Ms. Liu told Red Star News that 80% of the practitioners in the current group of growth companions are women: "If the family is a daughter, the family will definitely choose a female companion; If it is a family with many children of one man and one woman, they will also choose a female chaperone. ”
"Unlike other industries, this industry welcomes people who are not so good-looking." Ms. Liu told Red Star News that when many families were looking for growth companions through their companies, the parents of the children would remind the person in charge of the company: "We are a traditional family, the live-in companion only needs to have affinity, and the appearance is best not too outstanding, let alone accept heavy makeup or strange clothes." ”
During the interview, both Ms. Liu and Ms. Mou proposed to Red Star News, "We very much hope that the industry can establish a blacklist system, and practitioners with bad behavior can not be allowed to have the opportunity to set foot in this industry again." "They also raised the hope that in the face of this emerging industry, more institutional normative documents will be introduced;" Just as teachers must have a teacher qualification certificate, and childcare teachers or psychological counselors need to hold a certificate, we also call for the qualification of similar companions to be certified by the state in the future. Only by regulating can an industry go further. ”
Education Specialists:
This profession is no substitute for the bond between parents and children
"The task of accompanying children is becoming professional today, and perhaps it is more important to reflect on what makes this happen." Yang Haiyu, an independent consultant for children and former UNICEF expert, pointed out in an interview with Red Star News. There is a social demand for children's growth companions in the workplace, which shows that families and society are paying more and more attention to the growth of children and even adolescents, and parents pay more attention to their children's family education and realize the importance of more companionship for children in parent-child relationships.
But at the same time, Yang Haiyu also pointed out: "In a sense, accompanying children should be the first responsibility of the family, and it is the duty of parents to perform, but now this task has become a job, which shows that we still have shortcomings in family education." Yang Haiyu believes that even if a companion is hired, it can only play an auxiliary role, and the existence of this profession still cannot replace the natural bond between parents and children, nor can it replace the love and care brought by parents when accompanying their children.
According to Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Education Sciences, "Whether the so-called 'child growth companion' can be recognized as a profession is still up for debate." ”
Chu Zhaohui further explained that "child growth companion" is a new term, there is still a lack of name specifications for this industry, its specific work standards have not been authoritatively recognized, and specific job responsibilities have not been authoritatively defined, "If there are many practitioners and social needs do exist, then it is still recommended to standardize the name of this industry, and do not abuse the name or induce consumers wrongly." ”
Chu Zhaohui also said that the work of a companion teacher is not a master key, and its role cannot replace the parenting and care of their children, and the two cannot be equated. At the same time, he reminded that after the implementation of the "double reduction" policy, we also need to be vigilant against off-campus training personnel "changing vests" and continuing to engage in discipline training.
Chu Zhaohui believes that the emergence of "child growth companions" points to a problem, that is, the mainland's education evaluation system and education management measures need to be improved. If the education evaluation system is further adjusted and improved in the future, whether the profession similar to the accompanying teacher can still have the soil for survival, there may be a question mark.
Red Star News reporter Yang Yuqi
Editor-in-Charge Guan Li Editor: Peng Jiang