At three o'clock in the afternoon, Wang Dandan and the driver drove to an international school in Shanghai to pick up the employer's twin children home, and Wang Dandan began to "expand knowledge" for the children in the car.
Wang Dandan's job is called a child growth companion, and her working hours are from 3 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. every day from Monday to Saturday, and this job allows her to earn 40,000 yuan a month in Shanghai, which is even more impressive if you calculate the hourly wage.
"Expanding knowledge" is one of her tasks. "For example, in terms of traditional culture, I will expand the knowledge of the four major inventions for my children, and I will also try to do small handicrafts together to let them experience traditional culture." Wang Dandan said.
Recently, Sino-Singapore Jingwei has noticed that the profession of "child growth companion" has become popular on social media. According to industry insiders, according to different regions and families, the monthly salary of child growth companions ranges from 5,000 yuan to 40,000 yuan, and some can even reach 100,000 yuan a month.
▲Photo courtesy of interviewee Wang Dandan
What kind of profession is it?
Ms. Wu is currently working as a child growth companion in Shanghai, earning 20,000 yuan a month.
"I have to supervise and tutor all his school homework, help him prepare for the school's speech contest, drawing competition, etc.; I also want to send him to extracurricular classes and sparring classes such as piano and tennis. Ms. Wu introduced that in addition, she is also responsible for the daily emotional regulation of children, including how to deal with his fear of difficulties and how to deal with children's inattention. The family has two children and also has to deal with the relationship between siblings and give advice to parents, parents and aunts.
Judging from the experience of a number of child growth companions based in Shanghai, they mainly serve students in international schools, most of whom live at home, and take one day off during the week, or even no rest. The same is true for Ms. Wu, who says that Saturdays and Sundays are her busiest times and she needs to be with her almost all day.
Wang Dandan studied in a tertiary college in Anhui Province, majoring in digital media, because he likes children very much, he entered the education and training work across industries, and worked in an educational institution for nearly 10 years. "I have worked with many children from 2 to 12 years old, and I have been involved in children's whole-person education, character education, behavior and etiquette, child psychology and other aspects."
She said frankly that the monthly salary of 40,000 yuan is relatively high in the industry even in first-tier cities like Shanghai. Wang Dandan said that in addition to his rich experience in teaching and training, parents also attach great importance to the educational concept of the accompanying teacher.
"I've been working with parents for many years and know what problems they have that they need to solve. I think I'm very relatable, and my children like me more. When I help my child, he has visible growth, such as the changes in the child's treatment of others, and the cultivation of his three views. In my daily life, I will guide my children, and parents also pay more attention to it. Wang Dandan said.
However, due to the different areas and the specific circumstances of the families served, some child development companions are not as paid as they are legendary.
Song Siyu, who lives in Chongqing, told Zhongxin Jingwei that her working hours are from 17:30 to 20:30 from Monday to Friday, mainly accompanying children to do homework for young children, tutoring them in pinyin and arithmetic, and taking them to do outdoor activities such as kicking football, and sometimes taking children to fencing, swimming, and badminton training classes according to their parents' needs. Song Siyu's monthly income is 5,000-6,000 yuan.
"There is still a difference between the new first-tier cities and the first-tier cities, in fact, many parents in Chongqing still have misunderstandings about child growth companions, equating us with parenting sisters-in-law and tutors, or thinking that we need to be picked up and dropped off to the home of the companion, in fact, we are door-to-door services." Song Siyu said that their salary is also related to the service model and the personal ability of the chaperone. The salary of live-in companions in Chongqing ranges from 8,000 to 18,000 yuan, and live-in companions are generally single-leave. Parents of high-paid companions often require skills such as being able to drive and speak English, but cooking, tidying and storage are not within the scope of work.
Su Su's day as a companion teacher in Shenzhen starts at 6:30 in the morning, she needs to prepare breakfast and make milk powder for her children, wake up the children at 7 o'clock, get dressed, and play English listening as background music. After dropping them off at school, she usually goes to the wet market or climbs the mountains with her employer's family, and then picks them up at 3 p.m. to accompany them for physical training or to the museum after school. At 6 o'clock in the evening, I will accompany them to learn the online kindergarten bridging courses, including pinyin, literacy, mathematics, etc., and Su Su will also be responsible for checking their learning results after learning. At 8:30 p.m., children should be given some bedtime reading, or some attention games.
There are also companions who say that their work content is "mainly a companion". Doudou, who was a graduate student in Tianjin, worked part-time as a companion teacher for a period of time.
"When the children are doing their homework, I write my own papers next to me, mainly to create an atmosphere of learning together. I majored in English, and parents want to cultivate an oral conversation environment for their children. Moreover, parents attach great importance to conduct and want to find a role model for their children. Doudou said.
▲ Photo courtesy of the interviewee Su Su
In some areas, supply exceeds demand, experts remind
A number of child growth companions said that the current market demand for this industry is very strong, which can be said to be "in short supply", especially in Beijing, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, the Pearl River Delta and other regions.
A number of companions said that employers are generally middle-class, and some of them find companions because they are too busy to spend much time with their children.
Zhongxin Jingwei found on major recruitment platforms that there are not a few posts recruiting child growth companions, and there are many housekeeping companies on the demand side, including Beijing Zhongqing Housekeeping Co., Ltd., Auntie Daojia, etc.
▲ Screenshot source: recruitment platform
Su Su shares her experience as a child companion on social media and receives job offers from three or four parents almost every week.
Now, she has not been in the industry for a long time, and she has been transforming into a lecturer, providing training for new companions in household entry, nutrition matching, child psychology and so on. "There are a large number of teachers in public and private schools, or teachers in the training industry, who are pouring into this industry." Susu said.
Song Siyu believes that this industry is relatively free in time, providing another way for education normal students. "Generally, the service age group for learning Chinese language, mathematics and English is relatively wide, and preschool education mainly serves children in kindergarten or kindergarten. In addition to college graduates, there are also experienced mothers with babies to pick up scattered orders, but they are generally under the age of 30, because they have to take into account their own families. ”
Song Siyu told Zhongxin Jingwei that girls accounted for eighty percent of the peers. In families with young children, many parents ask for a female escort because the female escort is more careful; For example, some families who need to accompany the boy to do a lot of outdoor sports prefer a male companion.
Browsing the above-mentioned recruitment notices, it can be found that many applicants are required to be good in foreign languages, have a bachelor's degree or even a graduate degree, some indicate "211/985 and international students are preferred", "IELTS certificate is preferred", and some require to be able to play the piano, drive, etc.
"There are very high English requirements in this profession market, especially in Shanghai. I'm lucky, my English is actually only level 4 in college, and I don't have any special study in English, but because the child I tutor is in the second grade, I can still hold it. Wang Dandan said.
In the aforementioned recruitment notices, many of the headlines say that they are recruiting companions, but in the text, they are recruiting tutors. What is the difference between a child growth companion and a tutor? In the interviews, most of the child growth companions believe that the child growth companions work longer hours and the work content is more comprehensive than that of the home tutor.
"The tutor is a minute-by-minute service, and the chaperone is full-time. Tutors are more subject-oriented, and we also take them to the park to play, socialize, design some games, and so on. "There is a companion teacher summed it up.
Regarding the popularity of child growth companions, Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Education Sciences, told Zhongxin Jingwei that child companions are not currently included in the relevant occupational catalogue of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, so they are not an officially recognized profession. The name may be used by some businesses or individuals to meet parents' needs for children's growth and companionship. Due to the lack of official norms, there may be a mixed situation in the market, and the quality of service is uneven. Parents should be cautious when choosing such services to avoid being deceived.
He advises service providers to ensure that the services they provide have a positive impact on children's development and avoid negative effects. For people who are not professionally trained, it is recommended not to provide services in the name of "child development services".
Xiong Bingqi, president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, also pointed out that some domestic institutions package subject training teachers as "door-to-door tutors" as children's growth companions, which is actually playing a side game, and the education department is now clearly opposed to the subject training of (preschool) children and primary school students.
He also pointed out that it is necessary to be vigilant against the alienation of the responsibility of family education, and the best way to family education is to accompany them personally, and parents cannot only spend money to hire a "companion" and neglect to fulfill their family education responsibilities. "Housekeeping cannot be regarded as subject tutoring, let alone as a substitute for parent-child companionship. There should be no confusion between the duties of a domestic service, the duties of a school teacher and the duties of parents. ”