Au pair to child care worker
An au pair already meets 74% of what the child care worker role asks for. The move turns on 2 required skills not yet in the profile.
27.4/ 100
1 How much of what a child care worker is expected to do is already part of an au pair’s work. Directional: the figure for the reverse move differs, because moving into a speciality is not the same problem as moving out of one. 2 Every skill the child care worker role is recorded as needing, required and optional together. What these numbers mean.
Why this move works
A child care worker role treats 8 of its required skills as things an au pair already does. You would walk in with these on day one.
- assist children in developing personal skills
- attend to children's basic physical needs
- communicate with youth
- handle chemical cleaning agents
- maintain relations with children's parents
- play with children
What stands in the way is 2 required skills the profile does not yet cover. Table 3 groups them; Table 4 says which to take first.
Table 2 · What you already bring
Of the 21 skills that carry over, these are the ones fewest other occupations ask for. A child care worker role needs them, and most people applying for one will not have them already. This is the part of an au pair background worth leading with.
- already held baby care health and welfare
- already held carry out wound care assisting and caring
- already held play with children assisting and caring
- already held assist children with homework assisting and caring
- already held prepare ready-made dishes assisting and caring
- already held prepare sandwiches assisting and caring
All 21 carried skills, including the 8 the child care worker role treats as required.
Table 3 · What you may need to learn
The 9 missing skills fall into 5 areas of the ESCO skill hierarchy, numbered in the order worth working in. Areas carrying the most required skills come first, and inside each one the required skills sit above the optional ones. Nothing here is a verdict on you: it is a list of what this particular job asks for that your current one does not.
- still to learn determine child welfare required
- optional, not held support traumatised children optional
- optional, not held relate empathetically optional
- still to learn social development required
- optional, not held babysitting optional
- optional, not held plan youth activities optional
- optional, not held tolerate stress optional
- optional, not held work in a multicultural environment in health care optional
- optional, not held pedagogy optional
Table 4 · Where to start
The 2 entries a child care worker role is least likely to hire without. The ordering is computed from the skill data, not from what pays.
Each entry opens a course search for that skill. Career Overlap earns nothing from these links.
Appendix · The rest of the record
All 21 skills that carry over
- already held assist children in developing personal skills skill
- already held attend to children's basic physical needs skill
- already held communicate with youth skill
- already held handle chemical cleaning agents skill
- already held maintain relations with children's parents skill
- already held play with children skill
- already held supervise children skill
- already held workplace sanitation knowledge
- already held assess the development of youth skill
- already held assist children with homework skill
- already held baby care knowledge
- already held carry out wound care skill
- already held clean rooms skill
- already held common children's diseases knowledge
- already held disability care knowledge
- already held handle children's problems skill
- already held prepare ready-made dishes skill
- already held prepare sandwiches skill
- already held provide first aid skill
- already held support children's wellbeing skill
- already held support the positiveness of youths skill
7 supplementary skills, helpful but not required
- optional, not held babysitting optional
- optional, not held plan youth activities optional
- optional, not held support traumatised children optional
- optional, not held tolerate stress optional
- optional, not held pedagogy optional
- optional, not held relate empathetically optional
- optional, not held work in a multicultural environment in health care optional
13 held skills the child care worker role does not ask for
- not needed by the target role buy groceries skill
- not needed by the target role clean surfaces skill
- not needed by the target role demonstrate when teaching skill
- not needed by the target role drive vehicles skill
- not needed by the target role entertain people skill
- not needed by the target role feed pets skill
- not needed by the target role give constructive feedback skill
- not needed by the target role iron textiles skill
- not needed by the target role promote human rights skill
- not needed by the target role speak different languages skill
- not needed by the target role use cooking techniques skill
- not needed by the target role use food preparation techniques skill
- not needed by the target role use gardening equipment skill
3 gaps that are knowledge rather than practice
Knowledge gaps usually close through study. Practical skill gaps usually need something you can point at.
- still to learn social development required
- optional, not held babysitting optional
- optional, not held pedagogy optional
Common questions about this move
Can an au pair become a child care worker?
Yes, and it is an adjacent move. An au pair already covers 74% of what a child care worker is expected to do: 21 skills carry over, 8 of which the child care worker role treats as required.
What skills does an au pair need to become a child care worker?
2 required skills are missing, plus 7 optional ones. They fall into 5 areas of the ESCO skill hierarchy, led by assisting and caring. The single most important is determine child welfare.
How hard is the move from au pair to child care worker?
Its learning distance is 27.4 out of 100, which is the adjacent band. That accounts for both how much is missing and how specialised those skills are.
How this record was compiled
Both occupations are taken from ESCO, which lists the skills and knowledge each occupation is expected to have and marks every one required or optional. Nothing here is a prediction about hiring, and nothing here knows that a particular employer wants a particular certificate. Treat Table 3 as a starting point for your own research rather than a syllabus. The full method states what these figures can and cannot tell you.