• 纽约家政人员培训较乱、整体素质不高

    优质育婴师缺口怎么破？

    “找个好月嫂比找对象还难”！怀上二胎的徐小姐预产期在今年10月，从去年开始四处找月嫂，托亲戚、问朋友、找邻居，转了一圈没合适的，不是时间对不上，就是面试不行。眼看预产期临近，找不到合适的人来帮忙，家中老人精力有限，只能照顾老大，徐小姐只好改去月子中心。

    “月子中心找优质的育婴师也难”，爱心宝贝国际月子会所总监苦笑着说。近日，记者从纽约月子中心行业协会，以及本地多家0-3岁托育机构了解到，美国已有的月嫂/育婴师专业人员的培训已经远远跟不上市场需求。

    New York's domestic worker training is disorganized, and the overall quality is low.

    How to address the shortage of high-quality nannies?

    "Finding a good postpartum nanny is harder than finding a spouse!" Ms. Xu, who is expecting her second child in October, has been searching for a postpartum nanny since last year. She asked relatives, friends, and neighbors, but after searching everywhere, she couldn't find a suitable one.  Either the timing didn't work out, or the interviews didn't go well. With her due date approaching and unable to find suitable help, and with her elderly parents only able to care for her older child, Ms. Xu had to opt for a postpartum care center.

    "Even postpartum care centers have difficulty finding high-quality nannies," the director of a local postpartum care center said with a wry smile. Recently, reporters learned from the New York Postpartum Care Center Association and several local childcare institutions for children aged 0-3 that the existing training for professional nannies/childcare providers in the United States is far from meeting market demand.

    优质育婴师“一工难求”

    10人面试一半以上被淘汰

    由于社会需求不断多样化，母婴行业服务人员分工逐渐走向精细化，形成月嫂、育婴师、产后康复师等多种职业岗位。其中，市场反馈，优质专业的月嫂、育婴师可谓“一工难求”。

    “我们曾经与两个家政培训机构合作，输送育婴师”，欧阳戈说，送来面试的10人中，1-2个因为技能不过关被淘汰，因为素质太低、服务意识差而被淘汰的则有一半人。

    除了月子中心，0-3岁托育机构也是目前育婴师就业的一大去处。

    “我们一直在找好的育婴师，总没断过”，北美国际保育园的负责人介绍，雇主一般通过熟人介绍、网上招聘平台以及培训服务机构这3个途径招聘育婴师，“但整体情况不理想”，初筛合格的育婴师还要经过几个月的内部培训才能到岗工作。

    育婴师到底有多缺乏呢？美国月子中心行业负责人说，目前国内尚未有相关数据统计，从各用人机构反馈的情况来看，普通育婴师招得到，但能胜任工作获得消费者认可的育婴师很少，从业队伍整体素质不高、服务意识低。

    High-Quality Nannies Are in High Demand

    More than half of applicants are rejected during interviews

    Due to the increasingly diverse social demands, the division of labor among service personnel in the maternal and infant industry is becoming more refined, resulting in various professional positions such as confinement nannies, infant caregivers, and postpartum rehabilitation specialists. Market feedback indicates that high-quality and professional confinement nannies and infant caregivers are extremely difficult to find.

    "We once collaborated with two domestic service training institutions to recruit infant caregivers," said Ouyang Ge. Of the 10 people who came for interviews, 1-2 were eliminated due to insufficient skills, and half were eliminated due to low quality and poor service awareness.

    Besides maternity centers, childcare institutions for children aged 0-3 are also a major employment destination for infant caregivers.

    "We are constantly looking for good infant caregivers," said the head of a North American International Nursery. Employers generally recruit infant caregivers through three channels: referrals from acquaintances, online recruitment platforms, and training service agencies. "But the overall situation is not ideal," she added. Even those who pass the initial screening still need several months of internal training before they can start working.

    How scarce are infant caregivers? A representative from the American maternity center industry said that there are currently no relevant statistics in China.  Based on feedback from various employers, while ordinary infant caregivers are available, there are very few who are competent and receive consumer approval. The overall quality of the workforce is low, and service awareness is poor.

    服务对象特殊,技能培训亟待提高

    在采访中，“人员培训较乱、优质人才缺乏”是不少用人机构对育婴师的普遍感受。

    曾有媒体报道“花钱就能买到一个育婴师证”，两年前，记者曝光一家伪国际母婴协会乱发月嫂证育婴师证。

    一位托育机构负责人向记者介绍，正规的育婴师证，应由专业技能鉴定指导中心颁发，但实际操作中，一些培训机构曾经自己也发证。

    该负责人分析说，综合来看，当前母婴服务市场存在几个问题：一是母婴服务范围不明确，监管难度较大；二是从业人员杂，素质差距较大；三是资格认证乱，“当然这一两年乱发证的情况有改善”。

    记者在网络上随机找到三家育婴师培训机构，咨询发现，拿钱买证已很难做到，“现在监管比较严，育婴师证考试有实操环节，不能找人替代”，一家培训机构工作人员如是说。

    “现在纽约母婴市场对育婴师需求很大，参加培训政府还补贴”，另一家培训机构咨询者告诉记者，参加育婴师培训政府有补贴，拿到证出来找工作也很容易，工资都不低于5000美元。

    The target group for these services is unique, and skills training urgently needs improvement.

    During interviews, many employers expressed the common sentiment that "personnel training is disorganized, and there is a lack of qualified professionals" among infant care providers.

    Previously, media outlets reported that "you can buy an infant care certificate for money." Two years ago, a reporter exposed a fake international maternal and child association that was issuing certificates for nannies and infant care providers indiscriminately.

    A head of a childcare institution told the reporter that a legitimate infant care certificate should be issued by a professional skills assessment and guidance center, but in practice, some training institutions have issued their own certificates.

    The head analyzed that, overall, the current maternal and child service market has several problems: first, the scope of maternal and child services is unclear, making regulation difficult; second, the practitioners are diverse, with significant differences in quality; and third, qualification certification is chaotic, "although the situation of indiscriminate certificate issuance has improved in the past year or two."

    The reporter randomly found three infant care training institutions online and found that it is now difficult to buy a certificate with money. "Now the supervision is stricter, and the infant care certificate exam includes a practical component, so you can't have someone else take the test for you," a staff member of a training institution said.

    "Currently, the New York maternal and child market has a great demand for infant care providers, and the government even subsidizes training," another training institution consultant told the reporter, adding that with government subsidies for infant care training, it's easy to find a job after getting the certificate, and the salary is no less than $5,000.

    即便如此，育婴师整体培训水平仍亟待提高。

    “家政培训机构输送来的育婴师以中年人为主，基本都懂做家务、照看孩子”，但育婴师不是保姆，也比月嫂更高一级、更专业。“除了生活照料，还要懂得与人沟通、了解孩子身心发育，掌握日常卫生与护理，乃至学前教育、生长测评等”。

    “不要小看育婴师这一职业，因为服务的对象是学龄前孩子，具有特殊性，要求也更高”，在美国等发达地区，大学开设育婴师专业，学习内容包括教育、心理、护理等多方面，“华人月嫂育婴师在此方面尚有所缺乏，育婴师都是基本技能培训”。

    90后父母带动育婴师市场需求政府加大力度提升人员素质

    很多爸爸妈妈特别是90后年轻父母，与老一辈的经验式育儿观念不同，更关注科学性、理论性，这也是育婴师越来越被重视的一个原因。

    事实上，关于育婴师的行业问题已经引起各方重视。育婴员、养老护理员等职业实行更规范的岗前培训成为社会共识。此外，对于母婴护理员、育婴师等家政服务人员，也有相应的行业标准。

    Even so, the overall training level of infant care specialists still urgently needs improvement.

    "The infant care specialists provided by domestic service training institutions are mainly middle-aged women who generally know how to do housework and take care of children," but infant care specialists are not nannies, and they are a higher level and more professional than postpartum caregivers. "Besides daily care, they also need to know how to communicate with people, understand children's physical and mental development, master daily hygiene and care, and even early childhood education and growth assessment."

    "Don't underestimate the profession of infant care specialist, because the service recipients are preschool children, which is a special group with higher requirements," In developed regions such as the United States, universities offer infant care specialist majors, and the curriculum includes education, psychology, nursing, and other aspects. "Chinese postpartum caregivers and infant care specialists still lack in this area; their training focuses only on basic skills."

    Post-90s parents are driving the demand for infant care specialists, and the government is increasing efforts to improve personnel quality.

    Many parents, especially young parents born in the 1990s, differ from the older generation's experience-based parenting concepts and are more concerned with scientific and theoretical approaches. This is one reason why infant care specialists are becoming increasingly important.

    In fact, the industry issues surrounding infant care specialists have attracted attention from all parties. More standardized pre-employment training for infant caregivers and elderly care workers has become a social consensus. In addition, there are corresponding industry standards for domestic service personnel such as maternal and infant caregivers and infant care specialists.