au pair
Key facts
Interested in experiencing a new culture while gaining valuable childcare experience? As an au pair, you’ll live with a host family abroad, providing care for their children and becoming a part of their daily life.
An au pair role involves living with a host family in a different country, primarily focusing on childcare. Your days will be filled with activities like playing with children, preparing meals, assisting with homework, and taking them to appointments or activities. You’ll also contribute to light household tasks, creating a supportive and enriching environment for the family.
- • Providing attentive and engaging childcare for children of various ages.
- • Assisting with meal preparation, including planning and cooking nutritious meals.
- • Helping with homework and educational activities.
Where this occupation is in demand
Reported labour shortages and surpluses, by year. Published for occupation groups, not for individual job titles.
Deeper colour: reported the same way in more consecutive years.
Figures cover Personal care workers — 16 jobs including this one.
In shortage: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Italy and 2 more.
Longest-running shortage: Denmark, 4 years.
Select a place on the map to see its figures.
About this source›
Source: ELA/EURES labour shortages and surpluses. Readings are published at occupation-group level, and cover Europe. Editions differ in annex layout and country coverage, so a change between years does not always mean the labour market changed. Countries in grey were not reported, which is not the same as being in balance.
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Future Outlook for au pair
The outlook for au pair is exceptionally stable. While AI tools will assist with daily tasks, the core of this role relies on human judgment, resulting in a high resilience score of 84%.
How are these scores calculated?
The Resilience Score (0–100) estimates how structurally protected this occupation is from automation and AI disruption, based on task-level analysis. Higher scores mean more human-judgment-intensive tasks. AI Exposure shows the estimated percentage of task hours that current AI capabilities could affect. These are model-derived structural indicators, not predictions about individual job security.
How could au pair change as AI adoption grows?
Human judgement, trust, and context remain strong protectors for this role.
Illustrative scenario based on task automatability — not a forecast. Values are rounded the further ahead you look.
How could au pair change as AI adoption grows?
Human judgement, trust, and context remain strong protectors for this role.
Illustrative scenario based on task automatability — not a forecast. Values are rounded the further ahead you look.
How AI may change this role
Deterministic, model-based interpretation of current role signals — not a guarantee of replacement.
What still depends on people
- assist children with homework
- prepare sandwiches
- assist children in developing personal skills
Where AI may become a co-pilot
- handle chemical cleaning agents
Tasks most exposed to automation
No single task here is highly automatable yet.
Vital Signs & AI Vectors
AI Exposure Vectors
0-100%Exposure to physical automation, robotics, and sensor-driven task displacement
Exposure to content generation, creative augmentation, and large language model tools
Exposure to AI-assisted analysis, pattern recognition, and predictive modelling tasks
Exposure to workflow automation, decision-support software, and process digitisation
Technical Details
NexFuture v3.0 estimates automation exposure natively from ESCO essential-skill groups, weighted by skill mass and calibrated against expert anchors. Scores are probabilistic estimates, not guarantees. See the NexFuture Methodology White Paper for full details.
Measures automation exposure. It does not measure pay, demand, or how many jobs exist near you.
What people in this role usually do
Education
A typical day as a au pair
09 09:00 · Morning prepare sandwiches
10 10:30 · Mid-morning assist children with homework
12 12:00 · Midday assist children in developing personal skills
14 14:00 · Afternoon attend to children's basic physical needs
15 15:30 · Late afternoon communicate with youth
17 17:00 · Wrap-up entertain people
Task order is illustrative. Individual days vary.
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baby care
The procedures required to take care of children up to the age of 1, such as feeding, bathing, soothing, and diapering the baby.
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disability care
The specific methods and practices used in providing care to people with physical, intellectual and learning disabilities.
- workplace sanitation
- common children's diseases
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assist children with homework
Help children with school tasks. Assist the child with the interpretation of the assignment and the solutions. Make sure the child studies for tests and exams.
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assist children in developing personal skills
Encourage and facilitate the development of children's natural curiosity and social and language abilities through creative and social activities such as storytelling, imaginative play, songs, drawing, and games.
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play with children
Engage in activities for enjoyment, tailored to children of a certain age. Be creative and improvise to amuse children with activities such as tinkering, sports or board games.
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attend to children's basic physical needs
Tend to children by feeding them, dressing them, and, if necessary, regularly changing their diapers in a sanitary manner.
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supervise children
Keep the children under supervision for a certain period of time, ensuring their safety at all times.
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entertain people
Provide people with amusement by doing or offering a performance, like a show, a play or an artistic performance.
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prepare sandwiches
Make filled and open sandwiches, paninis and kebabs.
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handle chemical cleaning agents
Ensure proper handling, storage, management and disposal of cleaning chemicals (CIP) in accordance with regulations.
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promote human rights
Promote and respect human rights and diversity in light of the physical, psychological, spiritual and social needs of autonomous individuals, taking into account their opinions, beliefs and values, and the international and national codes of ethics, as well as the ethical implications of healthcare provision, ensuring their right to privacy and honouring for the confidentiality of healthcare information.
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communicate with youth
Use verbal and non-verbal communication and communicate through writing, electronic means, or drawing. Adapt your communication to children and young people`s age, needs, characteristics, abilities, preferences, and culture.
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give constructive feedback
Provide founded feedback through both criticism and praise in a respectful, clear, and consistent manner. Highlight achievements as well as mistakes and set up methods of formative assessment to evaluate work.
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maintain relations with children's parents
Inform children`s parents of the activities planned, program`s expectations and children`s individual progress.
Skill DNA
Work personality traits and values that define this role
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Where does au pair fit?
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Similarity scores based on skill overlap from ESCO data.
Frequently asked questions
- What kind of support does the host family provide?
- Host families are expected to provide room and board, a weekly allowance, language lessons, and opportunities to experience the local culture. They also need to ensure you have time off to explore independently.
- How long do au pair placements typically last?
- Au pair placements usually range from six months to a year, though this can vary depending on the agreement between the au pair and the host family. Contracts outline the specific duration and responsibilities.
- What are the key personal qualities needed to be a successful au pair?
- Successful au pairs are adaptable, patient, responsible, and possess excellent communication skills. A genuine love for children and a willingness to embrace a new culture are also essential.
- Au Pair — is there a shortage in Europe?
- No. In the 2025 ELA/EURES edition, a surplus was reported in 10 of the 16 European countries that assessed this occupation group: Austria, Czechia, Greece, Spain and 6 more. 6 countries reported a shortage. These assessments are published per occupation group rather than per job title.
- Au Pair — what does it pay in the United States?
- $32,050 a year at the median, as of 2025-05. State medians run from $22,020 to $47,340. Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is a United States figure and not a projection for Europe.