Before I started working full-time at our office, I spent 5 months working at our Training School on Long Island, New York. Our training school is the place where ALL of our au pairs spent their first 5 days in the USA before traveling to their host families. Cultural Care Au Pair has their own offices in over 20 countries all over the world and almost every week a group of these au pairs travel to the training school to get ready for their next big adventure - international atmosphere and many new friends are guaranteed! The school is located at the St. John's University campus, and the campus is the home for our au pairs during the first week!
All the au pairs arrive to the school usually either on Sunday or Monday, and then Tuesday, Wednesday as well as part of Thursday are spent studying hard. The au pairs are divided into different classes based on the state or the area of where your host family lives, so you can make friends already from day one with people that might be leaving close to you for the rest of your time. The topics of the classes are wide variety - but of course related to children! You will be studying for example health & nutrition, common illnesses, safety, being a rolemodel etc. All au pairs also participate into a course on CPR and first aid provided to us by American Red Cross.
Thursday afternoon is probably the time that most of the au pairs are looking forward to a lot - once the Red Cross-training is over, all the au pairs will be headed to NEW YORK CITY! The buses are filled with more and more excited au pairs as they start to head over to the city - the place that most of the au pairs have only before seen in TV or movies! Once we arrive to the city, first there will be a city tour by our great tour guides, and then everyone will have some free time in the city. The tour will include for example the following places - a ferry past the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, all the famous (and oh so expensive) boutiques on 5th Avenue, Times Square, Battery Park, 9/11 Memorial - and the list continues! Once Thursday shifts towards its end, there are busloads of nervous au pairs since the next day they will be meeting their host families!
Au pair school is definitely a great start for your au pair adventure - you spend your first days in a very international atmosphere and together you get ready for the challenges and adventures your upcoming time as an au pair has to offer! Working at the au pair school has definitely been one of my favorite jobs so far.
My favorite moments with this job? Easy to pick! My favorite moment was often Friday mornings and seeing au pairs so nervous and excited to meet their host families - some of them still had a full day of traveling ahead, and some could wait for the host families to pick them up from the school. Many of the au pairs were complete strangers on Monday, and by Friday they had turned to be close friends and already planning the next visit to see each other! For most of the au pairs this is the first time they visit the USA and see New York City - on Thursday when we head out to the city and after crossing a bridge, you can see the NYC skyline open up in front of us, and you start to hear how excited all the au pairs are - that was definitely my favorite moment. I also loved to be part of their first days in the USA and being able to support them for this experience! Once again we can see how much becoming an au pair will give you and how it will help you to "have the world at your fingertips".
läheisemmän ja kuten englanniksi sanotaan ”you’ll have the world right at your fingertips”.
If you have any questions about the training school, do not hesitate to contact me!
Best,
Mari from the office
