Project to train domestic helpers

The All China Women's Federation signed an agreement on Friday to help at least 4,000 women each year from underprivileged rural areas in western China receive free professional trainings in domestic services and land a job in the industry.

The joint project between the federation's Huaying Adventure Center and Beijing Happy Family Domestic Services Co, reportedly the largest such business on the mainland with a registered capital of 110 million yuan ($17.2 million), seeks to help more western women land decent-paying home-service jobs in big cities like Beijing via tailor-made and high-quality skill training, said Yun Pengju, who heads the center.

After the huge economic development of the past decades, a growing number of affluent urban families began hiring domestic helpers. In Beijing alone, nearly 800,000 out of the 6 million families need such services, which require more than 1 million workers.

However, only 400,000 are available on the market, and most are not well-trained, official statistics show.

"The project would help bridge that gap and at the same time help more migrant women who want to get employed in the industry," company CEO Zheng Yue said.

He said the 4,000 women recommended by the federation and its local branches each year would go through various training courses like basic domestic services, the English language, caring for new mothers and newborns, making tea and coffee, and caring for pets.

After finishing the training, they would serve mainly wealthy families, including foreign ones, in major Chinese cities, he said.

"Altogether, we offer 24 kinds of training, which last three to six months, which are set according to market demands," he said.

Previous reports said the monthly salary of a veteran confinement nurse, or yuesao in Chinese, was up to 10,000 yuan in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

In fact, "the butler service costs even more, about 100,000 yuan per month in Beijing at present," Zheng said.

The market demand, particularly for high-level and quality home services, is very large but not satisfied largely because of the lack of quality workers, he said.

As a result, some families in China have had to hire workers from the Philippines, which is in fact illegal on the mainland, said Laurent Foucher, president of Niel Financial Services in Luxembourg, which holds nearly half of the company's stake.

"By improving the hard-working Chinese women's skills via quality training in domestic services, we can help provide needy families here a better alternative to Philippine maids," he told China Daily.

The project will provide a new model for industry development in the country and help improve its quality in general, said Yun, head of the center.

shanjuan@chinadaily.com.cn