How did Auntie become a college student after being trained?, The first batch of undergraduate students in home economics in Shanghai graduated from Shanghai Open University in July | Home Economics | Students

At 9:00 pm on June 20th, the first batch of undergraduate domestic economics students admitted by Shanghai Open University completed their thesis defense, and 95 students will graduate in July this year.

Unlike college graduates from other universities, more than half of the students in the undergraduate program of Shanghai Kaida Political Science are already professionals in the home economics industry at the beginning of their enrollment. Other students who apply for programs due to personal interests or family needs often have undergraduate diplomas in other majors. Since the start of classes in March 2021, many students engaged in frontline domestic services have achieved promotions and salary increases, while others have become entrepreneurs due to their optimism about the domestic service industry. In their view, "doing household chores also requires a bachelor's degree" is an indisputable topic.

"Home Economics is a profession that has long been misunderstood. The undergraduate program in Home Economics at Shanghai Open University is not about cultivating college students to become aunts, as the public says, but about cultivating aunts to become college students." On June 20th at noon, Lu Qi, the dean of the School of Public Administration at Shanghai Open University, who had just finished his morning defense, told reporters.

On June 20, the first home economics professional thesis defense site of Shanghai Open University

This is the philosophy upheld by the undergraduate program in Home Economics at Kaida University in Shanghai. Standing beside her, student Zhu Chunnan, who had just finished her defense, confirmed this concept - Zhu Chunnan, who graduated from junior high school, came from her hometown in Anhui to Shanghai 15 years ago to work as an aunt. In her third year of employment, she started working in foreign-related home economics and currently earns 20000 yuan per month. She operates an 8-hour work system at the employer's home, with five days off and two days off. According to her introduction, the income from foreign-related domestic work is not low, and her salary is at a normal level. However, she also admitted that due to the widespread bias in society towards the domestic work industry, many practitioners are facing development difficulties.

Excellent domestic service practitioners have become scarce resources

In traditional concepts, domestic service is a labor-intensive industry, and domestic service practitioners belong to low-income groups. However, in reality, as more and more families demand the quality and professionalism of domestic service, excellent domestic service practitioners have become a scarce resource.

Zhu Chunnan, born in 1974, is from Chizhou, Anhui Province. He is the class monitor of the Advanced Service Class for Political Science at Kaida University in Shanghai. She has been engaged in domestic service in Shanghai for 15 years, and has been involved in foreign-related domestic service since the third year. Over the past decade, she has served four households and her job is very stable. A Japanese family she has been serving for the past three years is referred to by her employer as a "versatile homemaker.".

Being called "omnipotent" is not simple, as organizing and storing, taking care of children, baking various pastries according to the employer's requirements, and handling family banquets alone are all requirements that must be met. Upon learning that the hostess wanted to learn yoga, she even paid tens of thousands of yuan to become a certified yoga practitioner. For a versatile homemaker like Zhu Chunnan, she doesn't need a bachelor's degree to maintain a high salary, but she speaks highly of her over two years of undergraduate studies.

The first change that Zhu Chunnan talked about was that although she was able to efficiently complete the work requirements put forward by clients in the past, she was not good at expressing herself and always felt that doing what she was doing was enough. During her undergraduate studies, she made up for her shortcomings in expression, enabling her to work on the front line and be competent in various communication and training tasks, laying a solid foundation for becoming a trainer after retirement.

In his spare time, Zhu Chunnan showcases and organizes knowledge for surrounding residents in the community

With the study of subjects such as family aesthetics, education, and psychology, Zhu Chunnan feels that his work and life are also undergoing changes. "In the past, when I was tidying up a room at the employer's house, I mainly focused on cleanliness and tidiness. However, now I think of the teacher's classification of utensils and color matching in class, and I have an aesthetic awareness in storage. The education course allows me to consider many things from others' perspectives, and the most intuitive change is that my communication with my high school daughter has become much more harmonious."

During Zhu Chunnan's undergraduate studies, several institutions offered to hire her for a senior management position in home economics, but she refused. She is still serving on the front line of home economics to this day. With this understanding, Zhu Chunnan is not shy to tell anyone that she is a domestic service worker, and her professionalism has been recognized by the market - she works 8 hours a day, doing five days off and two days off, and any service that exceeds the working hours will be charged extra overtime by the employer.

"Many domestic service professionals come from rural areas and their education is not high, and the income of this industry is greatly affected by their education. Therefore, even from the perspective of investment return, it is worth pursuing a bachelor's degree in domestic service." In the advanced service class of domestic service where Zhu Chunnan is located, 80% of her classmates are frontline practitioners in the domestic service industry. She mentioned that currently, the monthly salary of foreign-related domestic service personnel is generally high, but the personnel reserve is insufficient, and "high-quality talents are very scarce in the domestic service market.".

Undergraduate education changes professional cognition

Unlike ordinary college graduates, Shanghai Kaida General School has established two directions for undergraduate courses in Home Economics: enterprise management and advanced services, based on the survey results of students' employment intentions. If the students in the advanced service class are mainly frontline domestic workers, while in the enterprise management class, they are mostly domestic business owners or senior managers of well-known domestic institutions. After more than two years of undergraduate studies, in addition to compulsory courses such as College English, Politics, Computer Science, Introduction to Home Economics, Family Sociology, and Home Management, there are also professional courses such as Home Economics Law and Regulations, Home Economics Enterprise Management, and Human Resources Management. Therefore, there are many cases of students in the Enterprise Management class transitioning from executives to entrepreneurs.

Liu Xin, born in the 1980s, is one of them. When she entered the domestic service industry in 2008, she worked in postpartum rehabilitation and switched to a postpartum care center in 2014. In the spring of 2018, Shanghai opened an enrollment program for the National College of Political Science, and Liu Xin applied for admission. "The courses in the college class focus on service skills, which can be quickly applied to practical work after learning." She also promoted from a regular management position to a senior management position, responsible for pre employment training for the new aunt, and her monthly salary increased by 50%. So in 2021, upon learning that a bachelor's degree in home economics was to be offered, Liu Xin and several classmates who had completed their vocational studies immediately formed a group to register.

The School of Public Administration organizes irregular workshops for students to explore solutions to practical problems in the domestic service industry

The content of undergraduate studies includes all the knowledge required to establish a domestic service company, covering all aspects of company management. In Liu Xin's view, the domestic service industry has increasingly high requirements for professional ethics and considerable income. She told reporters that during her studies in home economics, the monthly income of her classmates who worked as homemakers ranged from 12000 to 18000 yuan. But when she opened her own home service company, she found that many home service personnel chose to work in second - and third tier cities with high income and low consumption after the epidemic, and Shanghai's home service enterprises generally faced "recruitment difficulties".

"For example, for inexperienced beginners in the market, the salary during their internship period is 4000 yuan, which can reach 13000 yuan in six months. After one year, the average monthly salary is around 18000 yuan. For caregivers of special infants and young children such as premature infants, the monthly salary ranges from 25000 yuan to 30000 yuan. The salary level of caregivers who can independently take care of their children has also been increasing year by year, with monthly salaries generally fluctuating between 8000 yuan and 15000 yuan."

Based on her entrepreneurial practical experience, Liu Xin wrote her undergraduate thesis "Research on the Training of Shanghai Xiuzhu Home Economics and Infant Nurses". She told reporters that many Shanghai families now hope to find a versatile aunt who can assist them in cooking, cleaning, baby care, and other tasks. Once this aunt is an undergraduate student and can read English picture books with her baby in the app, her monthly salary can reach 20000 yuan. Xiuzhu Home Economics officially opened in March this year and currently has over 300 aunts, but less than 5% have a college degree or above.

Zhu Chunnan's Aijun Home Economics has been engaged in foreign-related home economics since 2000, providing high-end home economics services to many families for many years. The head of the domestic service company, Xia Jun, told reporters that the threshold for engaging in foreign-related domestic services is higher. "Graduates must have a college degree, be able to drive, know how to store, have an early childhood education certificate, understand early childhood education, and be good at cooking." Correspondingly, the income of the staff is also high. The current hourly salary ranges from 80 to 100 yuan, and if they are engaged in professional storage, the hourly salary can even reach 180 yuan.

Foreign domestic service often requires high cooking skills from domestic service personnel. The picture shows Zhu Chunnan preparing afternoon tea for employers and stir fried chicken cubes for children

From the perspective of domestic service operators, Xia Jun and Liu Xin both believe that "pursuing a bachelor's degree in domestic service is a practical need for the domestic service market and a future development trend.".

"A bachelor's degree in domestic economics not only improves the income level of domestic economics practitioners, but also changes their mentality." Liu Xin found that ordinary domestic economics practitioners often have a perception of themselves as "I am an aunt," but after receiving systematic education, practitioners will greatly improve their self-awareness, believing that they "serve the family with their profession" and "are an indispensable member of the employer's family.".

There is a huge shortage of high-quality domestic service personnel

This year is the third year for Shanghai to open undergraduate enrollment in political science, and the autumn enrollment work for 2023 has officially started on June 19. Lu Qi admitted that due to the impact of the epidemic, there has been a significant decline in the number of admissions in the autumn of 2022 and the spring of 2023, but more and more non domestic workers are also registering for admission.

"I signed up for the undergraduate program in home economics purely out of curiosity, hoping to improve the quality of family life through systematic learning." Fei Qiong, born in the 1980s, is a financial worker who studied human resources for her undergraduate degree. She and her husband are both only children in the family and have two children after marriage. In her opinion, whether it is elderly care or parent-child education, the courses taught in the undergraduate domestic economics class are very helpful for family life.

At noon on June 20, Zhu Chunnan and Fei Qiong were interviewed after completing their defense, talking freely about the changes made by their undergraduate students in home economics. Photo by Xie Feijun

Lu Qi told reporters that two years ago, during the spring class enrollment, there were still a few students like Fei Qiong. However, in these two years of enrollment, many people have signed up to improve their family life quality, which is a new phenomenon. "In the autumn of 2021, there is another doctoral student who also has a resident aunt at home. However, she believes that studying domestic economics systematically will better help her aunt improve her work and achieve a high-quality family life." Lu Qi said.

Whether it is a caregiver or a housekeeper, the income of practitioners is relatively considerable. However, influenced by traditional beliefs, there is still prejudice in society towards the domestic service industry and practitioners, believing that it is a job of serving people, greatly reducing the sense of gain and honor in this profession. "This concept has led to outstanding talents' unwillingness to join, which has affected the development of the domestic service industry."

In 2019, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Quality and Expansion of the Home Service Industry", proposing that "in principle, at least one undergraduate university and several vocational colleges in each province should offer home service related majors to expand enrollment." As of now, more than 30 universities in China have opened home service undergraduate programs.

"Jilin Agricultural University was the first university in China to offer a bachelor's degree in home economics, and I have been there for a long time. However, there is a common problem with the home economics program in many universities. Their students do not voluntarily apply for the home economics program, but because of the adjustment of exam scores, many people have a lower willingness to graduate and work in the home economics industry. Therefore, Xia Jun highly values the training model of Shanghai Open University.". As a representative of the domestic service industry with over 20 years of experience, he has repeatedly recommended excellent domestic service professionals to attend undergraduate courses in domestic service in the past few years, believing that this is the true undergraduate education that will change the domestic service industry.

In Lu Qi's view, the domestic service industry involves a wide range of fields, including more than 20 categories and over 200 service projects. In addition to traditional concepts such as elderly care services, parenting services, and butler services, it also includes family health management, life consumption guidance, life aesthetics, and domestic enterprise management. "After decades of development, the domestic service industry has entered a bottleneck period and urgently needs more outstanding talents to enter the industry to drive high-quality development."

In fact, after nearly 20 years of development, home economics can now not only obtain a bachelor's degree, but also be admitted to graduate school. In 2021, Hebei Normal University began admitting Master's degree students in Home Economics, becoming the first independent authorization point for Master's degree programs in Home Economics in China. Yang Wanling, the head of the Bachelor's degree program in Home Economics at Shanghai Open University, recently visited the School of Home Economics at Hebei Normal University. The university mainly cultivates domestic management talents and domestic education teachers. The graduate students are mainly business backbone and high-level teaching and research personnel in enterprises and universities, mainly studying elderly welfare, child development and early education, family nutrition and diet, and other areas.

Recently, at the first graduate recruitment fair held by Hebei Normal University after the reconstruction of the home economics major, 36 units from the Beijing Tianjin Hebei region provided more than 750 job opportunities, with 28.8 times the number of fresh graduates of the school's home economics major, setting a record for the supply-demand ratio of graduates. In the current challenging employment situation, Lu Qi believes that developing the domestic service industry can not only meet the demand for domestic services in society, but also bring new job opportunities to employed individuals. "At present, there are about 750000 domestic service professionals in Shanghai, but there is a shortage of about 30000 high-end domestic service professionals such as foreign-related domestic service, home management, and butler. The undergraduate program in home economics offered by the university is not to cultivate college students into nannies, but to cultivate nannies into college students, so as to provide professional talents engaged in home management and home services for society."

June 20, the last day of the science defense of home economics, was photographed by Xie Feijun, a classmate who stopped to communicate on the campus of Shanghai Open University.

"Our company has a demand gap of more than ten domestic workers every month. There is no age anxiety in this industry, nor is there a 35 year old workplace threshold limit. From 25 to 50 years old, income will increase with age and experience. After retirement, one can also switch to training work." Liu Xin said.