No need to clock in at work? Is it so easy to be a "child growth accompanist" with a monthly income of 40,000?
If you have a job, the monthly salary is 40,000 yuan, or even unlimited. You only need to work about 4 hours a day, you don’t have to clock in, and there are no KPIs. Food and accommodation are included, and you are accompanied by a luxury car. You can also occasionally travel abroad and visit high-end places. Doesn’t it sound very tempting to you at first glance?
Such a profession is the "child growth accompanist" that has been hotly discussed recently. It has been widely discussed for its novelty, niche, high salary and other topics. It focuses on "accompanying" - accompanying children to study, exercise and play, observing their habits and guiding adjustments during companionship. However, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has not yet clearly defined and classified this occupation.
On social platforms, a large number of recruitment notes for “child growth accompanists” are constantly emerging. Such notes attract the attention of many job seekers, including graduates from prestigious universities at home and abroad. But does this magical-sounding job really exist?
Practitioners say: Some people can earn 100,000 yuan a month
According to industry insiders, depending on the region and family situation, the monthly salary of a child growth accompanist ranges from 5,000 yuan to 40,000 to 50,000 yuan, and some can even reach 100,000 yuan a month.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, Wang Dandan and his driver drove to an international school in Shanghai to pick up his employer's twin children and take them home. In the car, Wang Dandan began to "expand knowledge" for the children.
Wang Dandan's job is called a "child growth accompanist". Her working hours are from 3 pm to 7:30 pm every day from Monday to Saturday. This job allows her to earn 40,000 yuan a month in Shanghai, and the hourly salary is even more substantial. .
“Knowledge expansion” is part of her job. "For example, in terms of traditional culture, I will expand the children's knowledge of the four great inventions, and we will also try to make small handicrafts together to let them experience traditional culture." Wang Dandan said.
"It's an exaggeration to say online that there is no cap on job income." Xin Xin, from Shanghai, is a "child growth accompanist" with a monthly salary of 40,000. Before that, she was a "teacher and trainer" with more than ten years of work experience. To date, she has only served one family.
Song Siyu, who is located in Chongqing, told reporters that her working hours are from 17:30 to 20:30 from Monday to Friday. She mainly accompanies children to do homework for transition from early childhood to early childhood, tutors him in pinyin and arithmetic, and also takes him to do things like playing football. Great outdoor activities, sometimes taking children to fencing, swimming, and badminton training classes according to parents' needs. Song Siyu’s monthly income is 5,000-6,000 yuan.
"There is still a difference between new first-tier cities and first-tier cities. In fact, many parents in Chongqing still misunderstand child growth accompanies. They equate us with childcare nannies and tutors, or think that they need to be transported to the accompaniments' homes. In fact, we provide door-to-door services. "Song Siyu said that their salary is also related to the service model and the personal ability of the escort. The salary of live-in companions in Chongqing ranges from 8,000 to 18,000 yuan, and live-in companions usually work alone. For high-paying accompaniments, parents often require skills such as being able to drive and speaking English well, but cooking, organizing and storing are not within the scope of the job.
However, some people said that they also have to do "maid" work. Miaomiao, a post-2000s returnee, chose to join this industry not long ago. To her, this job is more like being a servant. She said that in addition to tutoring homework, she is also responsible for children's daily life.
Proactively inform that if you don’t pay social security, your starting salary will be doubled at will
Is it difficult to become a "child growth accompanist"? The reporter first experienced the job search process as a candidate.
The reporter randomly searched for relevant content on the social platform and got in touch with an organization called "Sequoia Mutual Housekeeping" in the background. Later, the organization asked the reporter to add WeChat to express his detailed communication about job hunting intentions.
During a WeChat chat with a staff member of the agency, he took the initiative to reveal that "I don't pay social security, my workplace is at home, it's normal for my family to not have a business license, and I don't have to pay taxes, and my salary is just what I get."
When a reporter asked about the specific amount of salary, the staff member initially said that the starting salary was only 8,000 yuan. When the reporter questioned whether the words "highly educated can earn tens of thousands a month" and "no cap" displayed online were gimmicks, The staff immediately changed their story and said that the starting salary could be around 16,000 yuan, which would be doubled.
The reporter’s investigation found that these organizations basically post some notes on social platforms to avoid being deceived to attract traffic. There are even more job seekers than parents who want to find “child growth accompaniment counselors”.
In addition, "intermediary commission" is also very common in this industry. Another company interviewed by the reporter, "Feifan International Housekeeping", introduced the commission rules to the reporter in detail: "The service fee is 20% of the first month's salary. After signing the contract, if you do not work for a full month, then the service fee will be based on the actual working hours. The service fee will be refunded in proportion to one month.”
In addition, during interviews, reporters found that many organizations required job seekers to provide self-introduction videos in English. One organization even bluntly stated that academic qualifications in this field are only one aspect, and what is more important is spoken English and experience.
Package subject teachers as "child growth companions"
Faced with such an educational job that requires working with children for a long time, many netizens have questioned whether it is a sideline, but it is actually subject education? What is the difference between a "child growth accompanist" and a "teacher"?
In this regard, Xin Xin told reporters that in her work content, she will not actually be involved in tutoring children's homework. What she wants to teach more is some educational methods. "I think the 'child growth accompanist' is more of a Solve educational problems from the root and use positive language to influence children.”
Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences, said that child growth accompaniment is currently not included in the relevant occupational catalog of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, so it is not an officially recognized occupation. This name may be used by some companies or individuals to meet parents' needs for children's growth companionship. Due to the lack of official regulations, there may be a mixed bag of goods and services in the market, with uneven service quality. Parents should be careful when choosing such services to avoid being deceived.
He suggested that service providers should ensure that the services they provide have a positive impact on children's growth and avoid negative effects. For those without professional training, it is recommended not to provide services in the name of "child growth services" easily.
Xiong Bingqi, director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, pointed out that some institutions package subject training teachers as "child growth accompaniments", which is actually a side effect. Subject training for preschoolers and primary school students is an act that the education department is clearly opposed to now. "Domestic service cannot be regarded as subject tutoring, let alone a substitute for parent-child companionship. The responsibilities of domestic service, the responsibilities of school teachers and the responsibilities of parents cannot be confused."
Huang Zhuoming, a well-known Chinese overseas examination training expert and teaching management expert, told reporters that although "child growth accompaniment" is a new thing, subject education cannot be done under the guise of "child growth accompaniment". This is a bottom line that cannot be crossed. However, There are only a limited number of families that can bear this cost, and so far the impact is controllable. The name is not important, what is important is the parents' company for their children.
According to Laura, a practitioner, many people come into contact with this industry because they may have read various self-media propaganda and think it is a niche, high-paying profession with a lot of money but little work. “This industry can really help you accumulate wealth quickly. But if you just want to relax, then don’t come here. Any high-paying job that seems good to you must have bitterness behind it that you can’t imagine.”
There may be a question mark as to whether the profession of "child growth accompanist" is really as beautiful as described in the Internet marketing copy. After experiencing the job search process, some media reporters found that the salary standards given by intermediaries are relatively arbitrary, and they do not pay social security, but also charge an "agency commission" of 20% of the first month's salary.
What needs to be especially noted is that as a new profession, the nature and boundaries of "child growth accompanist" are not clear, and there is a lot of room for fluctuation in the abilities and responsibilities of practitioners. On the one hand, attracted by the "high salary", job seekers are constantly wanting to join; on the other hand, employers and families have different expectations and requirements for escorts, making it difficult to match people with jobs.
For example, some employer families use "child growth accompanies" as servants, requiring the accompaniment not only to provide tutoring with homework, but also to take care of the children's daily life, and even do some housework. This approach confuses the boundaries between family education and domestic services, and can easily cause trouble for job seekers and lead to labor disputes.
Judging from the experience and quality of job seekers, it is actually difficult for some young practitioners who lack experience in the education industry to meet the requirements of accompanying children as they grow up. For young children, what they need most is not homework guidance, but the cultivation of good study habits and the formation of positive and benevolent personality traits at an early age.
Although "child growth accompanist" is still a niche profession at present, it places high requirements on the economic level of the employer's family and the quality of the practitioners. However, if any profession wants to develop healthily, it must form consensus on industry standards and standards and follow a measurable professional standard system.
If we do not have a deep understanding of the laws of children's growth and lack an accurate positioning of the role that accompanists play, and they just play around with concepts and "put old wine in new bottles", it will easily lead to various disputes and even affect the healthy growth of children.
Some experts expressed their concerns: We cannot provide subject education under the guise of "child growth accompanist". In order to promote "child growth accompanies", some institutions tell parents that they can provide subject tutoring. Some accompanists also package subject expertise as their core competitiveness, which is actually a sideline.
At present, "child growth accompanists" are usually directly employed by families in need, lacking the constraints and guarantees of intermediary agencies. In order to strengthen the level of professionalism and standardization, organizations with professional standards can provide training and on-the-job training, and then assign the training to families. In this way, it can not only solve the social security and tax payment issues of accompanying teachers, but also help improve service quality and protect the legitimate rights and interests of practitioners.
For the majority of young people who are looking for jobs, don’t be blind to social media’s rhetoric about “more money and less work”. When trying the emerging career of “child growth accompaniment teacher”, fully evaluate your own qualifications and ability to withstand stress. Whether you regard it as a long-term career or a short-term transitional career, you must fully understand the employer's needs and make responsible choices.
From the regulatory side, it is necessary to strengthen the supervision and management of "child growth accompaniment" intermediary agencies. Whether intermediaries provide real information matching services, whether they charge unreasonable intermediary service fees and training fees, and whether they can actively coordinate and resolve possible disputes in the future should be further regulated.
In any case, "child growth accompaniment" is for children and serves families. It is related to the future of the next generation and must not be allowed to "grow wildly". Accompanying children as they grow is not a concept used to hype educational anxiety, but a process that is crucial to minors. Parents must also learn to be deeply involved in their children’s growth and strive to be “their children’s companions.”
Comprehensive Workers' Daily, New Evening News, Daily Economic News, China-Singapore Jingwei, Morning News, Beijing News
