High pay, vague job raising eyebrows

A trendy new profession offering home companionship for children has caused controversy online, due to its fat salary but vague job content.

The child-companion develops personal plans for activities — learning, sporting and playing — in accordance with requirements from the parents. The companion inspires the children, and helps them kick bad habits.

However, there is no clear definition for the profession, and pay varies depending on the family's budget and their specific standards for the companion's educational background and skills.

Though there are no official figures, pay usually ranges from 10,000 to 80,000 yuan ($1,380 to $11,000) per month, with the majority around 20,000 to 30,000 yuan, according to CNR News, an official news outlet in Beijing.

The high pay has attracted many young people with good educational backgrounds to enter the industry. A manager at an education consultancy in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, told CNR News that over 6,000 people submitted their resumes in a year after the company set up the child-companion business.

The manager said that more than 60 percent of the applicants have master's degrees, 30 percent graduated from China's top-tier universities and 10 percent are doctorate graduates.

"I really want to hire a well-educated person to keep my daughter company when my husband and I are at work. My mother is helping us take care of my 4-year-old daughter, but she can't keep her eyes on the girl due to the housework," said Li Nan, a 38-year-old mother who works for an advertising company in Beijing.

"I only have a very general knowledge of the profession, which is different from a regular babysitter, after I consulted some domestic services and education companies. I think most of the parents hiring a child-companion want them to teach English, math or art-related courses during the companionship," she said.

Cai Yan, a teacher from Chongqing Three Gorges Medical College who has sound knowledge and skills in baby nursing, said that stable emotional support for children is more important for a family hiring child-companion workers, when the family has "busy" parents.

"As far as I know, the job content of the profession does have some similarities with a family tutor. But a child-companion pays more attention to assisting the children's education by inspiring them and guiding them to form good study habits, rather than putting the focus on good scores," she said.

"Psychological counseling is also an important part of the job. The companion should sense the children's unhealthy emotions during the companionship and offer them counseling," she added.

She said that a child-companion must have patience, sound knowledge of child psychology and good communication skills.

"But so far, there is no official training course or certificate for the profession. I think the management of the profession will be bettered in the future in terms of the large market demand."