A number of companies are dashing to recruit and provide training courses for home helpers to serve increasing demand by high-income families or foreigners.

Domestic helpers need training

Nguyen Thuy Nga, Director of a company in Tay Ho District, Hanoi that specialises in training domestic helpers for foreigners, said, “We always face difficulties in selecting people, particularly those with foreign languages and the necessary work experience. Plus they’ve got to have good health and personality.”

Trained housemaids can receive a salary of VND5-6 million (USD238-285.7) per month, depending their working time, compared to just VND1.8-2.5 million (USD85.7-USD119) for those lacking training.

Phan Thanh Huong, 38, from Long Bien District, who was trained at a centre specialising in providing housemaids for foreigners, said, “I’m now working for a New Zealand family at Golden West Lake apartment block with a stable monthly salary of VND4 million. They’re very kind and respect me.”

Most of people who come to cities to work as housemaids come from rural areas and they are unaware of these training centres, but families are requiring higher skilled home helpers as they want to employ not only those who are honest and diligent, but can also cook, use domestic household appliances and even understand psychology of children and the elderly.

Mrs. Hoang Xuan, Director of an event organising company in Hai Ba Trung District, said, her family had changed 20 housemaids, a not uncommon situation.

Mrs. Thu Ha, who works at a centre providing domestic helpers, said, it was quite difficult for families to find a satisfactory housemaid. Families have their own requirements, while housemaids also target high salaries and families with good working conditions and possibly lodgings. Some families have changed housemaids 10 times to have a satisfactory housemaid.

Vocation not temporary work

The majority of housemaid training centres only introduce jobs to their learners, helping them to discuss salary with the families, but do not manage them. They have their contributors in localities to help introduce people for them. For reliable centres the quality of housemaid depends on the contributors’ prestige.

Do Tran Tuan, Director of a vocational training centre in Hoan Kiem District, said, “Just 60% of rural labourers coming to Hanoi to work as housemaids can retain the job for long time, while the rest quit the work due to missing their family or being ill-treated by the host. Families and housemaids rarely sign contracts; therefore, housemaids can stop working unilaterally when they feel unsatisfied with their employer. The situation that many families have to find housemaids is evidence of poor relations between the employee and the employer.

According to the Labour Policy under the Hanoi Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, a dozen of job introduction centres operate in the city, but the department can only supervise their operation through their annual reports.

Lawyer Nguyen Tien Hoa from Hanoi Bar Association, said there was no professional skills requirement for domestic helpers; therefore, no legal regulations on the vocation had been issued. To tighten control over the area, management agencies should issue legal documents on home help quality standards in order to professionalise the job.

Source: Dtinews