Hello! I am posting this on behalf of my stepsister (sat beside me right now) - we were chatting about her future plans and saw on MN a post about why nannies are often better paid than teachers, and this made us think about nannying as a career choice.
For background, SS and I both live abroad (she came out here to teach English, loved it, went on and on about how great it was and how I should join her... and so I did! I met and married my now DH and am settled here, but she is planning to return to the UK soon because she misses it a lot.)
She had been wondering what to do when she returned to the UK. Although she started out teaching English to primary school aged children, she has been working as a kindergarten homeroom teacher in an international kindergarten for the past 10 years and she loves it. She knows she wants to continue to work with children but she is reluctant to get into teaching in the UK (our other sister is a teacher in the UK and for various reasons the job has led to a lot of stress and a deterioration in her mental health - she is now looking at a career change).
I saw a post on AIBU this morning about nannying and how they get a good salary, and realised this might be perfect for SS! (Not just because of the salary part. I mean that thread brought nannying to our attention as it's not something she had considered before. But she genuinely loves children and they adore her too, so we realised this might be perfect for her! The job she had been looking for.)
She has 10 years of teaching experience, an MA in education, and she's just wonderful with children. We were wondering, is there any sort of qualification she needs to look into getting on top of this to be able to be more employable as a nanny? And how is best to get involved with nannying - is it better to sign up as an agency, or do most people do this on a self employed basis? If agencies are best, do you have any recommendations?
Also wondered whether anyone knows if nannying is a job that can be done in almost all areas, or are there certain areas with a bigger demand, like the bigger cities?
I'm sorry to post such an uninteresting thread but whenever I have any kind of question I generally come to MN as there is always someone (or usually several people!) who can help or has the information I need! So I'd really appreciate it if there's anyone here who can help us out with some advice.
(Alternatively, if there's a reason why this in an awful idea then feel free to let us know that too - any information will be massively appreciated! She is feeling a bit confused about her next step and would really love some MN wisdom to help her make a decision/get some good ideas.)