Dear all...

Ok im looking for some market research as well as some friendly advice!

I am a 25 year old English born mother of a six month old boy.

I have been living in Baden, Switzerland since Dec 2005 working as a live-in nanny to a family with two children, now aged 3 & 5.


I have much experience behind me from as little as helping with my younger brothers...to childminding and previous nanny positions. I have also worked in a well established nursery back in England.

I am now exploring the possibility of setting up a child minding service based in my home and I am undertaking this short market research to determine demand and I would appreciate your response.


1.Are you looking for a day care facility before December 2008

2.What age is your child

3.The hours of opening will be 8am – 6pm, does this meet your need?

4.If not, what do you require

5.I only speak English .

I also need to find out some points of contacts that can help with a few queries i have about starting something in a foreign country...

1. Liability insurance for accidents to or caused by children in your care
2. What are the local regulations (social services) regarding setting up a child minding business?
   

Thanks in advance

Jenny

Hi Jenny,

This is a link to the page on child care in the city of Baden.
http://www.schule-baden.ch/index.php?id=29

There is a wealth of information in the daycare section that will give you some indication of the requirments you must have in order to look after children.

You might want to consider other options, such as the Tagesfamilien care option. There is information about that here as well.

Good luck!

P.S. I saw an ad in the paper the other day for a job going at the Kinderkrippe in Baden.

Thats great,thankyou so much for your help unfortunatly i dont speak any german but i am going to make contact (from the link you provided) to enquire if there is any english speaking people available to give me some advice.

Also do you know which krippe in baden,or which paper?

thanks

The ad was in German, so you would need German. I can't recall which day, it was the Aargauer Zeitung.

Have you considered contacting the daycare facilities at the various ABB locations around Baden? Perhaps English would be needed there.
If you don't have a specific qualification (certicate, diploma etc) I suspect you are going to find it difficult to find a job even where where German is not required.

This could also be a problem if you run your own daycare centre. Not speaking any German at all is also a problem in my opinion. If a child in your care has an accident and needs medical attention, you would have to deal with this and you would need German. After 2 1/2 years here you really don't speak any German or are you just being modest?

Don't mean to put a damper on things but 8am starting time sorry most people are in the office or on there way to work by then......i have a childminder and she starts at 6am so people can got to work...she sometimes doesn't finish until after 9pm as people who use her work shifts you have to think what kind of people live around you and would use you are they just people from the area what work in the area or do they travel to work.....

I couldn't use you as i work shifts sometime start at 7am and finish at 8.30pm just my views not meant to offend

i would consider looking at your times....as this would really help you...

Sorry but i dont agree with that opinion. I have been living in this country for nearly 3 years and working as a nanny for the same. Now i also have my own child,and can strongly say that the medical profession study english as part of there course,i have taken the kids to many doctors apointments,and even had a baby here...all done in english!! Wether i am being modest or not about my level of german language is not the point...i just want to put the point across that it is not essential.

If i thought that this would be a worry,i would not be putting my own child at risk.

Thanks for your reply anyhow.

Hello!

I also want to comment on the opening times: most krippes we have looked at have opening times of 7-19 or 7-18.30 or 7.30-19 etc. In a nutshell, it is needed, in my opinion, to be open before 8 and close after 18 as those are the times people need to be already at work.

Also, don't forget that most people expect more flexibility from a Tagesmutter than from a Krippe.

I also think speaking some German would help you especially as you are going through the paper work to set up as a Tagesmutter.

I am sure the Gemeinde can help you as there are spcific regulations such as size & suitability of the house etc

Cheers,
C

So it appears that people are making assumptions about my level of german effecting the setup...so let me reword it!

When i say i only speak english i mean in the sense i would be offering english childcare...as in only speaking in english to the children during the day.

Sorry if we put a bee in your bonnet,

Having an english speaking day care service, that's great and by the sounds of it you have a knowledge of german that you can go through the paper work and get by, also if you can speak with the parents in german (as many will bring there kids just so they can learn english but it won't mean the parents can speak english) then i don't see any problem with this service.

I think in the area you are in and the service you will give is great, as said before the only thing you need to look at are the opening times but i bet you will sort that easy enough....


I wish you all the best and hope it works out..

if it does please let us know when you start as i have a few people in your area looking for a child minder.

We are not making assumptions, you said yourself you do not speak any German

On my side I was just saying that I think you need a fair level of German to be able to setup correctly and read and fill out all needed documents.

English speaking daycare sounds great but being able to converse with the parents in German could be a plus in case not both are fluent in English etc.

Two last things:
1) also think about opening times in the sense of how many weeks a year you will take out. Most krippes close over Christmas break and some a couple of weeks in summer.
2) will you take kids when they are sick? Most krippes do not, some tagesmutter take them if they are not contagious.

These aspects will also determine your competitveness.


Cheers,
C

My nursery doesn't take sick kids but my child minder does, even if they have chicken pox...... I have to say my child minder is great very flexible, i cna take my son as early as 6.30am and pick him up at 20.45 uhr and he can stay over night to when i am on night shift...she is great.....

she speaks german and no english and my son has been fine with her....

Thats great that she is flexible but not everyone wants to work so many hours.
I want to target families where the parents work part time or not such a stressfull job that means they are away from 7-7 every day.

I have my own son to care for too and i want some quality alone time with him too but unfortunatly i also must work some hours too. I dont want his childhood memory to be mommy working the whole time.

I really appreciate all the input from everybody and i will take it in to consideration when nearer the time of starting.

Of course im willing to be flexible (e.g occasional sleepovers,early mornings etc) but i dont want to be available '24/7' all the time.

being a child minder means you are with your child 24/7 as you work from home.....my child minder has 4 boys of her own....

Don't take offence but you have to remember you are in switzerland where the working hours are not normally 7-7......

I work part time but your hours wouldn't cover me as i work shifts and many people do and part time workers work the swiss hours and not the british 9 to 5 hours....

if you really want this to work for you i would really advice you to start thinking swiss.....

You should consider that people who work a normal office job are still in the office for about 9 hours a day plus transportation so it can easily be a total of 10-11 hours that the child is left with you.

And these are typically the ones who are looking for a childminder and who have the money to pay them as typically the costs involved are 8-10 CHF an hour.

Cheers,
C

Hi Jake's Mom!

I am thinking about the possibility of being a Tagesmutter too. My German is basic but child focused so I could look after a young German speaking child although I would be mainly speaking in English and therefore expat children may be better. I know that a Tagesmutter must attend a 2/3 day workshop in order to gain the required qualification. Do you know if there are any courses in English?

Thanks

Hey there,

So thats a little piece of information i didnt know!! Thats a shame you are living in luzern (although its one of my favourite cities!) as i am looking for a business partner with a basic knowledge of 'child' german!!!

I am in the process of seeing how much paper work is included in starting up a new business like this...we are in switzerland after all!!! And to wether my german skills can face up to the reality of it all!!

Anyway keep me posted of any further information you may come across. Would be willing to travel anywhere for a few days to do a course in ENGLISH!!!

Thanks
Jenny

I would be interested to find out how far you have got in the process of becoming a Tagesmutter as I am currently a childminder in the UK and looking to do the same when we move to Switz in the new year. Trying to find details on the web seems to be a bit difficault either that or I am looking in all the wrong places. I will be moving to the Zurich area, not sure exactly where yet. I have been told that there is a 1 day 2 evening course to complete but I beleive that it will be delivered in German and my German is basic and not been tried or tested since leaving school 15 years ago.

For the time being i have abondoned the idea...and found another nanny job instead. For starters the money earned by a tagesmutter (childminder) is minimal as it is considered the 'cheap' childcare option over here. Also the paperwork/courses etc are all in german and my written level of german is not good enough.

So until i could fund something a bit bigger(small daycare etc) and find someone with german to work with my plans are on hold. And probably by then i will have moved back to england.

All the best with everything,let me know if you find a simpler/easier way than i did.

Jenny