Au Pair Holland - Au Pair in the Netherlands

Step 1

Once you decided to come to Holland, the next step is to apply at an Au Pair agency who is a partner of Travel Active in your home country. They will send you the application papers and you need to gather all kind of information. The Au Pair agency will interview you if possible face to face.

Step 2

After all is done and complete, your agency will sent all documents to Travel Active. We will read your file, put it on our website and we will send your file to our available families. Travel Active will only send your file to one family at once. If they are not interested, we will introduce you to a new family.

Step 3

When we have a family that is interested, you will receive an email from your agency saying there is a family interested. You will receive the families profile and you will be asked to email the host family to arrange a date and time when they can call you. If there is a click between you and the host family, you can both decide to ‘match’ together.

Step 4

The host family will apply for your visa if necessary. They need to gather a lot of information and documents, send it to Travel Active and Travel Active will send it to the immigration office. They will approve the visa within 2 weeks. As soon as the visa is approved, we will inform your agency and you can go and pick up the visa at the consulate/embassy. When the visa is in your hands, you can book a ticket and ARRIVE IN HOLLAND!
 

Requirements

When applying for the Au Pair program, it’s important that you are available for at least the coming 6 months to arrive in Holland. You need to be minimum 18 years old and maximum 25.5 years old. You should be able to give 2 child care references that are non family related and a character reference. You have to be in good health (confirmed by a doctor). You should stay for 12 months. Only if you are from the EU or America/Canada it’s possible to stay for a shorter period.

Pro’s and cons

There are many things that make your application much more attractive. When your file is neat, nice and clear to read, your changes will increase. Furthermore a smoker is very hard to place, even if you have the best experience in the world. The same counts for cycling. It’s so much easier to place you when you are able to cycle as in Holland there are more bycycles than people! Off course, the more experience you have, the better. You can always try to gain more experience before applying for the Au Pair program. Last we would like to inform you that placements is much easier when you can be flexible in your wishes. For example the age of children you want to take care of. The more ages you want, the easier it will be to place you.
 

Expect the unexpected! It will be a year full of surprises!

Your host family

Responsibilities of your host family
- welcoming you as a full family member and encouraging you to take part in family activities;
- providing you with a room in their house of your own;
- taking care of your daily meals
- making sure you are helping them no more than 30 hours per week
- give you at least 2 days of per week
- help you with finding a course
- help you with integrating in the Dutch culture and their environment
- evaluate with you from time to time

Responsibilities of the Au Pair

- trying to integrate into the families live, being a part of the host family
- participate in daily activities such as cleaning the table after dinner and doing dishes together with your host family. Be aware that you are not staying in a hotel, but participating in daily family life
- being flexible
- being able to handle critics
- being prepared for a stay in Holland! Read a lot of information about Holland and it’s culture/climate/way of life before coming to Holland
- Being aware of the fact that children are treated differently in Holland as in your own country, and you have to stick to the families rules.

Responsibilities of Travel Active

- Call you 4 times a year for evaluation
- Sent you a welcoming package at arrival
- Providing you with a list of other Au Pairs in Holland
- Organizing meetings throughout the year
- Guide you when you have problems or need advise
- In case of replacement making sure all goes smoothly and solved the best way possible
- Being there for you when you need us! To us, Au Pairs are just as important as our host families!
 

Dutch Culture

Cheese, windmills and tulips are the most famous icons of our culture. But next to this Holland’s culture has more to offer you..

Did you know?

• The Netherlands and Holland are the same?
• One-quarter of Holland is below sea level?
• The Dutch are the tallest people in Europe?
• Amsterdam is built entirely on piles?
• Everyone in Holland has a bike and there are twice as many bikes as cars?
• Amsterdam has 1.281 bridges?

Language

The Dutch are considered to be good at speaking foreign languages. This is because Holland as a high standard of education and an education system which focuses on the international position of the country. English teaching starts in the last 2 years of primary school and is an obligatory part of the national exam.
Communication

Holland is known for its open and friendly culture for many decades. Student will notice the flexible and open spirit immediately the moment they are here. Therefore integration and adaptation will be easy for motivated students. Do not be afraid to ask questions to people you don’t know. Dutch people are very hospitable and will help you to solve a problem.
The Dutch are known for their professionalism; they like to get down to business straight away and have a no-nonsense culture. May foreigners who come to Holland to work or to learn the Dutch language find it surprising that even the manager director of the company is called by his/her first name

Transportation

Holland is a country that is simply made for bicycling. With its endless miles of cycle paths and flat terrain, cycling is enjoyable, relaxing and more often than that a necessary way of transportation. The Dutch love their bikes and have a special, widely used biking infrastructure.

Traditional festivities

One very famous traditional festivity in the Netherlands is the festivity ‘Sinterklaas’. This festivity is especially in families with little children celebrated on the 5th of December.
On this date, also known as ‘pakjesavond’ sinterklaas rides his horse over the roofs of the houses to bring the little children presents. During the period leading up to Sinterklaas, they also find small presents in shoes they have left out near the chimney to full.

Another traditional festivity is Queens day or ‘Koninginnedag’. This is celebrated in honour of the Queen’s birthday. However this day (the 30th of April) is not the birthday of Queen Beatrix. It was the birthday of her mother, Queen Juliana. The Queen decided to keep this date, because her own birthday is in the winter. At this day people sell their belongings which they don’t use anymore on the street en wear orange clothes.

Websites

Before coming to Holland, it’s very important that you already know some things about Holland. For example about our habits, culture, environment and transport. But maybe Can you imagine how stunned your host family would be if you already know some Dutch words or maybe even some dutch songs?

More information about Holland and our culture you can find at:

• www.holland.com (more information about Holland)
• www.howtosurviveholland.com (funny site about Dutch habits, written by other students)
• www.theundutchables.com (The UnDutchables an observation of the netherlands: its culture and its inhabitants).
• www.hollandwijzer.nl (General and tourist information)
• www.lonelyplanet.com (a lot of information about the Netherlands)
• www.learndutch.org (really nice and helpful site where you can already start learning our language!)

Other useful sites:

• www.napoweb.nl (site of the Dutch Branch organization)
• http://www.mamalisa.com/?p=971&t=ec&c=139 (Dutch famous children’s songs, translated to English and with a midi tune, so you can sing along!)
• www.ns.nl (to find out more about the public transport)
   

If you decided you want to become an Au Pair in Holland, you need to apply at an agency in your own country that is a partner of Travel Active. You can not apply at Travel Active directly! If you want to know with which agency in your country we cooperate, you can send us an email to aupair@travelactive.nl

If you are already an Au Pair in Holland and not happy with your current family, we can’t help you if you didn’t come here through one of our partner agencies. It’s very important that you have gone through the whole process of screening before we can accept you.