QCC Hosts Career Seminar for Au Pairs from Around the World

WORCESTER, Mass. – On Saturday and Sunday, March 24 and 25, Quinsigamond Community College’s Training and Education Center will offer a unique career training seminar for women who are currently working in the New England area as au pairs. QCC is the only Worcester area college to offer this unique seminar to working au pairs.

The seminar, titled, “Creating Career, Academic and Personal Success for Au Pairs” is for foreign women who are caring for children as a “nanny,” and/or doing domestic work for a family in the area.  The seminar is specifically geared toward au pairs who are unsure of what career path they want to pursue after their commitment to the au pair organization is fulfilled.  Last fall’s seminar received excellent feedback, with attendees hailing from around the world, including the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, and South Africa, among other countries.  QCC expects this weekend’s seminar to be equally successful.

“There is a great need for this type of career advising for au pairs,” stated Colleen Doherty, Assistant Dean of Career and Academic Advisement. “These are women in transition. Last fall one woman was in a doctoral program at a university in Paris, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to continue.  We help them determine what step to take next.”

The au pairs create an individual web-based Career, Academic, Personal Success (CAPS) plan.  They are taught how to research careers, interpret assessment results, review differences in U.S. culture and their own, build transferable career skills, as well as how to balance work and family.