Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, May 9, Title: How to train, who can participate, and is there a subsidy? ——Focus on the housekeeping training actions of 6 departments

Xinhua News Agency reporter Jiang Lin

The housekeeping industry is connected to the employment of migrant workers on one end and to the needs of the majority of families in parenting and elderly care.

The reporter learned from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security on May 9 that in order to effectively expand the supply of government services and improve the quality of service, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the National Development and Reform Commission and other six departments recently deployed to organize special training on domestic service vocational skills from 2025 to 2027.

How to carry out training? Who can participate? Does the government provide subsidies? Regarding the focus of everyone's concern, the reporter interviewed an authoritative department.

On February 6, 2025, at the Xi'an "Spring Breeze Action" special job fair, a job seeker (left) learned about the skills training policies from the staff of the housekeeping enterprise. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Bowen

"The implementation of this action is mainly through active guidance from the government, giving full play to the training resource advantages of the development and reform, education, commerce, trade unions, women's federation and other departments, and driving housekeeping training institutions, housekeeping enterprises, etc. to widely carry out multi-channel and multi-level housekeeping training." said the head of the Migrant Workers Department of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

According to reports, the action highlights "large-scale" and "wide coverage". Starting this year, 1.5 million people will be trained annually for workers who are willing to train employment in the field of housekeeping and existing housekeeping service practitioners. This includes 900,000 subsidized housekeeping training, 100,000 trade union housekeeping training, 200,000 women's housekeeping quality expansion and skill improvement project training, and 300,000 people's housekeeping training in the education system.

"The ultimate goal of improving skills is to find employment. On the one hand, it promotes more workers to stabilize employment and increase income in the domestic affairs field with their own skills. On the other hand, it improves the overall service level of the industry to better meet the people's domestic affairs service needs." The above-mentioned person in charge said.

On October 12, 2024, the 2024 Shanghai Women's Housekeeping Service Vocational Skills Competition was held at Shanghai Open University. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Xie Xin)

With the acceleration of urbanization and the intensification of population aging, the people's demand for housekeeping services is becoming increasingly strong. Statistics from relevant departments show that my country's national government service practitioners have exceeded 30 million and more than 1 million domestic service enterprises. According to data from the consulting agency, the scale of the housekeeping service industry has exceeded 1.1 trillion yuan.

However, judging from the current development status of the domestic service industry, problems such as insufficient total supply, low skill level, and low satisfaction among the people are still prominent. Many families have encountered the trouble of "it is difficult to find a housekeeper" and "it is even more difficult to find a good housekeeper". Improving the professionalization level of the industry is the key to solving this problem.

In June 2024, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments specially issued the "Opinions on Strengthening the Professional Construction of Household Services", proposing a series of tasks and measures such as improving the professional standard system of housekeeping services, improving the professional skills of housekeeping service practitioners, and strengthening the professional training of housekeeping services.

"The joint implementation of the housekeeping training action by six departments is a specific measure to implement the professionalization of housekeeping services. All localities will focus on national professional standards, rely on various institutions to coordinate the determination of training courses, scientifically formulate training plans, strengthen financial guarantees, and ensure the quality of training." The above-mentioned person in charge said.

In order to highlight the pertinence and effectiveness of training, this action clearly states that the job search and training intention of workers in the domestic affairs field will be widely investigated, and information registration will be carried out for workers who are willing to find employment and training in the domestic affairs field will be carried out. At the same time, housekeeping training projects are formulated based on the diverse needs of different employment groups, included in the guidance catalog for vocational skills training needs, and released to the public in a timely manner.

So, where can workers see these training information?

In accordance with the action deployment, various localities and relevant departments will widely publicize in various forms and channels, and rely on various service platforms to provide inquiry and guidance services for workers to participate in training. Workers can check employment and skills training information in the field of housekeeping on the official websites of relevant departments, the national lifelong education smart education platform, local government service platforms, etc.

In order to further enhance workers' sense of belonging and gain, this action also made detailed arrangements for standardizing the certification of domestic business professional skills.

The action requires local governments to further improve the professional evaluation mechanism and occupational evaluation system for housekeeping services that are oriented towards, guide the trained workers to participate in the professional skill level certification and special professional ability assessment, and apply for skills evaluation subsidies given by the state in accordance with regulations after obtaining the certificate.

"We require local governments to strengthen employment docking services, conduct employment assessments and implement training subsidies based on the signing of labor contracts or service agreements with service personnel with domestic enterprises and service personnel. In addition, timely track the skill level, employment status, and salary status of domestic service personnel after training, and conduct training effectiveness assessments." The above-mentioned person in charge said.