What the family manager is in the city, the village helper is in the country – or rather in agriculture. She is always called when there is a “fire” on a farm in the figurative sense: if, for example, the farmer has had an accident, the farmer’s wife is heavily pregnant or ill and no one else can take care of the farm. Or even if there is a death. In such emergencies, a village helper supports the family in household, agricultural, nursing or educational and psychological matters – sometimes only for a few days, sometimes even for several months.
Your tasks are diverse. A village helper keeps the household in good shape, cooks and cleans for the family, looks after infants and children or family members in need of care. She also takes care of the garden as well as the bookkeeping of the farm, takes on office and stable work and, in an emergency, tills the fields. Pastoral skills are therefore just as important as technical understanding. A village helper is therefore a family task force between children and cattle – no wonder there are too few of them.
There are also not many technical schools that offer further training to become a state-certified village worker: for example, the Protestant village helpers’ seminar in Loccum in Lower Saxony or the Academy for Agriculture and Housekeeping in Kupferzell in Baden-Württemberg. Depending on the federal state, the further training takes one to two years; the prerequisite is usually a professional qualification as a housekeeper. In Bavaria only the Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm Agricultural School offers full-time advanced training, with one semester being completed at the Catholic Technical School in Neuburg an der Donau. Part-time training is available at the Protestant college for village helpers in Hesselberg. In addition to nutrition, pedagogy and psychology, the schedule also includes household and project management. Business formation, business management and animal husbandry are also taught.
Village helpers usually find a job with social services, especially with those that also offer community and neighborhood help. They are also employed by charities or by village aid workers. Some also work for private households. The earning potential varies depending on the employer. Village helpers employed by the Diakonie earn as young professionals between 2190 and 2540 euros a month.