A Shanghai housekeeping company plans to use foreign expertise to clean up.

Shanghai Boni Housekeeping Services intends to take a page out of traditional English propriety by importing four butlers, famous around the world for their manners and meticulous attention to detail, to train local nannies and maids.

"The quality of local housekeeping service often lags behind the needs of customers," said Zhu Wei, of Boni.

"Our goal is to improve the professional standards of our staff through training by British butlers."

A group of 50 nannies or maids - known in China as ayis - will be the first trained by the imported butlers. The huge supply of cheap labor means many middle-class and expatriate families often hire ayis. There are thousands of ayis out there, but the quality of their work varies.

Zhu is hoping training will help his company secure a position in a niche that is getting bigger and bigger. His company targets mostly high-income customers such as executives living in high-end communities.

"There are many high-income people here and there is a huge demand for good housekeeping service," he said.

"Some customers want their ayis to explain what they have done during the day, even if they cannot speak English," he said. "Many of them only know how to work hard but do not know how to communicate with the customers."

The new foreign experts - two in Hong Kong and two in England working out their visas - will work with the domestic workers to improve their skills. Chinese visa regulations prevent the foreign butlers from working directly for families here.

For Shanghai Boni, this is a trial program and the length of stay of the new butler-trainers will depend on the results. Zhu expects the group to be here for at least a few months.

"The performance of the trained staff will be assessed. From there we will see how the training is integrated with practice," he said.

(China Daily August 11, 2005)