Working in a Crèche or Kids Club at a Ski Resort

Crèche and kids club roles are among the more consistently available ski resort jobs for people with childcare backgrounds — but they're often misunderstood, conflated with nannying, or assumed to involve more skiing than they actually do. This guide covers what these positions actually involve, what tour operators expect, and whether the season suits you.

This guide covers crèche and kids club roles specifically: positions within resort or tour operator childcare facilities. These are distinct from nanny positions (private employer, one family, usually residential) and from ski instructor work with children (which requires BASI, CASI, or equivalent national qualification). See working as a nanny at a ski resort for the private nanny route.

What the Roles Involve

Crèche is supervised indoor childcare for infants and toddlers — typically from six months to around three years old — while parents ski. The work is direct care: feeding, napping routines, nappy changing, structured play, managing multiple children simultaneously, basic medical monitoring (temperature, minor injuries), and communication with parents at handover. The emotional register is different from working with older children. Infants cry, don't communicate verbally, and need physical holding and soothing for extended periods. Tour operator crèches generally run something close to 9am–5pm, with a handover window at each end.

Kids club (garderie) covers structured activities for slightly older children, typically three to seven years. The activity mix runs across arts and crafts, outdoor play, snow play in the resort, group games, and possibly snow introduction — though formal ski instruction requires a qualified instructor. Kids club work has more capacity for structured programming and more verbal communication with the children, which some practitioners find easier to sustain across a long season than infant care. The physical demands are different: less lifting, more sustained movement and energy management across a group.

Snow garden is a specific ski resort category that bridges crèche and ski school: a supervised snow play area adjacent to ski school, where very young children (roughly two to four years) are introduced to snow and sometimes skis in an unstructured play context. Not all resorts have a distinct snow garden offering; it's sometimes folded into the crèche or ski school structure depending on the operator.

Qualifications

UK qualifications: Tour operators with UK-market childcare programmes — Mark Warner, Esprit, Neilson, Club Med among the largest — typically specify Level 3 childcare as a minimum for crèche roles. The Level 3 CACHE Certificate in Childcare (or equivalent NVQ Level 3 in Children and Young People's Workforce), a foundation degree, or a full early childhood education degree are what operators mean when they say "childcare qualification." Babysitting experience or informal childminding does not usually meet the bar operators apply. Genuine formal experience — nursery, reception class, holiday club, forest school — is what makes an application credible.

French qualifications: The BAFA (Brevet d'Aptitude aux Fonctions d'Animateur) is the standard French animation qualification for working with children in group settings. It's a 17-day training course split between theory and practical placement stages, widely held by French seasonaires working in kids clubs and animation roles. The PSC1 (Premiers Secours Civiques Level 1) — the French basic first aid qualification — is frequently required alongside it. If you are a non-French applicant applying for roles in French resort structures rather than through a UK tour operator, these qualifications are worth understanding even if you hold equivalent UK credentials.

DBS check: UK operators hiring British nationals for childcare require an Enhanced DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check. Obtain this before departure — processing takes two to eight weeks depending on whether you apply directly through the DBS service or via an umbrella body. Do not leave this until the last month before your season start.

What Operators Actually Look For

Genuine, formal childcare experience in a group setting. Patience and reliability across a long season — five months of daily infant care is physically and emotionally demanding in a way that a two-week trial period doesn't reveal. Physical resilience: crèche work involves repeated lifting of children, sustained floor-level activity in limited indoor space, and physical attentiveness for eight hours at a stretch.

Enthusiasm specifically for working with under-fives. This sounds obvious, but it's worth being honest about before you apply: some people who genuinely enjoy working with older children (primary school age, ski school age) find the specific demands of infant group care more depleting than they anticipated. The difference between crèche and kids club work is real and worth weighing before you specify your preference.

The Skiing

Crèche and kids club roles run during skiing hours — roughly 9am to 5pm — because they exist to enable parents to ski. Your skiing happens on days off. This is one of the ski resort roles with the least guaranteed daily skiing access; it's not the same situation as a ski instructor or a role with a split shift that leaves you free at midday. If daily skiing is the primary reason you're doing a ski season, this is a meaningful constraint to factor in before applying.

Pay and Package

UK operator pay is comparable to other guest-facing roles: SMIC (French minimum wage) for France-based positions, with accommodation and meals typically included in the package. The accommodation and meals inclusion is significant — it's what makes the net financial position comparable to a higher nominal salary without the package. Without it, the finances in any Alpine resort become difficult. Confirm this explicitly when comparing offers.

Who the Season Suits

Qualified early years practitioners — particularly those with Level 3 or above in the UK context — who want to combine their professional background with a ski season. People who specifically like working with very young children in a group setting and are realistic about the physical and emotional demands across a long season. Practitioners who want the ski resort environment as a context for their work without needing to ski every day to feel the season is worthwhile.

It is not the right role for someone whose primary goal is maximum skiing time. That's not a judgement on the role — it's a practical reality about what the schedule requires.