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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I was thinking about a way to verify an au pairs driving skills before she arrives at the home of the host family  What if someone who lived close to your AP could meet up with the AP, allow her to drive his car then record the driving session then send you the video of the driving session.  Would host parents pay for a service like this?  [/quote]

I just wonder how you would be able to find "someone" a host family would trust (e.g. not bribed by au pair, au pair's local agency, au pair's parents, an intermediary etc.) that lived close to any possible au pair applicant.

There have to be dozens of countries where an au pair might come from, hundreds of larger cities and thousands of rural towns an au pair might live in.
You would need such a reliable "someone" in every country and possible multiple reliable "someones" in large countries (doubting any one would be willing to travel from Paris to Toulouse or Hamburg to Munich or Brasilia to Sao Paolo to supervise or take such a driving test). Who would supervise those "someones"? Somebody from the US? Somebody within the au pair's home country? The au pair's agency? Would that "someone" need to be certified? By the US government? By the au pair's home country's government? Would it have to be a certified driving instructor? Would it be someone local? A US American? How would you find that "someone"? How would you certify that they are qualified? How would such a driving test be conducted? How long would it be? Just because someone can drive a compact car in rural Poland doesn't mean they can handle a US freeway in LA at rush hour in a SUV with three crying children in the back seat.  Even if the applicant knows how to drive a car in their homecountry, what tells you that they will be able to safely drive in the US? What if the au pair arrives in her host family and she is not a safe driver? Would the host family be able to make the "someone" pay damage to their car? Press charges?

And that is not even touching the question why an 18/19/20 year old female au pair applicant with a valid driving license from her home country should want to get into a stranger's car (how would insurance be handled?) and be recorded by that stranger.

I agree that in theory it would be [i]wonderful[/i] if there was a way to confirm an applicant's driving skills but it's impracticable!

It would be much easier for a host family to pay for driving lessons after their au pair's arrival. Lessons with a local driving instructor who is able to teach the au pair local rules and regulations, who knows the area and who can make the au pair acquainted with the local area while teaching her to drive in the US. 
If driving is a main concern a family should be screening for driving experience (years, frequency, distance, country roads / freeway etc.). I assume it would also be possible to contact an accredited driving school in the au pair's home town and see if you can set up something through them... but my main advice would be not to match with an applicant whose driving skills you doubt if driving really is the main skill you are screening for. Pick an au pair from a country that uses a penalty point or demerit point system and ask them for a written confirmation by whichever authority handles this system in their home country that they have a clean driving record; pick an au pair who has been driving frequently for x+ years and not only five minutes to and from school but also long-distance and in cities she is not living in; pick an au pair from a country that is known for a good driver's ed. If you chose an 18 year old from China who doesn't have access to a car and who hasn't driven since she passed her test, you can't complain if she is a bad driver.[/quote]

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