Become a dependency care assistant: test the job before you commit

A typical day

• 7:45 am: at Mrs Robert's, 86, you read the shared notebook: a quiet night, but she drank little last evening.
• 8 am: getting up with her walking frame, bed brakes on, then a wash at the basin; she washes her own face and hands.
• 9:15 am: breakfast sitting up, a big glass of water, the morning tablet from the pharmacy-filled pill organiser, noted in the notebook.
• 11:30 am: at Mr Leroy's, who has memory problems: shopping, a puréed meal as per the written instructions, help eating in small mouthfuls.
• 2 pm: a walk in the park with a wheelchair user who employs you directly through his disability benefit.
• 5:30 pm: back at Mrs Robert's for dinner; redness on her heel will not fade, so you note it and call the nurse.

How to become a dependency care assistant

In France, no diploma is legally required to work as a care assistant for a private household, but most employers and home care services ask for a certification. The reference is IPERIA's title: "Assistant de vie dépendance", replaced in May 2026 by the "Assistant de vie" title (RNCP42318, level 3, similar to a CAP), taken through adult training, apprenticeship, a work-study contract or recognition of prior learning (VAE). Manual handling training is strongly advised for transfers. The job allows no care acts reserved to nurses or healthcare assistants: giving care requires the state healthcare assistant diploma. The G-Learn trial helps you find out whether the job suits you: its certificate is not a diploma.

Pay

Pay can never be below the French minimum wage, €12.31 gross per hour on 1 June 2026 (DREETS, June 2026). In direct employment, the private household employers' agreement (IDCC 3239) sets minimums by level; in home care charities, amendment 43 raised pay by 13 to 15% on average on 1 October 2021. Actual income depends mostly on the number of hours you get.

The hard parts

• A physical job: transfers, washing and housework strain the back and shoulders every day, which is why equipment and training in the right moves matter so much.
• A real emotional load: people's loneliness, memory disorders, end of life and bereavement, often faced alone in someone's home with no colleague nearby.
• Split days and travel between homes, with hours sometimes too few for full-time work and rules on paid travel that vary from one employer to another.

Sources: Intercariforef — Assistant de vie title (RNCP42318, IPERIA) · DREES — Personal autonomy allowance (APA) fact sheet, 2025 · OMéDIT Île-de-France — Help with taking medicines (2022) · DREETS Pays de la Loire — Pay for household employees (June 2026) · French ministry — Home care amendment 43 (October 2021)