The State Council has issued a document on further expanding the domestic service industry. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) says the decision aims to guarantee affordable services and introduce new regulations to meet growing demand.

The fast-rising housekeeping industry is poised for an upgrade. “We’ll train over five million household service personnel by 2020,” according to the commission.

In recent years, China’s home service sector has been expanding at an annual rate of 20 percent. Yet the demand still remains high.

The country currently has over 20 million housekeeping service providers. But as the China Home Service Association estimates, if one housekeeper can serve two or three families, there’s still a gap of up to 30 million workers.

However, a shortage of personnel is not the only challenge. A recently-released document reveals that inadequate regulations have been causing client satisfaction levels to drop mostly because of undertrained staff and sometimes unstable contractual relationships. Some previous cases involving abuse of the elderly and children had also caused concern.

The sector has felt the pinch over the past three years, given the rising aging population and the country’s second-child policy. The growing demand drives up nannies’ salaries while families still have trouble finding their ideal help.

Some measures have been taken to regulate the market, such as a “blacklist” system aimed at those with problematic records. Shanghai earlier released the country’s first regulations, which demand transparency and standard services by intermediate agencies such as charging a commission according to rules.

But these are not enough.

“In response to the increasing need in the household service sector, we’ll promote offering related courses at schools. We’ll also encourage schools to get involved in educating such personnel,” said Xie Li from the Ministry of Education.

And more quality services are likely to be on the way, with the country’s top economic planner promising tax relief for agencies that employ their own home service personnel.