Recognition of foreign professional and vocational qualifications pays off

For the first time in Germany, the regulations have created a general legal entitlement to the assessment of foreign qualifications, regardless of migration status and of the nationality of the applicant. The aims of the law were to increase integration into the labour market, to make it easier for people to secure employment appropriate to their qualifications and to strengthen managed immigration. The independent evaluation comes to the conclusion that these objectives have been achieved in full.

“The Recognition Act is working,” said Federal Minister of Education and Research Johanna Wanka. “Recognition of foreign qualifications improves the life situations of skilled workers. Professional or occupational recognition is an important element in terms of combating shortages on the labour market, especially in professions and occupations that have a high demand for skilled staff, such as nursing and the electrical sector.”

The evaluation results present a before-and-after comparison which shows that nine in ten skilled workers with foreign professional or vocational qualifications are in employment following successful recognition. This represents a strong rise in the employment rate of over 50 percent. After professional or vocational recognition, gross income rises by an average of €1,000 per month, an increase of 40 percent. And the Recognition Act is also making a positive contribution to qualified migration. Around one in ten applications for professional or occupational recognition were already being made from abroad. This opportunity did not exist prior to the entry into force of the Recognition Act.

“My goal is to strengthen managed migration and leverage the existing skills and potential of every single person, regardless of whether a professional or vocational qualification was obtained here or abroad,” continued Mrs. Wanka. “In order to achieve this, we will be seeking to continue to build on the success of the Recognition Act.”

The 2017 Recognition Report also documents the results of the regular Monitoring Project, which shows that efficient administrative structures and comprehensive information and guidance provision have been established over the past five years. The number of recognition applications is continuing to rise. By the end of 2015, over 63,400 applications for recognition had been submitted in the occupations governed by federal law alone. Three quarters of all applications made in 2015 (74 percent) resulted in full equivalence. The rejection rate was 2.6 percent, below the level of the previous years. The remaining applications led to the imposition of conditions such as adaptation training (14.8 percent) or to the according of partial equivalence (8.5 percent). The Federal Statistical Office is expected to supply new figures for 2016 in September this year. There are also further professions in which the federal states are responsible for recognition, such as teaching and social services occupations.

The results of the evaluation and the Monitoring Project will also be discussed at a special anniversary conference entitled “5 years of the Recognition Act – once learned, never forgotten” to be hosted in Berlin on 21 June. At this event, the “Wir für Anerkennung” company prize will be awarded for the first time. Federal Minister of Education Johanna Wanka will be joined by Dr. Eric Schweitzer, President of the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), and Hans Peter Wollseifer, President of the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (ZDH) to present the award to the prize winners. The Federal Ministry of Education, the DIHK and the ZDH have launched the prize to acknowledge good examples of the use of recognition in companies.

(Source: BMBF press release 7 June 2017)