The work area of the BQ-Portal can only be accessed by registered users. Registration is reserved for staff of assessment authorities as defined in Section 8 of the German Professional Qualifications Assessment Act (“Gesetz über die Feststellung der Gleichwertigkeit von Berufsqualifikationen” – BQFG) or other public bodies at the regional or national level such as IHK FOSA (Foreign Skills Approval), the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Deutscher Industrie- und Handelskammertag, DIHK), the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (ZDH), the Federal Association of Liberal Professions (BFB) etc. Requests to register by other people will be reviewed; however, approval will only be granted in individual cases and for good reason. The authority to decide on such requests lies with the operator of the BQ-Portal.

The BQ-Portal offers information on the assessment of foreign professional qualifications:

• General information on the Recognition Law (“Anerkennungsgesetz”) and other legal regulations, as well as information on the assessment process in Germany
• Descriptions of foreign vocational training systems and foreign professional profiles as sources of information for assessment authorities, employers and advisory centres. The assessment authorities and the IW competence centre continuously add content to these country and professional profiles, as well as results of assessments that have been carried out.

The BQ-Portal includes a secure work area for staff of assessment authorities. For data protection reasons, this secure work area can only be accessed by registered users. Registered users may use it to discuss technical and methodological issues and enter the results of equivalence assessments which they have carried out.

The BQ-Portal is an intelligent system which is jointly developed and expanded by its users. The content is created gradually by various stakeholders, including

• the IW competence centre
• staff of assessment authorities
• third-party experts from academia and research, e.g. from the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB)

These parties do not only have read access, but they are also editors who can actively create country and professional profiles. This interactive feature which enables the stakeholders to contribute knowledge is a central characteristic of the BQ-Portal. They collaboratively create new content and add and update existing information.

If you have questions about the content of the BQ-Portal or technical problems, please contact the BQ-Portal project office.

We welcome your suggestions for improving the BQ-Portal. Let us know what you think about the portal’s usability and individual features, and make suggestions for the further development and expansion of the portal by sending an email to projektbuero@bq-portal.de.