The type of qualifications acquired in the country of origin plays an important role for gender differences. In their country of origin, women were more likely to be employed in occupations that require country-specific knowledge and skills (as in the education and health care sector); access to these occupations is heavily regulated in Germany, meaning that for those women higher investments are required to enter the workforce. These higher costs can discourage women from participating in the labour market.
The labour market integration of recently arrived refugees is a major challenge. This relates to language and educational barriers, a lack of social contacts when looking for work, the lack of recognition of educational qualifications and professional experience from the country of origin, as well as legal obstacles and health-related barriers. These hurdles seem to be more pronounced among female than male refugees, which is reflected in females’ comparatively lower employment rates.
In general, the findings suggest that particularly female refugees would benefit from improved recognition and training opportunities for their qualifications in the teaching and health care sectors, while at the same time contributing to tackling the shortage of skilled workers in those sectors in Germany. Moreover, the results speak in favour of supporting refugee women to invest in Germany-specific human capital through access to language and integration courses as well as to employment-counselling services.
The BQ-Portal has published over 130 Ukrainian professional profiles which comprehensive information on content and duration of vocational training programs. Because of the BQ-Portal, the recognition procedures have become more transparent, uniform and fast.