Thus, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Sigmar Gabriel, Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Andrea Nahles, and Federal Education Minister Johanna Wanka as well as other partners of the training alliance from the Federal Labour Office, economy, trade unions and federal states met in Berlin on the 18th September to discuss how best to integrate refugees. Since, as Sigmar Gabriel claims, the best forms of integration are language training, vocational training and working, the training alliance is committed to fostering integration of refugees into the vocational education and labour market. The alliance partners believe that besides providing basic humane treatment Germany should ensure that refugees can begin training or work as soon as possible.
In the joint statement the federal government, leading umbrella associations, trade unions and state governments agreed on the following policy approaches:
- Offering German language courses;
- Promoting education;
- Preparing refugees for vocational training and everyday life;
- Enabling refugees to begin training or work;
- Tapping the potential and recognizing the qualifications of refugees;
- Enabling employment subject to social security;
- Offering a secure residence permit for training and work;
- Promoting quick employment;
- Providing relevant information for companies and employees.
The alliance partners accept that these are not easy tasks. However, they believe that integration of refugees can succeed if they are given a chance to begin training or work.
The BQ-Portal is also aimed at fostering integration of foreign qualified professionals. It provides the recognition authorities and companies with comprehensive information on the foreign professional qualifications and education systems. At the moment the experts are working around the clock to create the country and professional profiles for countries of origin of refugees so that refugees’ professional qualifications can be better evaluated.