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From now on, Alliance for initial and further training has its own website. The partners in the Alliance have a shared interest in improving and strengthening the dual system. The business community, the trade unions, the Federation and the Länder want to work together in the Alliance for Initial and Further Training and ensure that vocational training remains fit for the future and promote it amongst young people and their parents, in schools and higher education institutions, and in society in general.

The specialist unit at the Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training (f-bb) evaluated the cases processed by the contact points of the “Integration through Qualification (IQ)” in the period from mid-2012 until the end of 2014. A total of 37.562 guidance services on recognition of foreign professional qualifications were provided all over Germany in this period. Those aged 25 to 44 made up 75.8 percent of people seeking counselling. Furthermore, far more women (63.2 percent) than men (36.8 percent) contacted the IQ advisory centers.

More than 13,200 foreign professional qualifications were recognised in 2014, the Federal Statistic Office reports. This is a twelve percent increase over the previous year. Since the Recognition Act entered in force in April 2012, some 32,500 applications were granted full or limited recognition, which is good news in view of rising skills shortages.

A successful decade of recognition of foreign professional qualifications lies behind us! More than 400,000 applications for recognition and an annual increase in applications until 2019 prove that the Recognition Act has been successful. Procedures as well support structures are well established.

The Company Award “We for Recognition” will be launched for the first time this year. The award ceremony will take place in Berlin on June 21, 2017 in the context of the conference “5 years with the Recognition Act – once learned, never forgotten”. Federal minister for Education and Research, Johanna Wanka, as well as Presidents of the German Federation of Chambers of Commerce (DIHK) and the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (ZDH), Eric Schwitzer and Hans Peter Wollenseifer will be present at the conference.