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The Federal Cabinet adopted today the report on the Recognition Act. Since the introduction of the Recognition Act four years ago, the number of applications has been growing significantly. In 2012-2014 some 44.000 applications for recognition of professional qualifications were submitted only in the field of federally regulated professions, 17.600 of which were filed in 2014. Those who submit an application for recognition of a qualification obtained abroad have good chances of receiving positive ruling.

As of January 18, 2016, the Recognition Act was revised: from now on, the citizens of the European Union or European Economic Area can submit their application and all relevant documents online. Furthermore, their applications will be processed by a single contact point. This application procedure will apply, at first, only to the regulated professions in the federal responsibility.

On 1 October 2019 a new funding directive for the recognition of foreign professional qualifications comes into force. It expands the funding opportunities. In future, it will also be possible to get funding for certificate evaluations from the Central Office for Foreign Education (ZAB).

During a two-day workshop “Migration and Skills: Successful Labour Market Integration through Professional Recognition Systems”, the organisations involved in labour market integration of migrants from six different European countries gained valuable insights into the BQ-Portal project, a European Public Sector Award (EPSA) winner of 2015.

The 2019 Global Education Monitoring Report by UNESCO congratulates Germany for its policies in recognizing migrants and refugees’ prior qualifications and skills. The recognition of foreign professional qualifications increases the probability of immigrant employment by 45 percentage points and the hourly wage by 40%. A million migrants a year visit the website ‘Recognition in Germany’, which offers advice on the recognition procedure in 9 languages. The information on foreign vocational training systems and professional qualifications in the BQ-Portal is accessed annually by over 180,000 website visitors, primarily assessment authorities, companies and experts.

On 11 January 2013, policy makers and representatives from chambers of commerce, companies, public authorities and migrants’ associations came together for a conference entitled “Skilled workers – Transparency – Respect: tapping the domestic pool of skills” at the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) in Berlin. The participants discussed new approaches to assessing and recognising foreign qualifications and exchanged their experiences.