Use advanced search functions, such as * as a placeholder for parts of words (e.g. refugee can be found by typing ref *) or enter several search terms, such as qualification refugee.
The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) has evaluated the recognition of foreign professional qualifications in 2020. Overall, 5% more foreign vocational qualifications were recognised as fully or partially equivalent in 2020 than in the previous year.
More than 65 percent of the recognition procedures for foreign professional qualifications obtained in EU member states end with a full equivalence. The positive recognition rate for Austria and the Czech Republic is the highest as it reaches 93 percent. It is followed by the Netherlands, Switzerland, Hungary, Lithuania, and Latvia.
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.
Following the revised EU Professional Qualifications Directive of 2013, the federal government made the application procedures for the assessment of foreign professional qualifications even simpler.
In terms of individual professions, the recognition rate in Germany diverges widely. 100% of applicants who wish to work as controller receive full equivalence. In most professions, the share of those granted full equivalence varies from 40% to 80%.
Every year, the BIBB Recognition Monitoring Project takes a closer look at recognition figures. Applications for federal occupations saw growth of 10 percent compared to the previous year. 34,700 new applications for federal occupations were received in the recognition offices in 2021 ; 41% of these – and therefore significantly more than in previous years – were submitted from abroad, in particular from third countries.
In terms of individual professions, the recognition rate in Germany diverges widely. Almost 90% of applicants who wish to work as seller receive full equivalence. In most professions, the share of those granted full equivalence varies from 40% to 80%.
The majority of applications for recognition are filed by foreign doctors wishing to have their license to practice medicine recognized. The range of countries of origin is enormous. Syria, a non-European country, ranks first with 483 applications processed. Romania ranked second, followed by Austria. Some 250 applications processed were filed by those trained each in Egypt and in Russian Federation.
The majority of recognition notifications is granted to applicants from Romania. The majority of the recognition notifications are issued for regulated professions, especially general care nurses and doctors. There are much fewer notifications issued for the non-regulated professions such as office clerks and electrical systems technicians.