Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung (BIBB)

1. Field of work and areas of responsibility 

Certified technical management specialists are qualified to fulfil technical, organizational and managerial functions in companies of different size and belonging to different branches as well as in different areas and operations of the company and to act as an interface between managerial and technical areas by using communication skills. They adapt to changing methods and systems in production, to changing structures of work organization and to new methods of organization development and of personnel management and development, and they cooperate in shaping technical and organizational change in the company.
Certified technical management specialists are qualified to work independently and on their own responsibility in the company's functional areas of materials management/logistics, marketing, procurement, work scheduling/cost accounting, development/design and operations/production while taking economic, ecological and social aspects of sustainable business into account.

2. Occupational skills 

Certified technical management specialists command knowledge, skills and experience which they have as a rule gained in relevant vocational training and several years of practical work. In order to perform the above-mentioned tasks, they command the following skills:

Business management skills

• Economics and business administration 
• Law
• Taxation
• Management
• Organization and supervision
• Accounting
• Controlling
• Personnel management
• Information management
• Communication

Technical skills

• Basic scientific and technical knowledge 
• Technical communication and materials technology
• Production and operations engineering 

Job-specific skills

• Marketing, materials management and logistics

• Production planning, management and control

• Quality and environmental management as well as industrial safety

• Supervision and cooperation
  

3. Skills accreditation 

According to the Federal Government regulations of 17 January 2006 (Federal Law Gazette BGBl. Part I p. 66), amended by the regulations of 17 August 2006 (BGBl. I p. 1976), certified technical management specialists must have demonstrated the skills listed in section 2 above in an examination administered under public law. A certificate is awarded on passing the examination.

4. Examination requirements 

Before sitting the examinations regarding business management and technical skills, candidates must have completed a vocational training course of at least three years' duration in a recognized commercial, administrative or technical occupation followed by at least one year of practical work in the commercial or technical area or they must have passed the final examination in another recognized occupation requiring formal training followed by at least two years of practical work in the commercial or technical area.
Before sitting the job-specific part of the examination, candidates must have passed the above examinations and furnish proof of another year of practical work in addition to the aforementioned practical work periods. Courses are offered in preparation for the examination; their duration is geared to the different functional and managerial tasks.

Last modified on: December 17, 2008