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The new Recognition Act
Around 2.9 million people living in Germany have migrant backgrounds and acquired their highest vocational qualification in another country. Often, however, they are unable to find employment matching their qualification. Germany’s new law to improve the assessment and recognition of professional qualifications acquired abroad aims to contribute to better and more uniform regulation. The articles in this issue set out the background, describe the initial experience of applying the new law, and point out perspectives for further development. With regard to the initial experience in practice, BIBB’s Head of Research, Prof. Dr. Reinhold Weiss, draws attention to the great need for guidance before and during recognition procedures. This calls for comprehensive specialist expertise. Under the banner of “the same entitlement for everyone”, referring to the right introduced by the new Recognition Act to have competencies assessed and recognised, he argues that this right should not be restricted just to people with qualifications obtained abroad but opened up to everyone who has acquired vocational competencies by informal or non-formal means. Other articles in the issue deal with the links between the Recognition Act and the German national qualifications framework (DQR), a position statement on training modules from the viewpoint of trade unions, and the success of vocationally qualified students at universities of applied sciences.
