Federal Recognition Act

The Professional Qualifications Assessment Act came into effect on 1 April 2012 and provides the legal basis for assessing foreign qualifications for professions which are regulated by the federal government. Those who have obtained vocational training outside of Germany can now have their qualification reviewed for equivalence to a German qualification – irrespective of citizenship, residence status or the country in which the qualification was obtained.

 

The Recognition Act at the state level

A number of professions are subject to an equivalence assessment at the state or Länder level. These include, for example, nursery nurses and geriatric nurses.

With the enactment of Recognition Acts by Schleswig-Holstein and Saxony-Anhalt in June and July 2014, respectively, the state level laws for the assessment of foreign professional qualifications entered in force in all sixteen federal states. Since then, the procedure and criteria for the assessment of foreign professional qualifications is standardized for professions regulated both at the state and federal level.

Article 1 of the state level Recognition Acts contains the state-specific professional qualifications assessment acts. In formulating the provisions, the states have been using the federal model as a template, but individual details may differ.

The current acts adopted at the state level are available at the portal Recognition in Germany.

Further information on the equivalence assessment process is available here.