The first day of the European Validation Festival - Unlocking talents in Europe, on 14 June in Brussels, featured a marketplace with 40 stands where organisations had the opportunity to present their initiatives and practices on validation of informal and non-formal learning. The experts from all around Europe shared practices and exchanged ideas and knowledge about how the work experience of job applicants who move from one country to another can be recorded faster and more transparently. Among others, the project check.work was selected by the European Commission for the marketplace of the festival. Also at the table were the network partners and representatives of the “Tür an Tür” (door-to-door) project in Augsburg. As well as Marie-Claire von Radetzky from the German Economic Institute in Cologne with the project BQ-Portal, cooperation partner of check.work.

The Federal Statistical Office published the statistics on the Recognition Act for the reference year 2016 this autumn. In 2016, 19.800 applications for recognition of foreign professional qualifications were processed. The share of those who received a positive ruling is very high. 30,2 percent of applicants have received the partial recognition or have to complete a formalized additional training in order to be able to work in their profession. In 66,4 percent of cases, full recognition was granted. The BQ-Portal took a closer look at this high success rate: The section Recognition Statistics 2016 provides an overview of the success rates of applications for professional recognition by professional groups, professions, regions and countries. The rate of full equivalence by individual occupation and country could be of particular interest.

On September 14, The Federal Statistical Office published the statistics on the Recognition Act for the reference year 2016. Since the Act came into effect in 2012, 86,514 applications for the recognition of foreign professional qualifications were filed, the Federal Statistical Office reports. In 2016, 23,028 new applications were submitted. This is a 14 percent increase over the previous year. The share of those who received a positive ruling is very high. The made up 76,5 percent of all applicants in 2016. In 66,4 percent of cases (19,845 cases), full recognition was granted and in 10,1 percent the partial one.  Only in 3,4 percent of cases, no equivalence could be established between a credential obtained abroad and a corresponding German qualification. Most applicants completed their training in Romania, Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as Syria. Applications for recognition of a Syrian vocational training almost tripled in a year (Syria, 2015: 636 new applications; 2016: 1728). Thus, Syria is on the 4th place among the most popular countries in the recognition process.

Since the Recognition Acts entered in force, the federal government and the federal states established an extensive range of information structures aimed to support their implementation. The three information portals for recognition of foreign professional qualifications, “BQ-Portal”, “Recognition in Germany” and “anabin”, are central in this context. Their close cooperation ensures high quality content and consistency. The portals have jointly created a new overview demonstrating which services for which target groups are available in the area of professional recognition.