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The Federal Statistical Office reports a record high in the recognition of foreign professional qualifications: In 2023, significantly more foreign skilled workers were able to have their vocational training recognized in Germany, with 54,981 qualifications successfully recognized. This represents an increase of 25 percent compared to 2022 (52,300). Compared to 2016, the number has even doubled. This achievement is also a result of the new Skilled Labor Immigration Act.

The Federal Ministry of Education launched the project “Prototyping Transfer – Professional Recognition through a Qualification Analysis” that is aimed to decrease the organizational cost of the qualification analyses, assure their quality and provide the applicants the financial assistance.

In most OECD European countries and in the United States, labour migration in 2022 was at a 15 year record level. Year-on-year increases in the primary destination countries were striking: the number of new permanent-type labour migrants increased by 59% in Germany.

The 2019 Global Education Monitoring Report by UNESCO congratulates Germany for its policies in recognizing migrants and refugees’ prior qualifications and skills. The recognition of foreign professional qualifications increases the probability of immigrant employment by 45 percentage points and the hourly wage by 40%. A million migrants a year visit the website ‘Recognition in Germany’, which offers advice on the recognition procedure in 9 languages. The information on foreign vocational training systems and professional qualifications in the BQ-Portal is accessed annually by over 180,000 website visitors, primarily assessment authorities, companies and experts.

The Federal Statistical Office has published the recognition figures for 2022. In 2022, for the first time since Corona, the Federal Statistical Office recorded significantly more recognitions. 52,300 people received their recognition notification in this country. This is an increase of 11% compared to 2021. The number of new applications also rose sharply, by 13% compared to the previous year. This development is enormously important for Germany: Most companies face immense skills shortages.

A successful decade of recognition of foreign professional qualifications lies behind us! More than 400,000 applications for recognition and an annual increase in applications until 2019 prove that the Recognition Act has been successful. Procedures as well support structures are well established.