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The BQ Portal was recognised as the best and most innovative performer in public administrations across Europe. On the 18th of November at the Provincial Government House in Maastricht, the BQ Portal was awarded the European Public Sector Award trophy in the European/national/regional category by the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA). Some 266 projects from 36 European countries and the European institutions participated in competition. However, only three projects won the European Public Sector Award.

United Nations honors the BQ-Portal – the information portal for foreign professional qualifications, an initiative of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, with the United Nations Public Service Award (UNPSA) on June 26th, 2024.

The new Employment Ordinance has been in force since 1 July. The list of occupations in which people with vocational training qualifications from non-EU countries can access the German labour market is now also in place. Following the "EU Blue Card" for the highly skilled, the improved recognition of foreign vocational qualifications and the relaxations in the rules for students from non-EU countries who wish to stay on to work in Germany, this is a further important step towards making it easier for workers from outside the EU to enter the German labour market and towards covering the skills gap in the German economy via migration.

The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy is funding the "Pilot project for the recruitment of foreign skilled workers for the German craft trades" as a supporting measure to accompany the new Skilled Immigration Act, which comes into force on 1 March 2020.

As of January 18, 2016, the Recognition Act was revised: from now on, the citizens of the European Union or European Economic Area can submit their application and all relevant documents online. Furthermore, their applications will be processed by a single contact point. This application procedure will apply, at first, only to the regulated professions in the federal responsibility.

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.

On 5 June 2025, the German Economic Institute (IW) will present the results of its new study on the recognition of professional qualifications at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) in Brussels. The event will bring together stakeholders to discuss the role of professional recognition in addressing skills shortages.

Refugees are increasingly succeeding in integrating into the German labour market. Particularly female refugees benefit from improved recognition and training opportunities for their qualifications in the teaching and health care sectors.

Immigrants perform worse in the labor market than natives, likely because of the low transferability of home-country professional certificates. The standardized recognition of professional certificates in the host country represents one policy for increasing their transferability.This paper investigates the effects of a large recognition reform in Germany on the labor market outcomes of non-EU immigrants.

The new Skilled Immigration Act (FEG) makes it easier for skilled workers with vocational training and individuals with practical knowledge to immigrate to Germany. The first amendments of the Skilled Immigration Act came into force on November 18, 2023.