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On April 16, 2015 German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foreign Skills Approval (IHK FOSA) in Nuremberg. On her trip Federal Chancellor was accompanied by Johanna Wanka, the Federal Minister of Education and Research.
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.
Twelve months after the BQ information portal for foreign professional qualifications first went online, the Federal Minister of Economics and Technology, Dr. Philipp Rösler, looked back on a successful year and stressed that additional support should be provided to companies wanting to have foreign qualifications recognised.
The second report on the Recognition Act adopted by the Federal Cabinet this week gives a positive assessment of the act. The experience of three years since its enactment shows that the Recognition Act contributes considerably to increasing attractiveness of Germany for a foreign skilled workforce.
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.
According to a new OECD report, Germany is now the OECD’s second most important destination for permanent migration after the United States. As OECD expert Thomas Liebig claims, Germany is the central engine of migration in Europe. The inflow of foreigners to Germany experienced a double-digit growth with almost 465,000 migrants in 2013. This increase is driven primarily by migrants from Central, Eastern and Southern Europe.
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.
On 11-13 April, the International Government Achievements Exhibition (DIGAE 2016) takes place for the fourth time in Dubai. This year, the conference is held under an overarching theme “Government Innovation, Incubator for Citizens' Happiness”. Local government entities as well as international authorities, institutions and ministries will showcase their innovative programs and effective projects in public administration. DIGAE facilitates an open dialogue on the effectiveness and efficiency of performance in public administration and offers a forum for transfer of public service excellence. DIGAE is designed to demonstrate how effective public governance impacts competitiveness, citizens’ happiness, economic resilience, innovation acceleration, infrastructure roll-out, Cleantech investments, healthcare coverage and tourism attractiveness.
The BQ Portal was recognised as the best and most innovative performer in public administrations across Europe. During an award ceremony which took place on 18 November, 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).
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.