Recognition of foreign training certificates with school-based vocational qualifications

The notice of equivalence is intended to facilitate your access to the German labour market with your professional qualification. The notice establishes the equivalence or partial equivalence of your professional qualification with a German professional qualification (the so-called reference occupation). If only partial equivalence is determined, we will inform you which qualifications still need to be provided for full equivalence.

In many occupational fields in Germany, access is possible via different training programmes: via dual training in accordance with the Vocational Training Act (e.g. as an electronics technician) or via vocational school training regulated by state law (as an electrotechnical assistant). There may therefore be several reference occupations in Germany for vocational qualifications acquired abroad. To identify the reference occupation, please use the lists of reference occupations above.

In your application, please state the German occupation with which we should compare your professional qualification. Please select this from one of the lists linked above in the right-hand column. If you cannot find your profession there or if your profession is in the left-hand column, other authorities are responsible for the recognition procedure. You can find the competent authority for recognition in your profession in the anabin’ database.

Certificates of equivalence are only issued for completed foreign professional qualifications.

The fee for the equivalence assessment of a foreign professional qualification is 485 euros.

If the application is withdrawn, rejected or a follow-up application is submitted, pro rata fees are charged based on the processing costs. An exemption from fees is generally not granted.

Information on the possibility of receiving a financial grant and the corresponding application forms can be found on the website www.anerkennungszuschuss.de.

To apply for an equivalence decision, please use our pdf application form. Please complete the application form in full and attach the relevant supporting documents.

Please refer to the checklist to see which documents we need from you. Please then send the signed application together with your documents to the following address:

Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family
Department IV
IV A 2.2
Bernhard-Weiß-Straße 6
10178 Berlin
Germany