Ukrainian teachers as lateral entrants into Berlin job market

Franziska Giffey (SPD), Governing Mayor of Berlin, talks to a refugee woman from Ukraine.

The Senate wants to employ teachers from Ukraine in Berlin schools as uncomplicatedly as possible.

This was announced by Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) on Tuesday (March 29, 2022) after a joint cabinet meeting of Berlin and Brandenburg in Frankfurt (Oder). More than 100 Ukrainian female educators had already applied for Berlin's school service following the Russian attack on the neighbouring country, Giffey said. "We will take advantage of this and hire them for the Berlin state service as lateral entrants and hope that we will be able to take some of them on in the regular school service in the future," Giffey said. A long recognition procedure should be dispensed with.

Career start dependent on language skills

So far, around 20,000 Ukrainian refugees have applied for a residence permit in Berlin, which is valid for two years. This is also connected to the right to work. "It is a very good development in terms of integration policy that people can work," Giffey stated. However, she said, it was a question of whether they would be able to work immediately in the profession they had been doing in Ukraine. "That will depend a lot on their level of language skills." In some sectors where English plays a central role, such as IT professions, this should be relatively unproblematic.

Berlin and Brandenburg want to fight shortage of skilled workers together

"I think that the recognition of professional qualifications will be a crucial issue for labor market integration," said Giffey. However, the issue is not the most acute problem of the Berlin labor market at the moment. In Berlin and Brandenburg, the lack of skilled workers in general is a decisive obstacle to the economic growth of the joint metropolitan region, said Giffey. Both states have agreed to develop a joint strategy by autumn to counter this.