A new center has opened in Bonn offering advice to migrants on how to get their qualifications recognized in Germany. The center is aimed at helping skilled workers from abroad to fill gaps in the German labor market.
"We want to welcome you to Germany" said Germany’s Employment Minister Hubertus Heil during a workshop following the opening of Bonn’s new service center. The center (Zentrale Servicestelle Berufsanerkennung – ZSBA) is designed to advise potential migrants on employment opportunities and how to get their qualifications recognized.
"Skilled employees are the backbone of our economic strength," said Anja Karliczek, minister for education and research, who was also at the opening. "They are looking for qualified workers in lots of sectors at the moment, that’s why we have to start opening up our searches abroad," she continued. It is a win for the German economy to welcome highly skilled workers, Karliczek added, but it is necessary to check that their qualifications meet German standards.
Minister Heil, in a press release from the Federal Ministry of
Education and Research, explained that Germany needs skilled workers from
abroad. "Without them, we cannot maintain the prosperity that we have now." Heil said that Germany couldn’t just wait for certain people to apply, but the
country needed to start advertising abroad in order to recruit the best people
for the job.
This is where the ZSBA center comes in. Centers like the one in Bonn are meant to make the process of recognizing qualifications more "efficient" in order to speed up the integration of new skilled migrants on the job market.
Welcome to Germany
A board member with the federal employment agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit), Daniel Terzenbach, said that he hoped that they were sending out a welcoming message with the ZSBA.
The ZSBA centers started up on February 1, 2020. They are
principally aimed at skilled migrants who are still living in their
home countries but who hope to come to Germany with a job contract. As well as
helping in the process of recognizing people’s qualifications, the ZSBA can also assist with job searches.
The centers have an initial four years of funding from the Federal Ministry for Research and Education. ZSBA’s HQ is in Bonn. Anyone interested in contacting the center can do so by mail, telephone or over various chat apps via the "Virtual Welcome Center" or ZAV. You can find details of what the center does and how to contact it on the website: www.make-it-in-germany.com
Contacting the ZSBA
Once you have filled out the contact form, you can talk to one of the advisors at the center about how to go about getting your qualifications recognized. On the center’s website, they underline that they do not make the decision about whether a person's qualifications will be recognized, just how to go about getting them recognized.
The ZSBA does however help potential skilled migrants to assemble the documents that they need. They then forward them on to the relevant departments to be assessed.
The Hotline number for the ZSBA is +49 3018151111 You can reach someone on that number between 8-16h (German time) Monday to Friday.