Skilled jobs for foreigners

It's good that his colleagues had their professional qualifications officially recognized, says Steffen Rudolph, a staff council member at the Randstad personnel service provider.

"They are happy to no longer be just assistants," he remarks, adding that they can take on jobs as skilled workers and receive adequate pay. "They're faring better that way."

Randstad looks after some 50,000 temporary workers in Germany, with 45 percent of them being categorized as unskilled. But Rudolph says he doesn't know which ones hold a foreign degree.

It's different when somebody applies for a job directly at Randstad.

"We can identify during the first meeting who has which qualifications in which fields. If we come to the conclusion that it's worth doing, we compile all the required documents and launch recognition procedures jointly," Rudolph said.

Randstad pays for that as well as for possible follow-up qualifications, sometimes also with the help of employment offices.

Skilled workers make the difference

Smaller companies, such as the Hamburg-based electronics firm Horst Busch, have also started supporting staff with migrant backgrounds. It covered the costs for recognition procedures for Polish, British and Bulgarian colleagues, enabling the three to now work as skilled electricians on building sites in Germany. And it doesn't do any harm as long as clients know that skilled workers are dealing with a sensitive part of their building activities.

"Companies surely need skilled workers for specific tasks," says Peter Kürner from Netzwerk IQ, which stands for "integration through qualification."

"That's why they encourage employees to have their associate degrees recognized. But not all employers are of the same opinion," he adds. "Some are glad not have to pay them according to collective bargaining agreements."

Recognition pays off

Clinics and retirement homes send applicants to counselors early, a report by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) shows. In Germany, only skilled staff with full vocational diplomas are allowed to work in the health and nursing sectors where there is already a grave shortage of suitable employees. This is why employers are usually interested in assisting foreign applicants.

If not, the latter could still get active on their own to have their qualifications recognized, but they'd have to foot the bill themselves. And it's often unclear whether their effort will actually lead to a new job, better pay and more respect.

No statistical data are available so far to see what becomes of applicants later on a nationwide scale. But a representative study by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) maintains there is a 33 percent higher chance of people with foreign diplomas getting better jobs according to their abilities, with average incomes rising by more than a quarter. Even a partial recognition of degrees obtained abroad pays off, albeit if not to the same extent.

Room for improvement

The German government is to top up its support for counseling, language courses and further qualification with resources from the European Social Fund. "But there's also a huge potential in companies," says Marie-Louise Veddern from the Education Ministry.

More employers could pay for their colleagues' or applicants' qualification measures needed for staff to adapt to the realities on the ground. And, she adds, that firms would be well advised to provide adequate teaching staff themselves for participants in such courses.

Many companies just don't trust documents saying their foreign workers have the same qualifications than domestic staff.

"We too have found skills to be out of date or incomplete," confirms Steffen Rudolph, adding that he wouldn't want to send such a temp worker to a client. "Of course, you can look who has not raised the bar so high, but I'd prefer to sort things out during official recognition procedures."

Authorities compare qualification documents to find out to what extent an applicant's qualifications match those of a German worker of the same profession. A practical test on the ground is hardly ever carried out - usually only when a refugee has lost his documents. Such a practical test is expensive, and there's no standardized procedure for this yet.

Evgenia Toliarou still has a long way to go. The Greek woman obtained her teacher's certificate in Scotland. She has lived in Germany for a year and wants to work in a school with disabled children.

"I've heard from everyone that there's a shortage of workers in this field." she says. "That's why I thought it would be a breeze to start working there."

But that's far from being the case.

"I've asked around at many institutions, but they either didn't know where to send me with my qualifications, or thy simply provided me with wrong information."