“Ready-Steady-Go!”

Starting position/challenge

Economics is among the non-regulated professions in Germany. Therefore, foreign academics do not require any formal professional recognition in order to work in this field in Germany. However, experience shows that it is tough for non-native economists to find an occupation in Germany which complies with their qualifications. Despite having a good command of the German language, applicants often lack the technical terminology and work-related skills that are unique to Germany. Consequently, these people are in part unsure about themselves and lack orientation when looking for a job.

Implementation of the bridge training

The project “Ready-Steady-Go!” of the organisation “beramí berufliche  Integration e.V.” was started within the Network IQ Hesse in close cooperation and participation with the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences. The project aims to support non-native economists and to qualify them through bridge training. In this context, the key challenge has been to coordinate the various qualification elements such as language courses, application training, computer literacy and industry-specific training as well as the one-to-one coaching.

The curriculum of the four-month training scheme aims to provide the participants with industry-specific knowledge or rather to refresh the latter. Especially the teaching of specialised knowledge such as accounting principles, basics of German commercial law, taxation and economics are crucial. Hence, the participants learn to transfer and apply the specialised knowledge acquired abroad in the German economic context. Furthermore, by acquiring new know-how related to the German economic area, they are able to compensate for various deficits By learning work and industry related German,   participants improve their language skills for the application period and for the professional context. The special feature of the course is the certification that comes with university Credit Points (ECTS), making the certificate more reputable and thus increasing the graduates’ chances in establishing themselves on the labour market.

Conclusion

“Ready-Steady-Go!” has registered 66 participants (as of October 2017) so far and 99 per cent of them completed the bridge training successfully. 16 persons have already entered into employment suitable to their qualification, others are obtaining further qualifications and are participating in advanced training on SAP for instance. On the one hand, this success is owed to the professional qualification obtained from the participating university but on the other hand to the intensive coaching that accompanies the scheme which is conducted by the project’s implementing organisation. Through the coaching, individual needs and objectives of the participants are strongly focused on and as a result their confidence and self-motivation are developed.