At the end of last year, the EU Commission presented its proposal for modernising the Professional Qualification Directive. The objective is to facilitate recognition of occupational qualification across Europe and thus enable skilled personnel to work in other member countries.
The Federal Minister of Economy and Technology, Dr Philipp Rösler, "The Commission's proposal simplifies the existing acknowledgement procedures. Professional cards, automatic acknowledgement and slimmed-down procedures are the fundamental prerequisites for this. Everybody profits from it: The citizens, who are able to work in their professions all across the European Union, the economy with its lack of skilled labour, and the domestic market, which is further developed and intensified."
One of the reform's innovations is the introduction of professional cards. In particular mobile occupational groups, such as engineers, will be benefactors of these new professional cards.
Federal Minister Dr Rösler, "The revision of the Professional Qualification Directive allows for an improved utilisation of the opportunities in the domestic market. Skilled labour from other member countries in particular are given new opportunities for mobility. They are welcome and ought to be able to work in Germany easily and without complication. For this, the acknowledgement procedures will be purged and the planned professional card can also be of help here.
It bundles - by way of an electronic procedure - the verifications regarding qualifications obtained in one's home country, so that German acknowledgement authorities no longer have to conduct cumbersome enquiries with the various institutions of that country. This way, we can verify in a fast and unbureaucratic manner, whether the obtained qualifications are sufficient and where they require augmentation. However, it is important that these professional cards should be made available to citizens in a voluntary manner and that they must not replace the acknowledgement procedure in the hosting country."
The automatic acknowledgement is likewise improved. The Commission's proposal stipulates, that in future even only a group of member countries can agree on joint minimum conditions for vocational training. Within this group, vocational training then will be acknowledged automatically and in an uncomplicated manner.
Conversely, the federal government does not agree with the Commission's proposal that health care professions, such as trainee nurses and midwives, should in future need a university entrance qualification.
Federal Minister Dr Rösler, "The German health care industry is extremely efficient. With its proposal, the Commission will intensify the shortage of skilled labour in Germany, instead of combating it. The quality of training in the health care occupations in Germany needs not fear comparison and speaks for itself. The Commission would have been well advised to allow for a competition of systems instead of pursuing egalitarianism at any cost."