Bilateral Agreements

The traditional exchange programmes for pupils, foreign language assistants and teachers of the Educational Exchange Service (Pädagogischer Austauschdienst – PAD) of the Secretariat of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (Kultusministerkonferenz) are for the most part based on bilateral agreements on cooperation in the cultural and educational sector. With regard to international contacts and the international education in schools, the PAD is partner of the Ministries of Education and Cultural Affairs and the Senate Departments of the Länder. Furthermore, the PAD implements cultural relations and education policy measures on behalf of the Federal Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt). The PAD cooperates closely with bilateral youth organisations as well as competence centres and funding agencies for international youth work to support cooperation between schools from two states and also sits on numerous commissions and committees.

Within the European Union, the conviction has grown that targeted efforts are needed towards practically-oriented education and training for the transition into employment, on the one hand to improve the employability of the individual and thus on the other hand to combat the high level of youth unemployment. Many European states consequently initiated national reforms and also began to amend laws in the field of vocational education and training. 

In order to support the international cooperation on vocational education and training, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung – BMBF), in close cooperation with the relevant departments and organisations, created the Zentralstelle der Bundesregierung für internationale Berufsbildungskooperation at the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung – BIBB) in September 2013, in which the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung - BMZ) is involved with its own personnel. The Zentralstelle acts abroad as the German Office for Cooperation in Vocational Education & Training (GOVET) and is in charge of three key fields of work:

• FUNCTIONS AS THE ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE FOR THE ROUND TABLE on international vocational education and training cooperation, in which the departments involved in the international vocational education and training cooperation vote under the leadership of the BMBF.
• ONE-STOP-SHOP, i.e. central point of contact for inquiries from national and international protagonists in vocational education and training cooperation.
• ACCOMPANIES the international bilateral vocational education and training cooperations of the BMBF.

Cooperation and Participation in Worldwide Programmes and Organisations

Copenhagen Process in the Vocational Education and Training Sector

With the Copenhagen Declaration of November 2002, the ministers of the EU member states responsible for education together with the European social partners defined specific areas and steps for intensifying European collaboration in vocational training.

Milestones of the Copenhagen process, in which strategic priorities, common goals and measures are regularly agreed, were the Bruges Communiqué of 2010, which emphasised in particular the need for greater labour market relevance through high-quality VET with integrated company practice, and the so-called Riga Conclusions of 2015, in which the ministers of education, together with social partners and the European Commission, set priorities for the period 2015–2020 to strengthen employment and competitiveness.

Germany has been actively involved in shaping the Copenhagen process from the very beginning and is represented in all the main working groups set up to implement the process. The Copenhagen Declaration identifies the promotion of transparency, recognition of qualifications and quality assurance in vocational education and training as the most important fields of action for the EU. At the European level, the following instruments are being developed or further developed as a matter of priority:

• European Qualifications Framework (EQF): The EQF is a common European reference framework consisting of eight competence levels to which national qualifications frameworks are assigned. As a translation tool between the different national systems, it makes qualifications in Europe more transparent and comparable and promotes the cross-border mobility of learners and employees. With the German Qualifications Framework (DQR), the recommendation on the establishment of a European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning has been implemented at national level since 2013.
• European Network for Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training (EQAVET): The German Reference Agency for Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training (DEQA-VET) is part of the European Network for Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training EQAVET (European Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training) and is based at BIBB.
• ESCO (European Skills, Competences, and Occupations) is the multilingual European classification for skills, competences, qualifications and occupations. ESCO aims to promote mobility of workers in Europe through transparency in communication and comparability. 

Another valuable tool is the Europass to promote transparency and understanding of skills and qualifications. Introduced across Europe in 2005, Europass was modernised and made more flexible in 2018 through a revised legal basis. Europass is one of 12 measures of the European Skills Agenda 2020 and an important element in the context of the Osnabrück Declaration 2020. 

The offers of Europass serve to make the skills and qualifications of EU citizens clearly and easily understood in Europe, and therefore simplify and promote the mobility for learning and working. In Germany, the National Europass Centre (NEC) is the contact for all questions relating to the Europass (www.europass-info.de). It is located at the National Agency Education for Europe (Nationale Agentur Bildung für Europa) at the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung – BIBB). The NEC administers the national database to apply for Europass mobility. Issuing agencies of the Europass Mobility are the PAD for the school sector, the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst – DAAD) for the higher education sector as well as trade organisations and social partner organisations for vocational training.

The framework for enhanced cooperation between all VET stakeholders in the current decade is set by the European Council Recommendation on vocational education and training for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience and the Osnabrück Declaration on vocational education and training as an enabler of recovery and just transitions to digital and green economies from 2020. The Osnabrück Declaration relies on VET to overcome the challenges related to demographic change, digitalisation and the need for eco-conscious action. Vocational education and training is placed in the context of lifelong learning and the need for better permeability in the education systems and equal value of academic and vocational education is emphasised. For the period 2021 to 2025, the Osnabrück Declaration defines four main objectives of cooperation in VET:

• Resilience and excellence through high-quality, inclusive and flexible VET.
• Establishing a new culture of lifelong learning – the importance of vocational training and digitalisation
• Sustainability – a green perspective in VET
• European VET Area and international VET

The respective objectives are backed up with concrete measures. These measures are to be implemented taking into account the principle of subsidiarity and the characteristics of the respective VET and education systems.

In order to concretise the implementation, the member states were requested to submit National Implementation Plans (NIP) to the European Commission by the end of May 2022. For Germany, the BMBF developed the National Implementation Plan (NIP) with the participation of social partners (business associations and trade unions), federal ministries and Länder bodies as well as other VET institutions. The NIP addresses, among other things, the further development of the digital infrastructure for in-company and school learning and teaching, the qualification of teaching and training staff, the strengthening of vocational education and training for sustainability, the expansion of further and advanced training courses and European and international VET cooperation.

The Bologna Process

Further major impulses for the internationalisation of German higher education institutes are provided by the intergovernmental Bologna Process, which builds on the Sorbonne Declaration adopted in 1998 by the ministers responsible for higher education in France, Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany. The Bologna Process was introduced in 1999 with the aim of creating a European Higher Education Area by 2010, characterised by a free mobility to be achieved through the transparency and compatibility of consecutive study structures, quality assurance systems on the basis of European standards and guidelines as well as the mutual recognition of academic achievements and qualifications. The objectives of the Bologna Process correspond with the reform efforts of the Federation and the Länder in the higher education sector.

In order to take stock once again, the twelfth conference of the ministers responsible for higher education of the now 47 active signatory states was hosted by Albanian Bologna Secretariat in May 2024. In view of the current political and economic crises, the commitment to preserve, promote and protect the following fundamental values of higher education was emphasised:

• academic freedom

• academic integrity

• institutional autonomy

• participation of students and staff

• public responsibility for higher education

• responsibility of higher education institutions to society

In order to further develop cooperation within the framework of the Bologna Process and to ensure the implementation of the basic commitments, the ministers decided in their final communiqué, among other things, to provide further support to participating states that have problems implementing the agreed core areas:

• a three-stage system compatible with the overarching Framework of Qualifications for the European Higher Education Area, the first two stages of which are equipped with an ECTS system;
• adequate implementation of the Lisbon Recognition Convention;
• Quality assurance in line with the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area.

Germany has implemented the objectives of the Bologna Process in these three core areas and is making its experience available to other participating states. .While the fundamental structural reforms in Germany have been implemented and thus all systemic agreements and requirements in the Bologna Process have been met, new goals as well as national and international events are presenting Germany and the other participating countries and their higher education systems with new challenges that make a continuous further development of the European Higher Education Area necessary. According to the joint national report by the Standing Conference and the BMBF on the implementation of the objectives of the Bologna Process 2021–2024 from a German perspective, a particular focus is on communication in times of crisis.

The ‘Continuation of the Bologna Process’ working group, which is chaired by the Federal Government and the Länder and consists of representatives of the German Rectors' Conference (HRK), the DAAD, students, the German Accreditation Council, the social partners and the German National Association for Student Affairs, advises on current developments and practical problems in implementing the Bologna Process. The Federation and the Länder support the reform of the German higher education system with numerous measures. These include inter alia the Contract for the Future of Higher Education and Teaching (Zukunftsvertrag Studium und Lehre stärken) and the agreement Innovation in Higher Education Teaching (Innovation in der Hochschullehre) as well as study financing instruments (Federal Training Assistance for study abroad, educational credit and scholarships). This is in addition to the mobility promotion offered by the Federation via the DAAD and the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung as well as the funding offered by the HRK project “Modus”, which supports higher education institutions in implementing study reforms in Germany, and the team of Bologna experts which is coordinated by the DAAD.

Recognition of foreign qualifications

Germany ratified the Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region (Lisbon Convention), which was resolved on 1 April 1997, on 1 October 2007. The Convention provides for the simplified recognition of foreign coursework and qualifications and aims on the one hand at recognition for the purpose of higher education admission and on the other at the assessment of higher education qualifications for the purpose of entering the German labour market. The higher education institutions are responsible for recognition for the purpose of higher education admission, for admission to further study courses and for the crediting of specific courses and examinations. The right to carry titles conferred by foreign higher education institutions is regulated by the Land higher education laws. Information on this is distributed by the Länder education ministries. Holders of foreign higher education qualifications can apply to the Central Office for Foreign Education (Zentralstelle für ausländisches Bildungswesen – ZAB), based in the Secretariat of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder, for an evaluation of their certificate for the classification of their degree in the German education system. An administrative fee currently amounting to Euro 208 is charged for this assessment, further assessments cost Euro 104. The procedure has been end-to-end digitalised since 2024 and can be requested from abroad. Detailed information on certificate assessment can be found on the ZAB website.

The ZAB is the competent information and expert body for the rating and ranking of foreign academic certificates in the Federal Republic of Germany. On an international level the ZAB cooperates closely with the national centres of equivalence in the countries of the European Union (NARIC), the European Council and UNESCO (ENIC). The ZAB provides information on the education systems, institutions and qualifications in around 190 countries, as well as on health professions, via the anabin information system. The database includes the evaluation of around 38,000 foreign educational institutions and around 35,000 foreign educational qualifications and is publicly accessible.