The pilot project ValiKom, launched in 2015 by the BMBF with the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (Deutscher Industrie- und Handelstag – DIHK) and the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (Zentralverband des Deutschen Handwerks – ZDH), developed and tested a standardised procedure for recording, assessing and certifying vocational competences for selected occupations with eight chambers from industry, commerce and skilled crafts. The result of the validation procedure is a standardised national certificate from the competent bodies on the (partial) equivalence that has been established. Since 1 November 2018, further locations have been established in Vali-Kom-Transfer. By October 2024, 13 Chambers of Skilled Crafts, 17 Chambers of Industry and Commerce and two Chambers of Agriculture will offer validation procedures for more than 40 professions in the project network.

The validation procedure is aimed at people who are at least 25 years old and who, irrespective of their current employment status, have acquired relevant vocational competences at home and abroad, but cannot prove these with a corresponding vocational qualification.

On the basis of the results of the transfer initiative, possibilities and variants of a legal anchoring of a validation procedure are examined in accordance with the agreements in the National Continuing Education Strategy. This review has now been completed. With the entry into force of the Vocational Training Validation and Digitisation Act (Berufsbildungsvalidierungs- und –digitalisierungsgesetz – BVaDiG) of 19 July 2024, a new procedure for determining individually acquired vocational skills (known as the validation procedure) was introduced in the Vocational Training Act (Berufsbildungsgesetz – BBiG) with effect from 1 January 2025 and further developed with the Vocational Training Assessment Procedure Ordinance (Berufsbildungsfeststellungsverfahrensverordnung – BBFVerfV) of November 2024.