Have a foreign professional qualification as a teacher from the EU/EEA/Switzerland recognized

Service Description

Working as a teacher is regulated. This means that you must provide proof of a specific qualification if you want to work as a teacher in Thuringia without any restrictions. You can apply for recognition of your professional qualification as proof of a foreign qualification.

In the recognition procedure, the competent authority compares your professional qualification acquired in another EU/EEA country or Switzerland with the professional qualification in the selected federal state. Your professional qualification must be equivalent for recognition.

You can also apply for the procedure from abroad.

In addition to the equivalence of the professional qualification, you must meet further requirements in order to work as a teacher. You usually only have to prove these requirements when you are employed as a teacher. This is a different procedure.

For this, the equivalence of your degree with a Thuringian teaching qualification must be established.

In Thuringia, teacher training is based on the type of school and includes

  • as a first phase, a university degree with the completion of the first state examination for a teaching profession or a university degree recognized as equivalent and
  • as a second phase, practical pedagogical training in the preparatory service leading to the Second State Examination for a Teaching Qualification.

Upon completion of the second state examination, you acquire the professional qualification for the respective teaching profession and can be employed as a teacher in the state school service.

Teacher training in Thuringia takes place

  • for the teaching profession at elementary school in three subjects, including the compulsory subjects German (as a mother tongue), mathematics and a third primary school subject;
  • for the teaching profession at regular schools in two subjects;
  • for the teaching profession at grammar schools in two subjects or in one of the double subjects of art education or music;
  • for the teaching profession at vocational schools in one vocational subject and a second subject;
  • for the teaching qualification for special needs education in two special educational subjects and in two general education subjects. One of the general education subjects must be be German (as a mother tongue) or mathematics.

If your professional qualification as a teacher acquired abroad only relates to some of the subjects provided for in Thuringia, there is also the possibility of partial recognition.

In individual cases, it is also possible to be employed as a teacher at independent schools or state schools within the framework of temporary contracts (e.g. substitute teacher) without recognition of your teaching qualification. In these cases, you should apply directly to the school where you would like to work or to the relevant state education authority.

Source: Zuständigkeitsfinder Thüringen (Linie6Plus)

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