Have a foreign professional qualification as a teacher from a third country recognized

Service Description

Working as a teacher is regulated. This means: You have to prove a specific qualification if you want to work as a teacher in Thuringia without any restrictions. To prove a foreign qualification, you can apply for recognition of your professional qualification.

In the recognition procedure, the competent body compares your professional qualification acquired in a third country with the professional qualification in the chosen federal state. For recognition, your professional qualification must be equivalent.

You can also apply for the procedure from abroad.

You must meet other requirements for working as a teacher in addition to the equivalence of the professional qualification. Most of the time, you will have to prove these prerequisites when you are hired into the teaching profession. 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 school type-related and includes

  • a first phase of university studies leading to the First State Examination for a teaching profession or a university degree recognized as equivalent, and
  • the second phase is practical pedagogical training in the preparatory service leading to the Second State Examination for a teaching post.

With the completion of the Second State Examination, one acquires the professional qualification for the respective teaching profession and can be employed as a teacher in the state school service.

Teacher training in Thuringia is as follows

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

If your professional qualification as a teacher acquired abroad only relates to individual training subjects provided 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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