Integration through Education

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Improving educational opportunities, participation, and success, particularly for children and youth with migration backgrounds, is one of the central challenges facing our education system.

The Federal Government is determined to meet this challenge. This was expressed in the Dresden joint declaration Qualification Initiative for Germany by the Federal Chancellor and Minister-Presidents of the Länder in 2008, and in the National Integration Plan (2007) as well as its first progress report.

 

In order to make Germany's integration policy more structurally binding, the National Integration Plan was developed into the National Action Plan on Integration together with civil society stakeholders in 2011. The action plan contains concrete, binding and assessable goals, and it was publicly introduced by the Chancellor at the fifth integration summit. Diverse measures to implement the action plan have been introduced. These will be assessed in January 2014. At the Chancellor's sixth integration summit on 28 May 2013, the BMBF presented an interim report that describes measures introduced by the Federal Government in the area of "Education, Training, Continued Education."

The National Action Plan Integration - the summary report of federal measures for the dialogue forum "Education, Training, Continued Education" is available for download here (in German only).

For the period between 2010 and 2013, the Federal Government increased its budget for education and research by 13.3 billion euros. In the field of education, extra funds target areas that are crucial to educational success. The BMBF will take new measures with particular significance for youth and young adults with migration backgrounds, while maintaining and developing those already established.

A large part of these supportive measures is not directed solely at persons with migration backgrounds. All children and youth requiring special support can take part. Those with migration backgrounds will often particularly benefit since they generally account for a large portion of the groups being targeted. A key aspect of the BMBF projects and support programmes focuses on the area of vocational training.

Furthermore, improved opportunities in the recognition of vocational training and occupational qualifications gained abroad are necessary not only for the integration of immigrants, but also to meet the demand for skilled labour. The corresponding "Assessment and Recognition of Foreign Professional Qualifications Act" (the so-called "Recognition Act") entered into effect on 1 April 2012.