Düsseldorf (dpa/lnw) - The number of applications for recognition of professional qualifications acquired abroad has risen sharply in the past year, especially among Turkish nationals. Compared to 2020, the State Statistical Office (IT.NRW) recorded an increase of 65.5 percent. IT.NRW announced on Friday that there were 741 Turkish applicants. In 2020 there were only 447 applications, in 2019 only 339. Turkish applicants thus moved up to third place in the nationalities and are among the TOP 5 for the first time since 2013.
The statisticians determined that a total of 10,518 applications for the recognition of professional qualifications acquired abroad were processed in NRW in 2021. That was 1.5 percent more than in the same period last year (10,359). Most applications were made by people with German (1056) or Syrian (774) citizenship. Applications from Serbian nationals, on the other hand, fell by 29.1 percent to 711. 555 Tunisians wanted their professional qualifications recognized in NRW, an increase of 52.7 percent compared to 2020.
Most applications (82.6 percent) concerned the so-called regulated professions (8688 applications). For these, it is legally prescribed which qualifications must be proven. In 2021, the list was headed by nurses with 3,384 (15 percent), followed by doctors (1,644/ 12.3 percent) and engineers (582/−12.4).
Non-regulated professions, for which a recognition procedure is voluntary, made up around a fifth of the procedures with 1,830 applications. Most were dental assistants, ahead of automotive mechatronics technicians.
The Professional Qualifications Assessment Act came into force on April 1, 2012.
