In the “IQ Specialist healthcare occupations situation analysis”, co-authors Tatjana Erfurt and Christian Atzendorf take a look at recognition in five focus occupations. Here they explain what stood out to them in particular.
Why have you focused on this occupational field and on these five occupations?
Erfurt/Atzendorf: Specialist healthcare occupations are becoming increasingly relevant to society as a result of demographic change and the growing demand for health services. Following nursing – for which a situation analysis is already available – we are now taking a look at other specialist healthcare occupations. The selection is based on a statistical survey within Network IQ. According to this, physiotherapists, midwives, medical technologists in laboratory analysis (MTL), medical technologists in radiology (MTR), and dispensing assistants were the most in-demand specialist healthcare occupations from 2019 to 2022 in terms of advice provided and training offers. A wealth of experience and expertise is therefore available in supporting recognition processes. Physiotherapists and midwives, in particular, are among the federal occupations receiving the most applications.
What is the most important finding in your view?
Erfurt/Atzendorf: The regulations make recognition an essential requirement for entering the profession, while at the same time recognition processes are complex. There are also comparatively few cases, in particular for MTL, MTR, and dispensing assistants. As a result, when compared to nurses, there are also fewer courses offered. In the case of midwives, the academisation of the occupation also means that universities need to be recruited as new stakeholders to support compensation measures. Also of interest is the very strong regional variation in the number of applications in the five occupations. In 2022, depending on the federal state, the number ranged between 0 and 800. The introduction of the digital application is welcome. So far, this is possible for physiotherapists, midwives, MTR, MTL and dispensing chemists in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt and also for midwives in Schleswig-Holstein. The inclusion of further federal states and occupations should be encouraged.
Which areas are still very much a “work in progress”?
Erfurt/Atzendorf: Let's consider the training offer. When you take the five focus occupations together, you see that the number of adaptation periods and preparation courses for the knowledge test ranges between just 0 to 13 for each federal state. Organising measures on an individual basis or across all federal states offers one potential solution; however, overall, regional provision is currently not sufficient. One further point which currently really could be described as a work in progress is the national introduction and implementation of the specialist language examination for specialist healthcare occupations. The decision on this was taken in 2019. However, Bavaria is currently the only federal state to offer this examination format in our focus occupations.
It was also evident that funding of compensation measures poses one of the greatest challenges. According to data from the financial support for training funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the average training costs for the occupations considered is over €4000. This is significantly more than in other occupational fields. Overall, the potential for training to be completed alongside work – either in the area of languages or compensation measures – would therefore also be desirable. This would be a huge help to people in employment or working in the area of care. To support this, training offers have to be designed to be more innovative and needs based, e.g. by modularising content or by using blended learning approaches.
The interview with Tatjana Erfurt and Christian Atzendorf took place in November 2024. Together with their colleagues Anna-Lena Mainka and Laura Roser, they wrote the study entitled “Berufliche Anerkennung von Gesundheitsfachkräften mit einer im Ausland erworbenen Berufsqualifikation”[Professional recognition of skilled workers in healthcare with a professional qualification obtained abroad] (short title: “Situationsanalyse Gesundheitsfachberufe” [Specialist healthcare occupations situation analysis]). The situation analysis serves as an evaluation of the current structures and processes and provides recommendations for action for stakeholders involved at operational and strategic level.
The IQ Specialist healthcare occupations situation analysis (2024) contains the views of a range of experts as well as two guest articles from the BIBB: Dr. Rebecca Atanassov and Moritz Scholz report on current developments in the recognition of nursing occupations. Sven Mückenheim outlines the progress made with the digital applications.
Tatjana Erfurt and Christian Atzendorf work as research assistants at the Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training (f-bb) for the IQ Competence Centre for Recognition and Job Training.
Contact for questions about the situation analysis: fsaq@f-bb.de
Tatjana Erfurt and Christian Atzendorf
Information about responsibility for, and details on, the recognition procedure for the German reference occupations is provided in the Profi-Filter here in the advisor section and in the Recognition Finder in the skilled worker section of „Anerkennung in Deutschland“.
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