Giusi Frazzetta, Children's nurse

My story

Giusi Frazzetta finds the question about her current life situation easy to answer. "It's great! I have a permanent contract, I can plan my future", the Italian woman chuckles. The paediatric nurse made the bold move to Germany two years ago – knowing that the prospects of a secure job would be better than in her homeland.

At first the real situation seemed different, however. Although Ms Frazzetta found employment in a hospital, she had to make do with the job of a healthcare assistant at first. Her employer could not let her work in the job she was trained for without recognition of her Italian vocational qualifications. "I wanted more responsibility", says the 25-year-old. Giusi Frazzetta could count on the support of her then employer in getting her vocational qualifications recognised.

The hospital where she took up her temporary job for the transition period supplied her with information about the process. Other institutions played a central role especially during the recognition procedure: "They and the state examination office for medicine, physiotherapy and pharmacy were very important to me."

Ms Frazzetta admits that visits to government agencies and the consular visits necessary for the translation of her certificates demanded quite a bit of patience on her part. All in all, the recognition process took over a year. By her own admission, however, she would have had no chance of getting beyond the role of healthcare assistant without it.

"Recognition has enabled me to work as a nurse in Germany." Giusi Frazzetta did not have to make much of an adaptation to daily vocational life in her adopted country. "Procedures are slightly different from those in Italy, but on the whole, everything is the same. Apart from that my expectations of a good job have been fulfilled."

The interview with Giusi Frazzetta was conducted in June 2014.

My procedure in brief