For employment agencies & educational institutions
Everything you need to know about the requirements in Germany's daycare centers and schools - and how we make it easier for career changers to enter the social professions.
“Daycare and school” labor market”
Missing in Germany:
Drivers of the skills shortage:
According to the Specialist radar for daycare centers and elementary school According to the Bertelsmann Stiftung, a shortage of up to 242,000 childcare staff is expected in Germany by 2030. This development is influenced by several factors, including the increasing average care time per child, a higher participation rate in daycare and the scientifically recommended higher staffing ratio per group.
With the legal entitlement to all-day care for primary school children coming into force from 2026, the need for childcare staff will continue to increase. Many more children will spend the afternoon after school in after-school care/open all-day care. The Bertelsmann Stiftung estimates that this legal entitlement will require up to 100,000 additional skilled workers.
Inclusion in German schools has become much more important in recent years, especially since the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) in 2009, which obliges Germany to educate pupils with and without special educational needs together. For many pupils with special educational needs, attending school is hardly possible without school support (also known as inclusion assistance, integration assistants, participation assistance). School assistants support them with everyday tasks in the classroom and thus ensure that inclusion can be implemented in everyday school life. In Baden-Württemberg, for example, the number of school assistants has increased since 2014 increased by a factor of 2.5, In Lower Saxony, expenditure on school support has tripled and the trend is continuing. Similar developments can also be seen in the other federal states. The job platform HeyJobs lists almost 60,000 vacancies for school support staff in October 2024.
Specialists vs. supplementary staff
State-recognized educators, social pedagogues or curative education nurses have completed several years of vocational training or a degree. Depending on the collective agreement, educational qualifications, professional experience and (managerial) duties, salaries of over EUR 4,000 gross per month (full-time) can be earned.
Ideal for a quicker lateral entry are jobs as a supplementary educational worker such as integration assistant, inclusion assistant, childcare assistant, educator's assistant, all-day care worker, housekeeping assistant, etc. Here, lateral entrants work closely with specialists and gain practical hours with children, which can be credited in a shortened, in-service training course to become a specialist. Depending on the qualification, region and employer, you can earn up to EUR 3800 per month (full-time). Supplementary staff are increasingly in demand, as the need for care staff is constantly growing. This is an ideal opportunity for career changers in particular: without long periods of training, they can get straight into practice and work alongside experienced professionals.
Attractiveness of professions for lateral entry
Supplementary staff do not need several years of training to work in the social sector. Through practice-oriented and well-founded short courses, they can quickly acquire the most important basics and skills that are required in everyday working life and thus get a foot in the door.
Many supplementary staff use their position as a stepping stone to a part-time qualification as a specialist (e.g. educator), which improves their earning potential and opens up long-term career opportunities.
Supplementary staff can choose between full-time work with higher earnings and part-time models that are compatible with working for their own family. In addition, school vacations offer flexible time off, which makes the profession particularly attractive for parents of school children.
Childcare workers in daycare centers and schools support children's development and relieve the burden on parents, allowing them to better reconcile family and career. Their work strengthens equal opportunities and social cohesion and makes the job particularly fulfilling.
People who have not completed vocational training or have few qualifications and are looking for a meaningful job in the social sector can use our measures to quickly enter the teaching profession.
With our “Social professions” orientation course, we offer a special support service for the long-term unemployed to help them overcome barriers to placement and facilitate their re-entry into the primary labor market.
For migrants and refugees, we integrate special modules into further training, including job-related language support and intercultural skills training, which enable them to start a career in the social sector.
With our specialist language course “German for Educators”, we prepare immigrants who have already worked as social education workers, nursery school teachers, teachers etc. in their home country for a career change in Germany.
Our continuing education program with family-friendly learning times is ideal for single parents and women and men returning to work who would like to return to a career with children after a family phase or care leave.
We offer unemployed graduates and university dropouts career prospects in the field of education. Our further training program enables them to acquire theoretical and practical skills and quickly gain a foothold in a socially relevant profession.
Our services are also aimed at unemployed people over the age of 50. Their life experience benefits them at work, particularly in childcare.
For people who are no longer able to carry out their previous profession due to illness or accident, a new start in the socio-educational sector offers excellent opportunities for professional rehabilitation and reintegration. For example, retraining as a pedagogical specialist can pave the way for a former craftsman with physical limitations to find a fulfilling and less physically demanding job.
Details of measures
Our further training courses combine theoretical lessons online and practical phases in daycare centers and schools to provide our participants with sound preparation for lateral entry.
Orientation course „Social professions“
Target groupPeople who are interested in working with children and want to better understand whether a corresponding profession suits them and how they can learn it.
Target: Insight into various socio-educational professions in order to make an informed career choice.
Focal pointsPersonality test and aptitude test, visits to daycare centers and schools, discussions with employers and successful career changers (= role models), theoretical vocational knowledge, imparting basic socio-pedagogical knowledge, identification of various qualification paths (studies, training, retraining, further education).
Orientation course on Kursnet: „Orientation course for social professions - entry into daycare, school & care“ (arbeitsagentur.de)
Orientation course on Kursnet: „Orientation course for social professions - entry into daycare, school & care“ (arbeitsagentur.de)
Further training „Learning and development assistant“
Target group: People who have decided to make a career change into a profession with children.
Target: Participants receive dual training for a broad profile of supplementary socio-educational professions and can be deployed flexibly in daycare centers and schools immediately after graduation.
Practical part: Regular deployment in an educational institution ensures the direct transfer of what has been learned into the world of work and initial contact with employers.
Additional services: Guaranteed internship for a weekly internship day, personal support during the internship and application coaching.
Further training on myNOW: „Learning and development assistant for schools and daycare centers: pedagogical assistant“ (mein-now.de)
Focal pointsBasic pedagogical knowledge, nursing and pedagogical skills, cooperation with colleagues and parents, work processes in schools and daycare centers, acquisition of various certificates (e.g. first aid course for children, daycare mother/father certificate), state-specific qualifications, application for a police certificate of good conduct, language test, language skills.Practical component: Regular deployment in a
Specialized language course German for teachers
Target group: People who have already worked with children in their home country and would like to improve their professional German (and better understand the daycare and school system) before working with children in Germany.
Individual measure.
Target: Linguistic and professional preparation of immigrants with (social) pedagogical experience and training for everyday working life in German schools and daycare centers, as well as for the Telc exam.
Focus: Intensive language training that is specifically tailored to the requirements of everyday pedagogical work. Participants gain a sound understanding of the school and daycare system in Germany and learn to master the daily challenges of dealing with children, colleagues and parents confidently in German.
AVGS measure
Share promotion on Kursnet: „Specialist language course German for educational professions: Preparation course for the labor market“ (arbeitsagentur.de)
About the educational institution Impact School
SIS - Social Impact School UG is an AZAV-certified training provider and works with numerous employers throughout Germany. Our most important success factors:
Enables lateral entry into attractive professions in the highly regulated education system.
Strong employer network: We work with over 200 employers to secure internships and recruitment.
High success rate: Our dual training program includes weekly practical days that quickly bring participants into contact with the real world of work and potential employers.
Seamless qualification chain: People interested in a career first complete an entertaining and motivating orientation course before being prepared for their profession in a further training course. For non-native speakers, we offer an intensive specialist language course “German for teachers”.
Modern curriculum: Our curriculum is developed in consultation with employers by socio-educational experts and is constantly updated.
We stand for the compatibility of further education, career and family: both further education and later career often take place in the morning/lunch. In the afternoon and during school vacations/closing times, employees are flexible and have time for their own families.
The Impact School is certified by CERTQUA as an educational institution in adult education in accordance with the “Accreditation and Approval Ordinance for Employment Promotion” (AZAV). CERTQUA is a certification body recognized by the Deutsche Akkreditierungsstelle GmbH (DAkkS). This recognition means that the Impact School meets the requirements nationwide to enable various funding opportunities, including education vouchers (BGS) and activation and placement vouchers (AVGS), which support further vocational training or qualifications.