Topics & Contents
Exam material
What do I need to know for the exam?
The contents of the examination result from § 7 i.V.m. Annex 2 and § 9 of the Guarding Ordinance (BewachV).
Accordingly, the following subject areas are the subject of the examination (requirements):
- Law of public safety and order including trade law
- Data protection law
- Civil Code
- Criminal law and criminal procedure, handling weapons
- Accident Prevention Regulations for Security and Safety Services
- Dealing with people, especially behaviour in dangerous situations and de-escalation techniques in conflict situations as well as intercultural competence with special attention to diversity and social variety
- Basic principles of safety engineering
The contents may be more detailed or subdivided differently in the curricula of the CET providers or in relevant specialist literature, but must include all the above-mentioned topics.
What exactly will be covered in the written exam?
From time to time, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce convenes an “examination preparation committee”. This committee creates questions that end up in a pool that all the individual chambers of industry and commerce nationwide draw on. Since the question catalogue is constantly being expanded, there are hundreds, if not thousands of questions in it. The questions are not made public. Furthermore, the copyright to these questions is held solely by the (D)IHK. The original questions may therefore not be published 1:1 and used for preparation. And even so, it is hardly possible and certainly not sensible to learn everything by heart. It is the “understanding” that counts!
Since the exam questions are sometimes quite “tricky”, it makes sense to practise with exam-like questions in advance. As far as the questions and answer options are concerned, you can also use the Learning tips in the chapter Preparation help on!
Are all questions weighted equally?
No! The marking in the written examination is different. For example, certain chapters are weighted more heavily than others. The number of questions per examination topic is also different!
The number of questions and weighting in the written examination is as follows:
- Law of public safety and order
” 4 questions with 8 points to be achieved - Trade Law
” 4 questions with 4 points to be achieved - Data protection law
” 4 questions with 4 points to be achieved - Civil Code
” 12 questions with 24 points to be achieved - Criminal law and criminal procedure
” 12 questions with 24 points to be achieved - Handling weapons
” 4 questions with 4 points to be achieved - Accident prevention regulations for guard and security services
” 8 questions with 8 points to be achieved - Dealing with people
” 16 questions with 16 points to be achieved - Basic principles of safety engineering
” 8 questions with 8 points to be achieved
What will I be asked in the oral examination?
In principle, all topics that can be covered in the written examination are also relevant for the oral part of the examination. However, there are focal points which should be dealt with more intensively in the oral examination:
- Law
- Law of public safety and order
- Trade Law
- Data protection
- Dealing with people
- Behaviour in dangerous situations
- De-escalation techniques in conflict situations
These focal points make up approx. 2/3 of the total examination. The duration of the oral examination should be approximately 15 minutes. You can be questioned as an individual in front of the examination board, or in a group with up to 5 examinees together. What exactly is asked in the oral examination, however, depends on the respective examination board and also on the “hobbyhorse” of the individual examiner. Often the questions are asked as case studies as they might occur in practice. You are then asked to describe and justify your reaction and the correct behaviour. You may be asked how you legally assess a situation and your actions.
If you fail the oral examination, it can be repeated individually without having to repeat the written examination you have already successfully taken. You can find more on this in the Chapter Repetition.
In the next chapter, you will find out how you can register for the expert knowledge examination according to § 34a GewO (security industry) at the IHK!
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