Archi­ves

Guar­ding

Is it pos­si­ble to take the exami­na­ti­on in ano­ther language?

Is it possible to take the examination in another language?

No. Taking the 34a exam is only pos­si­ble in German.

Secu­ri­ty exper­ti­se test soon to be in Rus­si­an, Ara­bic or English

I have often been asked whe­ther the expert know­ledge exami­na­ti­on accor­ding to § 34a GewO can also be taken in ano­ther lan­guage — as is the case with the dri­ving licence exami­na­ti­on, which in Ger­ma­ny is also con­duc­ted in Eng­lish, French, Greek, Ita­li­an, Croa­ti­an, Polish, Por­tu­gue­se, Roma­ni­an, Rus­si­an, Spa­nish and Tur­ki­sh, among other lan­guages. This is not pos­si­ble in the case of the expert know­ledge examination!
And in my opi­ni­on, that is a good thing. While the rules in road traf­fic are quite simi­lar in the EU, e.g. as far as the appearance and mea­ning of traf­fic signs are con­cer­ned, it is more deli­ca­te in the area of pri­va­te secu­ri­ty. On the one hand, you have to be able to navi­ga­te very safe­ly through the legal norms here, i.e. you have to know the rele­vant laws and regu­la­ti­ons of the coun­try in detail. For ano­ther, you are always deal­ing direct­ly with peo­p­le and com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on is an essen­ti­al fac­tor in deal­ing with others, e.g. in de-escala­ti­on. Quite apart from the fact that Ger­man legal texts are some­ti­mes dif­fi­cult to under­stand lin­gu­i­sti­cal­ly, the lan­guage also has its subt­le­ties in prac­ti­ce. It the­r­e­fo­re defi­ni­te­ly makes sen­se to be able to com­mu­ni­ca­te in the lan­guage of the coun­try whe­re you do your work. Of cour­se, for­eign lan­guage skills are also very important, if you think of events with an inter­na­tio­nal audi­ence, e.g. fes­ti­vals or fairs. Mul­ti­l­in­gua­lism is a gre­at advan­ta­ge in the secu­ri­ty industry.

 

Do I need pro­of for the IHK that I speak Ger­man well enough?

Ger­man lan­guage, dif­fi­cult lan­guage — is a well-known state­ment. Expe­ri­ence has shown that non-nati­ve spea­k­ers have a par­ti­cu­lar­ly hard time pas­sing the expert know­ledge exami­na­ti­on accor­ding to § 34a GewO at the first attempt. One reason for this is that the exami­na­ti­on ques­ti­ons are often not easy to under­stand. The­r­e­fo­re, on the one hand, one should prepa­re well for the exam in terms of con­tent, and on the other hand, one should have a cer­tain amount of lan­guage skills from ever­y­day life as well as from tech­ni­cal lan­guage (legal terms, tech­ni­cal terms from the field of secu­ri­ty, etc.). So far, lan­guage skills are not a pre­re­qui­si­te for admis­si­on.. This means that you do not need to pre­sent a lan­guage cer­ti­fi­ca­te or simi­lar pro­of in order to be allo­wed to take part in the expert know­ledge examination.

 

Help for for­eign-lan­guage sub­ject mat­ter participants

If you are new to Ger­ma­ny and don’t speak Ger­man very well yet, taking a lan­guage cour­se defi­ni­te­ly makes sen­se, also to prepa­re for the IHK exami­na­ti­on. Often, adult edu­ca­ti­on cen­tres (VHS) offer lan­guage cour­ses. The Fede­ral Office for Migra­ti­on and Refu­gees (BAMF) also pro­mo­tes par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on in lan­guage or inte­gra­ti­on cour­ses. In addi­ti­on, lear­ning apps and of cour­se using the Ger­man lan­guage in ever­y­day life can be very hel­pful. Lexi­cons with tech­ni­cal terms for the secu­ri­ty sec­tor are com­mer­ci­al­ly available.

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