Archi­ves

Exper­ti­se test

Bahn­si­cher­heit: Secu­ri­ty an Bahn­hö­fen und in Zügen

Bahnsicherheit: Security an Bahnhöfen und in Zügen

Auf­ga­ben von Sicher­heits­mit­ar­bei­tern in der Bahnsicherheit

Die Sicher­heit im öffent­li­chen Ver­kehr, ins­be­son­de­re im Bereich der Bah­nen und Bahn­hö­fe, ist von ent­schei­den­der Bedeu­tung für die Gewähr­leis­tung eines rei­bungs­lo­sen und siche­ren Per­so­nen- und Güter­trans­ports (Schie­nen­ver­kehr). In die­sem Arti­kel wer­den die viel­fäl­ti­gen Auf­ga­ben von Sicher­heits­mit­ar­bei­tern in der Bahn­si­cher­heit beleuch­tet, wobei auch die damit ver­bun­de­nen Gefah­ren, Bedro­hun­gen und Risi­ken sowie die erfor­der­li­chen Fähig­kei­ten und per­sön­li­chen Eigen­schaf­ten für eine erfolg­rei­che Tätig­keit in die­sem Bereich dis­ku­tiert werden.

Auf­ga­ben der Sicher­heits­mit­ar­bei­ter in der Bahnsicherheit

Sicher­heits­mit­ar­bei­ter in der Bahn­si­cher­heit über­neh­men eine brei­te Palet­te von Auf­ga­ben, die dazu die­nen, die Sicher­heit von Pas­sa­gie­ren, Per­so­nal und Eigen­tum zu gewähr­leis­ten. Dabei sind städ­ti­sche Bahn­hö­fe teil­wei­se Kri­mi­na­li­täts­schwer­punk­te. Zu den Haupt­auf­ga­ben gehören:

1. Über­wa­chung und Prävention

Sicher­heits­mit­ar­bei­ter sind dafür ver­ant­wort­lich, ver­däch­ti­ge Akti­vi­tä­ten zu erken­nen und zu über­wa­chen, um das Haus­recht durch­zu­set­zen, die Ein­hal­tung der Beför­de­rungs­be­din­gun­gen in den Rei­se­zü­gen zu gewähr­leis­ten und auch Straf­ta­ten wie Dieb­stahl, Van­da­lis­mus, Beläs­ti­gung und Gewalt­ta­ten zu ver­hin­dern. Dies umfasst die regel­mä­ßi­ge Patrouil­le durch Bahn­hö­fe und Züge sowie die Beob­ach­tung durch Über­wa­chungs­ka­me­ras und die Bedie­nung wei­te­rer Sicher­heits­sys­te­me. Die Prä­senz von Sicher­heits­mit­ar­bei­tern, auch als Ansprech­part­ner und Aus­kunfts­per­so­nen von Zug­gäs­ten, trägt wesent­lich zu einem posi­ti­ven Sicher­heits­ge­fühl und auch zur Ser­vice­ori­en­tie­rung des Auftraggebers/Bahnunternehmens bei.

2. Durch­füh­rung von Sicherheitskontrollen

Sicher­heits­mit­ar­bei­ter füh­ren Sicher­heits­kon­trol­len an Bahn­hö­fen und in Zügen durch, um ver­bo­te­ne Gegen­stän­de wie Waf­fen, Dro­gen und ver­bo­te­ne oder ver­däch­ti­ge Gegen­stän­de zu ent­de­cken und dadurch Schä­den abzu­wen­den. Ein­her­ge­hend mit den recht­li­chen Bestim­mun­gen und Dienst­an­wei­sun­gen erfolgt dies in enger Abstim­mung mit den Behör­den wie der Bun­des­po­li­zei. Nicht sel­ten müs­sen Per­so­nen, die am Bahn­hof uner­wünscht sind oder die Betriebs­ab­läu­fe stö­ren, der Ört­lich­keit ver­wie­sen oder der Poli­zei über­ge­ben wer­den. Im Rah­men der Rund­gän­ge wer­den auch ande­re rele­van­te Sach­ver­hal­te wie z.B. Störungen/Defekte, Ver­un­rei­ni­gun­gen oder Gefah­ren­stel­len gemel­det und Sofort­maß­nah­men ergriffen.

3. Hil­fe­leis­tung und Konfliktmanagement

Im Fal­le von Not­fäl­len, medi­zi­ni­schen Zwi­schen­fäl­len oder Kon­flikt­si­tua­tio­nen sind Sicher­heits­mit­ar­bei­ter geschult, schnell zu reagie­ren und ange­mes­se­ne Unter­stüt­zung zu leis­ten. Dies kann die Bereit­stel­lung von Ers­ter Hil­fe, die Eva­ku­ie­rung von Pas­sa­gie­ren oder die Dees­ka­la­ti­on von Kon­flik­ten zwi­schen Fahr­gäs­ten umfas­sen. Gera­de im Bahn­ver­kehr, wo vie­le Per­so­nen auf­ein­an­der­tref­fen und auch beson­de­re Unfall­ri­si­ken (z.B. beim Ein- und Aus­stieg) bestehen, sind Unfäl­le kei­ne Sel­ten­heit. Hin­zu kom­men Per­so­nen, die die Betriebs­ab­läu­fe stö­ren, sich selbst gefähr­den (Sui­zid­ab­sicht, Dro­gen­kon­sum, etc.) oder ande­re durch kri­mi­nel­le oder in sel­te­nen Fäl­len gar ter­ro­ris­tisch moti­vier­te Taten bedrohen.

4. Kun­den­be­treu­ung und Information

Sicher­heits­mit­ar­bei­ter ste­hen den Fahr­gäs­ten als Ansprech­part­ner zur Ver­fü­gung, um Fra­gen zu beant­wor­ten, Hil­fe anzu­bie­ten und Infor­ma­tio­nen über Fahr­plä­ne, Rou­ten und Sicher­heits­vor­keh­run­gen bereit­zu­stel­len. Sie fun­gie­ren als wich­ti­ge Schnitt­stel­le zwi­schen dem Bahn­un­ter­neh­men und den Pas­sa­gie­ren. Das Sicher­heits­per­so­nal ist damit auch ein Aus­hän­ge­schild für die Bahn­ge­sell­schaft. Ent­spre­chend wich­tig ist hier pro­fes­sio­nel­les Han­deln. Etwa­ige Fehl­trit­te kön­nen dank Smart­phone und Social Media schnell über­re­gio­nal gro­ße Auf­merk­sam­keit erre­gen und damit das Unter­neh­men in ein schlech­tes Licht rücken. „Schwar­ze She­riffs“ sind daher fehl am Platze.

5. Schutz Kri­ti­scher Infra­struk­tur und spe­zi­el­le Aufgaben

Das Bahn­netz und die damit ver­bun­de­nen Ein­rich­tun­gen (z.B. Daten­kom­mu­ni­ka­ti­on, Zug­be­ein­flus­sungs­sys­te­me, Ener­gie­ver­sor­gung) sind Teil der Kri­ti­schen Infra­struk­tur der Bun­des­re­pu­blik Deutsch­land. Tag­täg­lich ver­las­sen sich Mil­lio­nen Men­schen auf den siche­ren Trans­port und sind von die­sem abhän­gig. Sicher­heits­mit­ar­bei­ter über­neh­men daher auch in der Kon­zern­si­cher­heit wesent­li­che Auf­ga­ben wie z.B. im Bedro­hungs­ma­nage­ment, in der Sicher­heits­tech­nik, in Sicher­heits­zen­tra­len und in lei­ten­den Funk­tio­nen. Spe­zi­el­le Auf­ga­ben­ge­bie­te im Bereich der Bahn­si­cher­heit kön­nen auch die Tätig­keit in mobi­len Unter­stüt­zungs­grup­pen sein, z.B. wenn Ver­an­stal­tun­gen wie Fuß­ball­spie­le statt­fin­den, die Über­wa­chung von Stre­cken­ab­schnit­ten mit­tels Droh­nen oder der Dienst als Hun­de­füh­rer. Die Bahn­si­cher­heit ist also sehr viel­fäl­tig und kann wesent­lich mehr umfas­sen als nur den klas­si­schen Sicher­heits- und Ord­nungs­dienst (SOD) mit der Bestrei­fung von Bahnhöfen.

6. Bericht­erstat­tung und Zusam­men­ar­beit mit Behörden

Sicher­heits­mit­ar­bei­ter sind ver­pflich­tet, Vor­fäl­le und ver­däch­ti­ge Akti­vi­tä­ten zu doku­men­tie­ren und Berich­te zu erstat­ten. Teil­wei­se sind Body­cams im Ein­satz, die die Situa­ti­on auf Video auf­zeich­nen. Als Sicher­heits­mit­ar­bei­ter in der Bahn­si­cher­heit arbei­ten Sie auch eng mit der Bun­des­po­li­zei und ande­ren Sicher­heits­be­hör­den zusam­men, um zur Auf­recht­erhal­tung der öffent­li­chen Sicher­heit mit bei­zu­tra­gen. Gera­de die­ses Span­nungs­feld aus Tätig­keit im Haus­rechts­be­reich und die Zusam­men­ar­beit im Bereich der öffent­li­chen Sicher­heit hat sei­nen Reiz, erfor­dert aber ein hohes Maß an Hand­lungs­si­cher­heit – auch in Bezug auf recht­li­che Aspekte.

 

Gefah­ren und Risi­ken in der Bahnsicherheit

Die Arbeit in der Bahn­si­cher­heit birgt – je nach Auf­ga­ben­be­reich und Ein­satz­ort – eine Rei­he von Gefah­ren und Risi­ken, denen Sicher­heits­mit­ar­bei­ter regel­mä­ßig aus­ge­setzt sind:

1. Kör­per­li­che Gewalt und Aggression

Sicher­heits­mit­ar­bei­ter kön­nen aggres­si­ven oder gewalt­tä­ti­gen Pas­sa­gie­ren gegen­über­ste­hen, ins­be­son­de­re in Kon­flikt­si­tua­tio­nen oder bei der Durch­set­zung von Sicher­heits­maß­nah­men. Sie müs­sen in der Lage sein, mit sol­chen Situa­tio­nen umzu­ge­hen und ange­mes­sen zu reagie­ren, ohne die Sicher­heit ande­rer zu gefährden.

2. Risi­ko von Angrif­fen und Überfällen

Bahn­hö­fe und Züge sind oft beleb­te und öffent­lich zugäng­li­che Orte, an denen das Risi­ko von Über­fäl­len, Dieb­stäh­len und ande­ren kri­mi­nel­len Akti­vi­tä­ten erhöht ist. Sicher­heits­mit­ar­bei­ter müs­sen wach­sam sein und pro­ak­tiv han­deln, um sol­che Vor­fäl­le zu ver­hin­dern oder zu unterbinden.

3. Gefahr von Terroranschlägen

Ange­sichts der aktu­el­len Sicher­heits­la­ge besteht auch die Gefahr ter­ro­ris­ti­scher Anschlä­ge auf Bahn­hö­fe oder Züge. Sicher­heits­mit­ar­bei­ter müs­sen über ent­spre­chen­de Schu­lun­gen und Pro­to­kol­le ver­fü­gen, um auf ver­däch­ti­ge Akti­vi­tä­ten hin­zu­wei­sen und im Ernst­fall ange­mes­sen zu reagieren.

4. Arbeits­um­ge­bung und Witterungsbedingungen

Die Arbeit in der Bahn­si­cher­heit kann auch phy­si­sche Her­aus­for­de­run­gen mit sich brin­gen, wie z. B. das Arbei­ten bei extre­men Tem­pe­ra­tu­ren, in engen oder über­füll­ten Räu­men oder in abge­le­ge­nen Berei­chen wie Bahn­stei­gen oder Tunneln.

5. Unfall­ge­fah­ren, Arbeits­be­las­tung, Ansteckung

Sturz- und Stol­per­ge­fah­ren sind all­täg­lich, im Bereich des Bahn­ver­kehrs aber durch­aus mit einem grö­ße­ren Risi­ko ver­bun­den als andern­orts. Hin­zu kommt neben der phy­si­schen Belas­tung (lan­ge Lauf­we­ge, Schicht­ar­beit, etc.) auch durch­aus eine psy­chi­sche (Angst vor Über­grif­fen, Sui­zi­de, usw.). Last but not Least hat auch die Covid-19 Pan­de­mie vor Augen geführt, wie schnell sich Viren und anste­cken­de Erre­ger aus­brei­ten kön­nen, wenn vie­le Men­schen zusam­men kommen.

 

Emp­feh­lun­gen für Fähig­kei­ten und per­sön­li­che Eigenschaften

Um erfolg­reich in der Bahn­si­cher­heit zu arbei­ten, soll­ten Sicher­heits­mit­ar­bei­ter über fol­gen­de Fähig­kei­ten und per­sön­li­che Eigen­schaf­ten verfügen:

1. Kom­mu­ni­ka­ti­ons­fä­hig­keit

Gute und situa­ti­ons­ge­rech­te Kom­mu­ni­ka­ti­ons­fä­hig­kei­ten sind ent­schei­dend, um effek­tiv mit Pas­sa­gie­ren, Kol­le­gen und ande­ren Ein­satz­kräf­ten zu inter­agie­ren. Sicher­heits­mit­ar­bei­ter soll­ten in der Lage sein, klar und prä­zi­se zu kom­mu­ni­zie­ren und in Kon­flikt­si­tua­tio­nen dees­ka­lie­rend zu wirken.

2. Selbst­be­herr­schung und Stressresistenz

Da Sicher­heits­mit­ar­bei­ter oft mit her­aus­for­dern­den und poten­zi­ell gefähr­li­chen Situa­tio­nen kon­fron­tiert sind, ist es wich­tig, über ein hohes Maß an Selbst­be­herr­schung und Stress­re­sis­tenz zu ver­fü­gen. Sie soll­ten in der Lage sein, ruhig zu blei­ben und ratio­nal zu han­deln, auch unter Druck und bei Provokationen.

3. Team­fä­hig­keit

Die Zusam­men­ar­beit mit ande­ren Sicher­heits­mit­ar­bei­tern, dem Bahn­per­so­nal und der Bun­des­po­li­zei ist uner­läss­lich für eine effek­ti­ve Bahn­si­cher­heit. Sicher­heits­mit­ar­bei­ter soll­ten team­ori­en­tiert sein und gut in mul­ti­dis­zi­pli­nä­ren Teams arbei­ten können.

4. Ver­ant­wor­tungs­be­wusst­sein und Integrität

Sicher­heits­mit­ar­bei­ter tra­gen eine gro­ße Ver­ant­wor­tung für die Sicher­heit von Pas­sa­gie­ren und Eigen­tum. Sie soll­ten inte­ger und ver­ant­wor­tungs­be­wusst han­deln und sich an ethi­sche Stan­dards halten.

5. Kör­per­li­che Fit­ness und Ausdauer

Die Arbeit in der Bahn­si­cher­heit erfor­dert oft kör­per­li­che Anstren­gung und Aus­dau­er, ins­be­son­de­re bei aus­ge­dehn­ten Kon­troll­gän­gen und häu­fi­gen Schicht­diens­ten. Sicher­heits­mit­ar­bei­ter soll­ten daher über eine ange­mes­se­ne kör­per­li­che Fit­ness und Belast­bar­keit verfügen.

6. Fach­kennt­nis­se,  Schu­lun­gen und Erfahrung

Um die viel­fäl­ti­gen Auf­ga­ben in der Bahn­si­cher­heit effek­tiv aus­füh­ren zu kön­nen, ist es wich­tig, über ent­spre­chen­de Fach­kennt­nis­se und Schu­lun­gen zu ver­fü­gen. In den meis­ten Posi­tio­nen ist min­des­tens die Sach­kunde­prüf­ung nach § 34a GewO erfor­der­lich. Auch eine Aus­bil­dun­gen wie die zur Fach­kraft für Schutz und Sicher­heit ist gern gese­hen und kann die Kar­rie­re vor­an brin­gen. Sicher­heits­mit­ar­bei­ter soll­ten regel­mä­ßig an Schu­lun­gen teil­neh­men und sich über aktu­el­le Sicher­heits­ri­si­ken und ‑ver­fah­ren infor­mie­ren. Zudem soll­ten wesent­li­che Fremd­spra­chen­kennt­nis­se – zumin­dest in der eng­li­schen Spra­che – vor­han­den sein.

Wie kom­me ich kon­kret zu einem Job in der Bahnsicherheit?

Der größ­te Arbeit­ge­ber in die­sem Bereich ist die DB Sicher­heit der Deut­schen Bahn.
Wich­tig ist die Sach­kunde­prüf­ung nach § 34a GewO, die man idea­ler­wei­se bereits erfolg­reich absol­viert haben soll­te. Außer­dem kann die Bewer­bung schnel­ler zum Erfolg füh­ren, wenn man neben den übli­chen Bewer­bungs­un­ter­la­gen ein gül­ti­ges Aus­weis­do­ku­ment, eine Auf­lis­tung der Wohn­adres­sen der letz­ten 5 Jah­re sowie – wenn bereits vor­han­den – sei­ne Bewa­cher-ID aus dem Bewa­cher­re­gis­ter vor­legt. Im Regel­fall soll­te man über einen PKW-Füh­rer­schein (Klas­se B) ver­fü­gen, im Schicht­dienst arbei­ten kön­nen, den Kon­takt zu Men­schen mögen, team- und kom­mu­ni­ka­ti­ons­fä­hig sein, die deut­sche Spra­che aus­rei­chend beherr­schen und idea­ler­wei­se bereits ers­te Erfah­run­gen gesam­melt habe. Die genau­en Anfor­de­run­gen fin­det man in der jewei­li­gen Job adver­ti­se­ment!

 

Bahn­si­cher­heit 2030: Auch in The­ma auf der Nürn­ber­ger Sicherheitskonferenz

Die Nürn­ber­ger Sicher­heits­kon­fe­renz ist inzwi­schen eine fes­te Grö­ße der Secu­ri­ty-Fach­mes­sen. Im Rah­men der 5. Nürn­ber­ger Sicher­heits­kon­fe­renz mit dem Titel „SICHER­HEIT 2030“, die am 10.04.2024 in der Nürn­ber­ger Meis­ter­sin­ger­hal­le statt­fin­det, wird Tors­ten Malt von der DB Sicher­heit als Spea­k­er auf­tre­ten. Sein Vor­trag beschäf­tigt sich mit dem Schutz der Kri­ti­schen Infra­struk­tur am Bei­spiel der S‑Bahn Mün­chen. Er will auf­zei­gen wie Sicher­heit im Kon­zern­ver­bund sowie im Ver­bund mit den Sicher­heits­be­hör­den funk­tio­nie­ren kann und wel­che Her­aus­for­de­run­gen sich dabei ergeben.
Mehr dazu unter www.nuernberger-sicherheitskonferenz.de und im Pod­cast für Schutz und Sicherheit:


(Source: Pod­cast for pro­tec­tion and secu­ri­ty / Jörg Zitzmann)

What is the guard register?

What is the guard register?

In 2019, the sta­te and nati­on­wi­de guard regis­ter was new­ly intro­du­ced, which is obli­ga­to­ry for the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty indus­try. In this artic­le, you will learn what the pur­po­se of the guard regis­ter is, who makes ent­ries in it, what the guard ID is all about and much more that you should know as a secu­ri­ty employee — but espe­ci­al­ly as a pro­fes­sio­nal in the secu­ri­ty industry.
Inci­den­tal­ly, the guard regis­ter can be found on the inter­net at www.bewacherregister.de

Basic infor­ma­ti­on on the guard regis­ter (BWR)

The Ger­man Guar­ding Regis­ter is a cen­tral and digi­tal regis­ter that con­ta­ins infor­ma­ti­on on guar­ding per­son­nel (secu­ri­ty staff) as well as on the guar­ding trade ope­ra­tor (secu­ri­ty con­trac­tor) and the com­mer­cial enter­pri­se (secu­ri­ty com­pa­ny). Sin­ce July 2020, the Fede­ral Minis­try of the Inte­ri­or and Home Affairs (BMI) has been respon­si­ble for the law on secu­ri­ty guards and thus also for the regis­ter of secu­ri­ty guards. As the fede­ral aut­ho­ri­ty respon­si­ble for the ope­ra­tio­nal manage­ment of the regis­ter sin­ce Octo­ber 2022 is the Fede­ral Sta­tis­ti­cal Office (Desta­tis):

Sin­ce the intro­duc­tion of the Guar­ding Regis­ter (BWR), all trad­ers in the guar­ding sec­tor are obli­ged to regis­ter their com­pa­nies and their secu­ri­ty staff in the BWR. In future, only the aut­ho­ri­ties respon­si­ble for enfor­cing the guar­ding laws may make chan­ges to the ent­ries of natu­ral per­sons. For this pur­po­se, trad­ers pro­vi­de infor­ma­ti­on in the BWR on the qua­li­fi­ca­ti­on, relia­bi­li­ty, iden­ti­ty and acces­si­bi­li­ty of secu­ri­ty personnel.

About 1,300 muni­ci­pal public order offices and other com­pe­tent aut­ho­ri­ties of the Län­der check the infor­ma­ti­on pro­vi­ded, appro­ve or reject com­mer­cial enter­pri­ses and secu­ri­ty per­son­nel. In doing so, they use the BWR to access infor­ma­ti­on from the Asso­cia­ti­on of Ger­man Cham­bers of Indus­try and Com­mer­ce (DIHK) regar­ding qua­li­fi­ca­ti­ons and from the Fede­ral Office for the Pro­tec­tion of the Con­sti­tu­ti­on (BfV) regar­ding reliability.

If someone wants to work in the guar­ding busi­ness, they have to pass a back­ground check. The results of this check are recor­ded in the guar­ding regis­ter. The regis­ter also con­ta­ins infor­ma­ti­on on pro­fes­sio­nal qua­li­fi­ca­ti­ons as well as infor­ma­ti­on on the iden­ti­ty of the regis­tered person.

Employ­ers in the secu­ri­ty sec­tor are obli­ged to car­ry out a search in the guard regis­ter befo­re employ­ing a secu­ri­ty employee (guard). This is to ensu­re that only sui­ta­ble and relia­ble per­sons are employ­ed in the secu­ri­ty sector.

The guard regis­ter is thus inten­ded to con­tri­bu­te to impro­ving secu­ri­ty and qua­li­ty in the secu­ri­ty indus­try and to streng­thening public con­fi­dence in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty industry.

What is the guard regis­ter iden­ti­fi­ca­ti­on number?

The guard regis­ter iden­ti­fi­ca­ti­on num­ber (in short: guard ID) is a uni­que iden­ti­fi­ca­ti­on num­berwhich allows for clear iden­ti­fi­ca­ti­on and attri­bu­ti­on. A guard ID is assi­gned when the guard is first ente­red into the regis­ter. The ID of a secu­ri­ty guard is valid even if the employ­er chan­ges, i.e. it always remains the same for a per­son — at least if one is con­ti­nuous­ly employ­ed in the secu­ri­ty sec­tor wit­hout lon­ger inter­rup­ti­ons. Secu­ri­ty guards, i.e. secu­ri­ty con­trac­tors, also recei­ve such a 7‑digit ID number.

How do I obtain a guard ID as an employee?

If you are new to the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty indus­try, you will recei­ve your guard ID when you first enter the guard regis­ter. The initi­al regis­tra­ti­on is done by your (poten­ti­al) employ­er. If you chan­ge secu­ri­ty com­pa­nies, you should request your guard ID direct­ly from your pre­vious employ­er. The advan­ta­ge of this is that you can be released imme­dia­te­ly becau­se the regis­ter can be che­cked more quick­ly with the new employ­er. You should also find your guard ID as an indi­ca­ti­on on your ser­vice card.

Do I have to pay for the guard ID if I want to work in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty industry?

No. In prin­ci­ple, the employ­er has to bear the­se cos­ts, which ari­se from the (first-time) regis­tra­ti­on of the guard in the guard regis­ter. Some employ­ers have the idea of char­ging the­se cos­ts to the new employee or deduc­ting them from the first sala­ry. Such beha­viour is not very serious. The situa­ti­on is dif­fe­rent, of cour­se, if poten­ti­al employees deli­bera­te­ly pro­vi­de fal­se infor­ma­ti­on (e.g. about pre­vious con­vic­tions): fair play for both sides!

Can I car­ry out all acti­vi­ties in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty indus­try with a guard ID?

No. For cer­tain acti­vi­ties you need the Exami­na­ti­on of exper­ti­se accor­ding to § 34a GewO or addi­tio­nal qua­li­fi­ca­ti­ons such as wea­pons exper­ti­se. In addi­ti­on, it may be that the com­pe­tent aut­ho­ri­ty atta­ches cer­tain con­di­ti­ons to employ­ment or pro­hi­bits employ­ment com­ple­te­ly, e.g. due to pre­vious convictions.

Can I work in a secu­ri­ty com­pa­ny wit­hout a guard ID?

Not in prin­ci­ple, but it depends on the spe­ci­fic acti­vi­ty: If you pro­fes­sio­nal­ly guard lives or pro­per­ty of others, an ent­ry in the guard regis­ter is requi­red. Wit­hout a guard ID and cle­arance, you may not work for a secu­ri­ty com­pa­ny as a secu­ri­ty guard. Howe­ver, the­re are acti­vi­ties that do not fall under guar­ding, such as pure ste­war­ding acti­vi­ties or ticket vali­da­ti­on. In this case, you are not working as a com­mer­cial secu­ri­ty guard and do not need a guard ID.

As an employ­er, what do I have to pay par­ti­cu­lar atten­ti­on to in the guard register?

First and fore­most, it is important that all employ­ed guards have been repor­ted and that the Release has been car­ri­ed out befo­re they work in the secu­ri­ty ser­vice for even the first minu­te. In addi­ti­on, the con­cre­te Ran­ge of appli­ca­ti­on be spe­ci­fied and also regu­lar­ly updated, e.g. if a secu­ri­ty guard takes on more deman­ding tasks (e.g. as a shop detec­ti­ve or cer­tain manage­ment tasks) ins­tead of pre­vious­ly simp­le guar­ding tasks (e.g. in pro­per­ty pro­tec­tion), espe­ci­al­ly if for this the Exami­na­ti­on of exper­ti­se accor­ding to § 34a Gewo requi­red is.
A Dis­mis­sal of an employee for exam­p­le, must be noti­fied to the com­pe­tent aut­ho­ri­ty via the guard regis­ter no later than 7 weeks after ter­mi­na­ti­on of the employ­ment rela­ti­onship so that the employee can be deregistered.
Also Chan­ges in the mas­ter data such as chan­ges of address of employees, entre­pre­neurs and com­pa­nies, new tele­pho­ne avai­la­bi­li­ty, etc. must of cour­se be repor­ted in order to keep this infor­ma­ti­on up to date.

It should also be noted that — depen­ding on the local aut­ho­ri­ty — the regis­tra­ti­on of new secu­ri­ty staff can some­ti­mes invol­ve con­sidera­ble wai­ting times during the exami­na­ti­on of the regis­tra­ti­on up to the final release. Fur­ther­mo­re, every new instal­la­ti­on for guards is a Fee to pay. This is curr­ent­ly usual­ly at least 50 euros, but can also be con­sider­a­b­ly hig­her in some regions.
If a guard is alre­a­dy regis­tered, i.e. an ID is available, this only needs to be re-lin­ked — the­re are then no fees for the entrepreneur.

Inci­den­tal­ly, ent­ries are curr­ent­ly auto­ma­ti­cal­ly dele­ted after 12 months fol­lo­wing the dere­gis­tra­ti­on of secu­ri­ty guards. This means that if an appli­cant regis­ters with a guard ID and has not work­ed in the indus­try for over a year, it is very likely that the check will have to be com­ple­te­ly redone.

What all is in the guard register?

The data that may be recor­ded in the regis­ter and pro­ces­sed by the regis­ter aut­ho­ri­ty is set out in § Sec­tion 11b para. 2 of the Trade, Com­mer­ce and Indus­try Regu­la­ti­on Act (GewO) set.

  • To Trad­ers is recor­ded: Sur­na­me, sur­na­me at birth, first name; sex; date of birth, place of birth, coun­try; natio­na­li­ties; tele­pho­ne num­ber, e‑mail address; regis­tra­ti­on address con­sis­ting of street, house num­ber, post­code, town, adden­dum, coun­try, sta­te and regio­nal key; places of resi­dence in the last five years con­sis­ting of street, house num­ber, post­code, coun­try and sta­te; type of iden­ti­ty docu­ment with issuing aut­ho­ri­ty, issuing sta­te, date of issue, iden­ti­ty docu­ment num­ber, expiry date, machi­ne-rea­da­ble name if available and con­tent of the machi­ne-rea­da­ble zone; if appli­ca­ble. Fur­ther data for legal per­sons (e.g. legal form, regis­tra­ti­on num­ber and regis­tra­ti­on court, busi­ness address, cont­act details).
  • To Com­mer­cial enter­pri­se (secu­ri­ty com­pa­ny), infor­ma­ti­on such as the busi­ness name, legal form, type of regis­ter and fur­ther data on the ent­ry in the regis­ter as well as the busi­ness address of the main branch and, if appli­ca­ble, that of other busi­ness pre­mi­ses and, fur­ther­mo­re, addi­tio­nal data on acces­si­bi­li­ty such as tele­pho­ne num­ber and e‑mail address are stored.
  • To the Secu­ri­ty guards (guards/security staff), the fol­lo­wing per­so­nal data is stored: Fami­ly name, sur­na­me at birth, first names; gen­der; date of birth, place of birth, coun­try of birth; natio­na­li­ties; regis­tra­ti­on address con­sis­ting of street, house num­ber, post­code, city, adden­dum, coun­try, sta­te and regio­nal key; places of resi­dence in the last five years con­sis­ting of street, house num­ber, post­code, coun­try and sta­te; type of iden­ti­fi­ca­ti­on docu­ment with issuing aut­ho­ri­ty, issuing sta­te, date of issue, iden­ti­fi­ca­ti­on docu­ment num­ber, expiry date, machi­ne-rea­da­ble name if available and con­tent of the machi­ne-rea­da­ble zone.

In addi­ti­on, among other things, the fol­lo­wing is stored:

  • Date of gran­ting of permission
  • Scope of permission
  • Expiry of the per­mit, if applicable
  • Indi­ca­ti­on of the acti­vi­ty of the guard
  • Pro­hi­bi­ti­on of employ­ment, if applicable
  • Relia­bi­li­ty veri­fi­ca­ti­on data (date, type and result of veri­fi­ca­ti­on, etc.)
  • Indi­ca­ti­on of the cont­act details of the com­pe­tent licen­sing authority
  • Sta­tus of the per­mit procedure
  • Data from the guard regis­ter inter­face to the Fede­ral Office for the Pro­tec­tion of the Constitution
  • Data on cer­ti­fi­ca­tes of com­pe­tence and trai­ning from the cham­bers of com­mer­ce and indus­try of guards and tradespeople
  • Cont­act details of the local com­pe­tent authority

What are the advan­ta­ges and dis­ad­van­ta­ges of the guard register?

Of cour­se — the main­ten­an­ce of the guard regis­ter is time-con­sum­ing. Howe­ver, as an elec­tro­nic regis­ter, it also offers advan­ta­ges that lie in the digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on and har­mo­ni­sa­ti­on of the pre­vious­ly ana­lo­gue (paper) processes.

The­se are signi­fi­cant advan­ta­ges of the guard register:

  1. Con­trol of qua­li­fi­ca­ti­ons: The guard regis­ter enables a sys­te­ma­tic con­trol of the qua­li­fi­ca­ti­ons of secu­ri­ty guards, as they have to pro­ve at least a qua­li­fi­ca­ti­on accor­ding to § 34a GewO in order to be registered.
  2. Cus­to­mer safe­tyRegis­tra­ti­on in the guard regis­ter pro­vi­des cli­ents with a hig­her level of secu­ri­ty, as they know that the secu­ri­ty guards employ­ed are vet­ted and qualified.
  3. Pro­tec­tion of the public: The guard regis­ter helps to increase the secu­ri­ty of the public by exclu­ding per­sons wit­hout the requi­red exper­ti­se and per­so­nal relia­bi­li­ty from car­ry­ing out secu­ri­ty activities.
  4. Trans­pa­ren­cyThe guard regis­ter crea­tes trans­pa­ren­cy about the qua­li­fi­ca­ti­ons and relia­bi­li­ty of secu­ri­ty guards and thus ensu­res more trust in the industry.
  5. Mini­mi­sing abu­se: Regis­tra­ti­on in the guard regis­ter redu­ces the misu­se of secu­ri­ty ser­vices by unqua­li­fied or unre­lia­ble per­sons (e.g. per­sons with a rele­vant cri­mi­nal record).
  6. Legal basis and bin­ding force: The guard regis­ter takes up legal regu­la­ti­ons that stan­dar­di­se and regu­la­te the trai­ning and qua­li­fi­ca­ti­on of secu­ri­ty guards.
  7. Effi­ci­ent con­trols: The guard regis­ter enables the com­pe­tent aut­ho­ri­ties to effi­ci­ent­ly check whe­ther secu­ri­ty com­pa­nies and employees com­ply with the legal requirements.
  8. Pro­fes­sio­nal deve­lo­p­mentRegis­tra­ti­on in the guard regis­ter some­ti­mes pro­mo­tes the pro­fes­sio­nal deve­lo­p­ment of secu­ri­ty guards, as it crea­tes incen­ti­ves for fur­ther edu­ca­ti­on and training.
  9. Cre­di­bi­li­ty of the indus­try: The Guard Regis­ter con­tri­bu­tes to the cre­di­bi­li­ty of the secu­ri­ty indus­try by under­li­ning the pro­fes­sio­na­lism and serious­ness of the regis­tered com­pa­nies and employees.
  10. Effi­ci­ent exch­an­ge From infor­ma­ti­on: The guard regis­ter enables aut­ho­ri­ties nati­on­wi­de to quick­ly exch­an­ge rele­vant infor­ma­ti­on on secu­ri­ty forces, which impro­ves coope­ra­ti­on and collaboration.

The­se are major dis­ad­van­ta­ges of the guard register:

  1. Admi­nis­tra­ti­ve bur­den: The estab­lish­ment and main­ten­an­ce of the guard regis­ter requi­res a cer­tain amount of bureau­cra­cy and admi­nis­tra­ti­ve work, both for the aut­ho­ri­ties and for the com­pa­nies wis­hing to regis­ter them­sel­ves and their staff.
  2. Cos­tsRegis­tra­ti­on in the regis­ter of guards invol­ves cos­ts. The­re are, of cour­se, up-front cos­ts for tho­se who have to under­go ins­truc­tion, expert exami­na­ti­on or spe­cial trai­ning — alt­hough this was requi­red even wit­hout BWR.
  3. Rest­ric­tion of mar­ket access: Qua­li­fi­ca­ti­on and regis­tra­ti­on requi­re­ments can make mar­ket ent­ry dif­fi­cult for poten­ti­al new ent­rants to the secu­ri­ty industry.
  4. Delays: Pro­ces­sing regis­tra­ti­on appli­ca­ti­ons and issuing guard IDs can take time, which can lead to delays in recrui­ting secu­ri­ty guards.
  5. Pro­tec­tion of per­so­nal data: The guard regis­ter con­ta­ins sen­si­ti­ve infor­ma­ti­on about secu­ri­ty guards, so it is important to pro­tect the data from misu­se or unaut­ho­ri­sed access.
  6. Moni­to­ring effort: In order to ensu­re the effec­ti­ve­ness of the guard regis­ter, the com­pe­tent aut­ho­ri­ties must car­ry out regu­lar checks and moni­to­ring mea­su­res, which means addi­tio­nal work.
  7. Excep­ti­ons and loopho­les: In some cases, secu­ri­ty forces or com­pa­nies might try to cir­cum­vent the regis­tra­ti­on requi­re­ment or exploit loopho­les, which could com­pro­mi­se the effec­ti­ve­ness of the registry.

Guard Regis­ter: Visi­on & Reality

On the intro­duc­tion of the guard regis­ter on 1 Janu­ary 2019, the lawy­er Jörg Zitz­mann ana­ly­sed in the Pod­cast for pro­tec­tion and secu­ri­ty the back­ground. He goes into the back­ground of the intro­duc­tion of the regis­ter, explains what the guard regis­ter means for trad­ers and secu­ri­ty staff, who is respon­si­ble, what data is coll­ec­ted and how high the cos­ts are for the exami­na­ti­on and regis­ter entries:

(Source: Pod­cast for pro­tec­tion and secu­ri­ty / Jörg Zitzmann)

Sum­ma­ry

Over­all, it can be said that the guard regis­ter has more advan­ta­ges than dis­ad­van­ta­ges. It pro­vi­des trans­pa­ren­cy, can increase secu­ri­ty and con­fi­dence in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty indus­try. If a guard ID has alre­a­dy been assi­gned, both employees loo­king for a new job and secu­ri­ty com­pa­nies bene­fit from acce­le­ra­ted elec­tro­nic pro­ces­sing. Nevert­hel­ess, the­re are also dis­ad­van­ta­ges, such as the time-con­sum­ing initi­al crea­ti­on and veri­fi­ca­ti­on of employees, com­bi­ned with not incon­sidera­ble cos­ts, which are not uni­form nati­on­wi­de, as well as the con­ti­nuous data main­ten­an­ce. Loopho­les are also pos­si­ble — espe­ci­al­ly if actu­al on-site checks of the deploy­ed secu­ri­ty staff are rare.

Memo­ri­sing exam ques­ti­ons and ans­wers: Is that enough to pass the 34a exam?

Memorising exam questions and answers: Is that enough to pass the 34a exam?

The expert know­ledge exami­na­ti­on in the guar­ding trade accor­ding to § 34a of the Trade, Com­mer­ce and Indus­try Regu­la­ti­on Act (Gewer­be­ord­nung) is an important pre­re­qui­si­te for ente­ring the pro­fes­si­on in this field. It is inten­ded to ensu­re that appli­cants have the neces­sa­ry know­ledge to gua­ran­tee the safe­ty of peo­p­le and the pro­tec­tion of property.
In this con­text, the ques­ti­on ari­ses whe­ther it makes sen­se to just learn all pos­si­ble exam ques­ti­ons and ans­wers by heart wit­hout del­ving deeper into the con­tent of the exam.

Exam ques­ti­ons: Theo­ry and practice

No ques­ti­on — lear­ning with 34a exam ques­ti­ons offers many advan­ta­ges. Pure memo­ri­sa­ti­on of exam ques­ti­ons and ans­wers is not a sui­ta­ble pre­pa­ra­ti­on method in this con­text, as the exam may also include situa­tio­nal ques­ti­ons. This is espe­ci­al­ly the case in the oral part of the exam. In addi­ti­on, it is important to under­stand the con­nec­tions bet­ween dif­fe­rent sub­ject are­as and to be able to app­ly them to con­cre­te prac­ti­cal cases. Super­fi­ci­al pre­pa­ra­ti­on may lead to some can­di­da­tes pas­sing the exam but not being able to app­ly their know­ledge in prac­ti­ce. As a rule, howe­ver, pas­sing the exam also beco­mes a chall­enge if one only lear­ns by heart and has not gai­ned a real under­stan­ding of the contents.

Chal­lenges

Fur­ther­mo­re, it is important not only to know the legal basics and the rele­vant regu­la­ti­ons, but also to under­stand the psy­cho­lo­gi­cal and com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ve aspects of the pro­fes­si­on. After all, pri­va­te secu­ri­ty guards must not only reco­g­ni­se and ward off dan­gers, but also be able to app­ly de-escala­ti­on tech­ni­ques and deal with dif­fi­cult situa­tions. This also includes com­mu­ni­ca­ting effec­tively and resol­ving con­flicts. Of cour­se, it is not only the lear­ning con­tent that plays a role here, but abo­ve all pro­fes­sio­nal expe­ri­ence and the pas­sing on of expe­ri­ence, e.g. within the frame­work of a pre­pa­ra­to­ry cour­se or in exch­an­ge with expe­ri­en­ced col­le­agues. Inci­den­tal­ly, the­re is a focus on the legal topics of the 34a pro­fes­sio­nal qua­li­fi­ca­ti­on exami­na­ti­on. Topics such as cri­mi­nal law or civil law are Weigh­ted twice in the writ­ten exami­na­ti­on. One should not lea­ve any points lying around light­ly by under­stan­ding the legal mat­ter here, not to men­ti­on the risks of legal igno­rance when later working in the secu­ri­ty service.

Under­stan­ding the con­tents of the examination

Exam can­di­da­tes should enga­ge inten­si­ve­ly with the con­tent of the exam and try to gain a deeper under­stan­ding. They should not only deal with the facts, but also with the con­texts and the mea­ning of what they have lear­ned. One way to do this is to talk to other peo­p­le who are also pre­pa­ring for the exam or are alre­a­dy working in the indus­try. Prac­ti­cal expe­ri­ence can also help to deepen under­stan­ding and app­ly what has been lear­ned. Gene­ral­ly recom­men­ded are Books, online cour­ses and class­room trai­ningThe cour­se is desi­gned to pro­vi­de a con­text and not to work exclu­si­ve­ly with test ques­ti­ons and solu­ti­ons. Expl­ana­ti­ons based on case stu­dies can make a signi­fi­cant con­tri­bu­ti­on to under­stan­ding, espe­ci­al­ly legal topics.

Con­clu­si­on

In sum­ma­ry, it does not make sen­se to just memo­ri­se all pos­si­ble exam ques­ti­ons and ans­wers wit­hout del­ving deeper into the con­tent of the exam. Ins­tead, can­di­da­tes should deal inten­si­ve­ly with the con­tents of the exam and try to gain a deeper under­stan­ding. This can help them not only to pass the exam but also to be able to app­ly their know­ledge in prac­ti­ce and to work suc­cessful­ly in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty industry.

34a-Pre­pa­ra­ti­on: Which form of tea­ching is best for you?

34a-Preparation: Which form of teaching is best for you?

Which form of tea­ching is best for you?

In the fol­lo­wing artic­le, I would like to sug­gest the various lear­ning opti­ons, with their advan­ta­ges and dis­ad­van­ta­ges, for pre­pa­ring for the Sach­kunde­prüf­ung § 34a GewO — a guest artic­le by The Safe­ty Guru.

Fron­tal teaching

Clas­ses are held in an aca­de­my, usual­ly on a full-day basis.
In a struc­tu­red class­room envi­ron­ment, a lear­ning situa­ti­on is crea­ted for the stu­dents in which a lec­tu­rer takes on the role of a know­ledge bro­ker. The tea­cher can use dif­fe­rent lear­ning methods to faci­li­ta­te the stu­dents’ lear­ning. The­se may include lec­tures, dis­cus­sions, group work, demons­tra­ti­ons or expe­ri­ments. In class, stu­dents can also ask ques­ti­ons direct­ly and recei­ve feed­back from the lec­tu­rer or class­ma­tes, which impro­ves under­stan­ding of the lear­ning mate­ri­al. Clas­ses can also pro­vi­de oppor­tu­ni­ties to fos­ter social skills and col­la­bo­ra­ti­on as stu­dents work and learn together.

Online les­sons

Online tea­ching is simi­lar to tra­di­tio­nal tea­ching, but it takes place over the inter­net. The lec­tu­rer uses various digi­tal tools to faci­li­ta­te the stu­dents’ lear­ning. Examp­les of digi­tal tools can be: video and audio chat, online cour­ses, lear­ning plat­forms, vir­tu­al class­rooms or e‑learning modu­les. Online tea­ching can be par­ti­cu­lar­ly advan­ta­ge­ous in today’s world, as it offers the pos­si­bi­li­ty to con­ti­nue tea­ching even in times of pan­de­mics or other cir­cum­s­tances that affect nor­mal tea­ching. Ano­ther advan­ta­ge of online tea­ching is that stu­dents can learn from any­whe­re as long as they have an inter­net con­nec­tion. And also like face-to-face clas­ses, stu­dents can ask ques­ti­ons and get feed­back from the ins­truc­tor or class­ma­tes, which can impro­ve their under­stan­ding of the lear­ning material.

Self-lear­ning with book and You­Tube videos

Self-lear­ner with book and You­Tube vide­os are peo­p­le who learn inde­pendent­ly by obtai­ning infor­ma­ti­on from books or vide­os on the inter­net. This form of lear­ning is less struc­tu­red and requi­res more disci­pli­ne and initia­ti­ve from the lear­ners. Unli­ke class­room or online lear­ning, self-lear­ners have the free­dom to set their own pace and choo­se the con­tent of the lear­ning mate­ri­al. Howe­ver, the­re is also a risk that self-lear­ners may have dif­fi­cul­ty achie­ving their lear­ning goals due to a lack of struc­tu­re and gui­dance. Lear­ners need to moti­va­te and disci­pli­ne them­sel­ves to learn con­ti­nuous­ly. It is also more dif­fi­cult to ask ques­ti­ons and recei­ve feed­back becau­se the­re is no direct cont­act with a tea­cher or other learners.

Advan­ta­ges and disadvantages

Over­all, all three forms of lear­ning — face-to-face tea­ching, online tea­ching and self-lear­ning with books and You­Tube vide­os — have advan­ta­ges and disadvantages:

Fron­tal teaching

Advan­ta­ges:

Dis­ad­van­ta­ges:

Online les­sons

Advan­ta­ges:

Dis­ad­van­ta­ges:

Self-lear­ning with books and You­Tube videos

Advan­ta­ges:

Dis­ad­van­ta­ges:

Sum­ma­ry

Over­all, it is important to note that none of the lear­ning styl­es are per­fect and it depends on which lear­ning style best suits the learner’s indi­vi­du­al needs and pre­fe­ren­ces.
Fur­ther­mo­re, the dif­fe­rent lear­ning styl­es can of cour­se be com­bi­ned with each other. Espe­ci­al­ly the pos­si­bi­li­ty to use You­Tube vide­os as a sup­ple­ment for any kind of lear­ning is very good. And here my recom­men­da­ti­on lies on the You­Tube vide­os of the SecurityGuru34a. The­se vide­os are cle­ar­ly struc­tu­red, infor­ma­ti­ve, easy to under­stand and the­r­e­fo­re very hel­pful. With the help of the­se vide­os, one can learn at one’s own pace and deepen con­tent that was not so well con­vey­ed in class.
The­re is com­ple­te les­sons and Sam­ple exams with expl­ana­ti­ons of the ques­ti­ons and answers.

I hope that with this artic­le I have been able to give you an under­stan­ding of the dif­fe­rent lear­ning methods and that you will find the right method for you.

Exami­na­ti­on of exper­ti­se — why? Just buy the 34a licence…

Examination of expertise - why? Just buy the 34a licence...

You don’t feel like taking the exam and pre­pa­ring for it, you’­ve alre­a­dy fai­led the Cham­ber of Indus­try and Commerce’s expert know­ledge exam seve­ral times or you just want to save time and money — all of the­se can be reasons why peo­p­le keep loo­king for “buy a 34a licence”. This artic­le explains why this is not a par­ti­cu­lar­ly good idea.

Can you actual­ly buy the “34a note”?

A short Goog­le search it shows: Yes, you can buy a pie­ce of paper that looks like it is an offi­ci­al docu­ment of a cham­ber of com­mer­ce and indus­try. But be careful! If you use such fake exami­na­ti­on cer­ti­fi­ca­tes, you are lia­ble to pro­se­cu­ti­on.
What you are allo­wed to do is hang such a pie­ce of fan­ta­sy paper in your own hall­way for amu­se­ment or use it as a ligh­ter for the next bar­be­cue par­ty. Howe­ver, if you use such a pie­ce of paper in legal tran­sac­tions, i.e. in the con­text of a job appli­ca­ti­on or to regis­ter your secu­ri­ty com­pa­ny, you com­mit for­gery accor­ding to Sec­tion 267 of the Cri­mi­nal Code:

(1) Any per­son who, for the pur­po­se of decei­ving in legal tran­sac­tions, pro­du­ces a fal­se docu­ment, fal­si­fies a genui­ne docu­ment or uses a fal­se or fal­si­fied docu­ment shall be lia­ble to a cus­to­di­al sen­tence not excee­ding five years or to a mone­ta­ry penal­ty.
(2) The attempt is punis­ha­ble.
(3) In par­ti­cu­lar­ly serious cases, the penal­ty shall be impri­son­ment for a term of six months to ten years. […]

The pro­vi­ders of such dubio­us ser­vices also know that offe­ring IHK exami­na­ti­on cer­ti­fi­ca­tes, school-lea­ving cer­ti­fi­ca­tes and other cer­ti­fi­ca­tes, inclu­ding doc­to­ra­tes, is legal­ly ques­tionable. They are main­ly inte­res­ted in making money quick­ly. The pro­vi­ders are usual­ly based abroad or are not available and thus avo­id legal dis­pu­tes. This is becau­se sel­lers may also be lia­ble to pro­se­cu­ti­on becau­se they use trade­marks and thus legal­ly pro­tec­ted iden­ti­fy­ing fea­tures (e.g. the logo) of the issuing orga­ni­sa­ti­ons. In addi­ti­on, some sel­lers even deli­bera­te­ly crea­te the impres­si­on that it is a legal­ly issued docu­ment and at the same time adver­ti­se that one may use the­se fake docu­ments in legal tran­sac­tions. Thus, the sel­lers often also pre­tend fal­se facts and thus part­ly also call, at least indi­rect­ly, to use the sold fake like a real docu­ment. As a buy­er, you can always be pro­se­cu­ted and make yours­elf lia­ble to pro­se­cu­ti­on if you actual­ly use such a fan­ta­sy docu­ment professionally.

Whe­re can I buy the cer­ti­fi­ca­te of competence?

The only legal way to obtain the “cer­ti­fi­ca­te of suc­cessful com­ple­ti­on of a spe­cia­list know­ledge exami­na­ti­on” (this is the cor­rect term) is to suc­cessful­ly com­ple­te the IHK spe­cia­list know­ledge exami­na­ti­on. You can find many free Tips for exam pre­pa­ra­ti­on, Test ques­ti­ons and a Help forum on this web­site. By the way, taking the real exam can even be che­a­per than some of the ille­gal fake cer­ti­fi­ca­te offers.
Hones­ty is the best poli­cy! Don’t get invol­ved in fake offers with fake pro­ofs! It’s not worth it, becau­se you will be expo­sed. And for the pri­ce you then pay, you could have pre­pared pro­per­ly for the exam and pas­sed it quite regularly.

What does a for­ged cer­ti­fi­ca­te of com­pe­tence cost?

Pri­ces start at just under 10 euros for a per­so­na­li­sed fake cer­ti­fi­ca­te for direct PDF download.

Fake certificate of competence for the 34a licence
Fake 34a cer­ti­fi­ca­te as PDF download
This “low-cost pro­vi­der” of fake pro­ofs empha­si­s­es that you are not allo­wed to use the purcha­sed docu­ments, but for his own secu­ri­ty he has nevert­hel­ess indi­ca­ted a com­pa­ny head­quar­ters in the USA. He knows why.

Pos­si­bly the tip of the ice­berg is a pro­vi­der offe­ring all kinds of exami­na­ti­on cer­ti­fi­ca­tes and degrees — inclu­ding various pro­fes­sio­nal qua­li­fi­ca­ti­ons, school-lea­ving cer­ti­fi­ca­tes, bachelor’s and master’s degrees from col­leges, uni­ver­si­ty diplo­mas and even doc­to­ra­tes. Such prin­ted papers are available for a “ridi­cu­lous pri­ce” of seve­ral hundred euros — appar­ent­ly a wort­hwhile busi­ness. He also pro­mo­tes the offer com­mer­ci­al­ly through an adver­ti­se­ment on Goog­le, which appears at the top of the results page for the rele­vant search terms — see illus­tra­ti­on below. This frau­du­lent trader even adver­ti­ses that it is a legal offer and “100% genui­ne and regis­tered docu­ments, which can be che­cked by the university/training com­pa­ny, or even by your employ­er”. com­ple­te bullshit!

34a note advertising on Google (fake proof)
Goog­le adver­ti­sing for an “ori­gi­nal proof
Let’s talk tur­key: If you buy a fake or make one yours­elf and print it out, you’ll be caught any­way — and then it will be real­ly unp­lea­sant and real­ly expen­si­ve. You will learn why this is ine­vi­ta­ble in the next sec­tion.

Why it’s real­ly stu­pid to pre­sent a for­ged 34a certificate.…

Just a few years ago, one would have con­side­red a fac­tu­alunThe only way that a know­led­geable secu­ri­ty employee could have been lucky is if the for­ged cer­ti­fi­ca­te had not been noti­ced during the appli­ca­ti­on pro­cess, during a cus­toms or poli­ce check or in the cour­se of an enquiry with the exami­ning Cham­ber of Indus­try and Com­mer­ce (IHK). But sin­ce 1 June 2019, the­re is the cen­tral guard regis­ter, whe­re all data con­ver­ge. Your employ­er must report you the­re befo­re you start employ­ment and wait for cle­arance. Only then will you recei­ve a guard ID as a secu­ri­ty guard and be allo­wed to start. In the cour­se of this check and data com­pa­ri­son, it quick­ly beco­mes appa­rent if you have sub­mit­ted a fal­se docu­ment. You bear the full con­se­quen­ces under cri­mi­nal and civil law!

Rather invest in the real thing Exami­na­ti­on of expert know­ledge at the IHK. Inform yours­elf free of char­ge here in the Infoportal. 

The infor­ma­ti­on por­tal on the 34a exami­na­ti­on is now multilingual!

The information portal on the 34a examination is now multilingual!

You don’t speak Ger­man, but ano­ther language?
Qua­li­fied workers are curr­ent­ly urgen­tly nee­ded in many are­as in Ger­ma­ny. One of the­se are­as is the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty indus­try. To be allo­wed to work for a secu­ri­ty ser­vice in Ger­ma­ny, you need the fol­lo­wing for many guar­ding acti­vi­ties Exami­na­ti­on of expert know­ledge accor­ding to § 34a of the Trade Regu­la­ti­on Act. You are then a qua­li­fied appli­cant with a 34a cer­ti­fi­ca­te of com­pe­tence and have excel­lent Job pro­s­pects with cor­re­spon­ding pay!

Infor­ma­ti­on on the Ger­man 34a-Sach­kunde­prüf­ung (Secu­ri­ty) in your language

You will find a lot of free infor­ma­ti­on on the Ger­man qua­li­fi­ca­ti­on exami­na­ti­on for secu­ri­ty staff here in the qua­li­fi­ca­ti­on info por­tal. Navi­ga­te via the main menu at the very top through our Infor­ma­ti­on pages, brow­se the cur­rent blog posts or make tar­ge­ted use of the Search. If you have an indi­vi­du­al request, you can also cont­act us at any time. Post your ques­ti­on in the help forum.

Available lan­guages in the Sub­ject Gui­de Infoportal

Nor­mal­ly, the sys­tem auto­ma­ti­cal­ly detects which lan­guage you are using and sets the 34a por­tal to this lan­guage. The fol­lo­wing lan­guages are curr­ent­ly supported:

You can always adjust the web­site lan­guage via the sel­ec­tion menu at the top left (flag and lan­guage code). Or sim­ply via the but­ton below:

Pre­pa­ra­ti­on and exami­na­ti­on in ano­ther language?

The expert know­ledge exami­na­ti­on can only be taken in Ger­man. Howe­ver, the­re are cer­tain­ly some offers that sup­port for­eign lan­guage lear­ners in their pre­pa­ra­ti­on — e.g. lite­ra­tu­re, among others Lexi­cons with 34a tech­ni­cal terms and their trans­la­ti­on.

Your lan­guage is not available?
Feel free to wri­te a com­ment on this page below this blog post. Tell us the lan­guage into which you would like our 34a infor­ma­ti­on trans­la­ted. We will glad­ly take up any sug­ges­ti­ons for impro­ve­ment and imple­ment them if possible.

Under­stan­ding exam ques­ti­ons and ans­we­ring them cor­rect­ly: 10 simp­le tac­ti­cal tips for pas­sing the writ­ten IHK exami­na­ti­on (34a certificate)

Understanding exam questions and answering them correctly: 10 simple tactical tips for passing the written IHK examination (34a certificate)

Free tests and exam ques­ti­ons to prepa­re for the expert know­ledge exami­na­ti­on (§ 34a GewO) are very useful for prac­ti­sing. Howe­ver, tac­ti­cal tips are almost as important. Becau­se even if you don’t imme­dia­te­ly know the ans­wer to an exam ques­ti­on in the 34a test, you can pass the 34a exam with the help of a few tips & tricks.

No idea, no ans­wer? Plea­se don’t!

You can’t know ever­y­thing. Even if you have pre­pared well for the 34a test with test ques­ti­ons, mock exams and other stu­dy mate­ri­al, you may sim­ply not know what to do with some ques­ti­ons. Yes, you do: Even if you don’t know the ans­wer to an exam ques­ti­on, you can still clear the hurd­le of the expert know­ledge exam!

10 simp­le tips on how to pass the exami­na­ti­on of pro­fes­sio­nal competence

If you take the fol­lo­wing tips for the writ­ten IHK exami­na­ti­on for exper­ti­se § 34a GewO into account, you can also score points for gaps in your knowledge:

  1. It can a solu­ti­on be cor­rect, or it can two solu­ti­ons be cor­rect. The­r­e­fo­re, never give three or more solu­ti­ons as correct!
  2. Sin­gu­lar or plu­ral? Pay atten­ti­on to whe­ther in the Ques­tio­ning after one or more cor­rect ans­wers is asked! Exam­p­le: In the case of a ques­ti­on that beg­ins with “What pre­re­qui­si­teen, a secu­ri­ty guard must ful­fil,…” beg­ins, the­re is more than one cor­rect solution.
  3. Note the Con­text of the ques­ti­on (sub­ject area)! If, for exam­p­le, a ques­ti­on is asked about a fact in cri­mi­nal law (StGB), an ans­wer refer­ring to civil law (BGB) can­not be correct. 
  4. Pay atten­ti­on to Nega­ti­ve for­mu­la­ti­onsIf the­re is a nega­ti­ve in the ques­ti­on, so may­be the ques­ti­on is asking you to tick what exact­ly you want to tick. not appli­es? Then you need to rethink and choo­se exact­ly the oppo­si­te ans­wer options!
  5. Key terms like “never” or “never or “always” or “always should be war­ning signs! It is rather rare that e.g. pro­hi­bi­ti­ons or per­mis­si­ons always or never app­ly, i.e. are abso­lu­te. For many things the­re are excep­ti­ons or cer­tain frame­work con­di­ti­ons and no strict black and white. Such key terms in an ans­wer indi­ca­te that it is rather wrong. 
  6. Other terms that should set alarm bells rin­ging are tho­se such as “exclu­si­ve­ly” or “wit­hout excep­ti­on”. The same appli­es here as in the pre­vious tip. It is not often that some­thing appli­es wit­hout any exception.
  7. In the writ­ten exami­na­ti­on you have enough time. Take your time and read the ques­ti­ons in detail and, if neces­sa­ry, seve­ral times. If you can­not think of the ans­wer, put the ques­ti­on back. Mark the ques­ti­on so that you do not for­get to look at it again later.
  8. You are unsu­re of the cor­rect ans­wer to a ques­ti­on. Work accor­ding to the Exclu­si­on prin­ci­ple and sort out the pos­si­bi­li­ties that defi­ni­te­ly can­not be true. This often helps.
  9. If you don’t have a clue about a ques­ti­on, don’t lea­ve it unans­we­red. Guess if you have to! Not ans­we­ring a ques­ti­on defi­ni­te­ly gets you 0 points. Even if your gut tells you one or two solu­ti­ons, luck may be on your side.
  10. Final­ly, the most important thing: Even if this artic­le is about “tac­tics tips” in the nar­rower sen­se — it’s not about tac­tics. prepa­re yours­elf! Time­ly and pur­po­seful lear­ning is the essen­ti­al fac­tor for pas­sing the examination.

Insi­der tips

You can get many more tips on how to suc­cessful­ly mas­ter the 34a pro­fes­sio­nal qua­li­fi­ca­ti­on exami­na­ti­on if you read our free news­let­ter sub­scri­be. Direct­ly after­wards we will send you our 34a PDF with a total of 25 tips for the expert exami­na­ti­on to.

Exper­ti­se tips and exam ques­ti­ons on YouTube

I would like to recom­mend two hel­pful vide­os for the pre­pa­ra­ti­on for the 34a licence, which you can find in the You­Tube chan­nel of the Aca­de­my for Secu­ri­ty find:


How much money does one earn as an employee in the secu­ri­ty ser­vice with a cer­ti­fi­ca­te of competence?

How much money does one earn as an employee in the security service with a certificate of competence?

Tal­king around it is use­l­ess. One thing is clear: The tra­di­tio­nal secu­ri­ty indus­try is a low-wage sec­tor!
Nevert­hel­ess: the secu­ri­ty indus­try offers varie­ty, respon­si­ble, exci­ting and also quiet jobs. And if you’­re smart, you can make ends meet. But — what do you earn as a secu­ri­ty guard with a cer­ti­fi­ca­te of competence?

What mat­ters when it comes to ear­nings in the secu­ri­ty industry…

If you deci­de to work in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty sec­tor or are loo­king for a new employ­er, the finan­cial aspects cer­tain­ly play a major role. The­re are seve­ral fac­tors that con­tri­bu­te to a good hour­ly wage. The most important aspects for a more attrac­ti­ve sala­ry are lis­ted below.

Level of edu­ca­ti­on and training

Obvious­ly, the bet­ter trai­ned you are, the hig­her your ear­ning poten­ti­al. As an unskil­led secu­ri­ty guard only with trai­ning accor­ding to § 34a GewO, you will very often not be paid much more than the mini­mum wage. With the expert know­ledge exami­na­ti­on, you can achie­ve a good bit more basic hour­ly wage with mana­geable effort.. You can go even fur­ther with fur­ther trai­ning to beco­me a cer­ti­fied pro­tec­tion and secu­ri­ty worker or with trai­ning to beco­me a spe­cia­list for pro­tec­tion and secu­ri­ty. Inci­den­tal­ly, the mini­mum wage nati­on­wi­de has been 12.43 euros per hour sin­ce 1 Janu­ary 2023. The increase to 13 euros per hour from 1 April 2023 has alre­a­dy been decided.

Addi­tio­nal qualifications

Addi­tio­nal qua­li­fi­ca­ti­ons, for exam­p­le in first aid or fire pro­tec­tion (e.g. as a fire pro­tec­tion assistant), are very hel­pful and increase the mar­ket value of secu­ri­ty staff. The­se do not always have a direct effect on the hour­ly wage, but they are always a plus point in job appli­ca­ti­ons. Addi­tio­nal qua­li­fi­ca­ti­ons include the following:

Inter­cul­tu­ral skills and know­ledge of for­eign lan­guages, espe­ci­al­ly at least basic Eng­lish, should also not be underestimated.

Acti­vi­ty

The secu­ri­ty indus­try has many facets and the­r­e­fo­re the acti­vi­ties that secu­ri­ty workers per­form are also very diver­se. Accor­din­gly, the­re are some­ti­mes serious wage dif­fe­ren­ces. Secu­ri­ty acti­vi­ties such as sepa­ra­te guards and simp­le guar­ding acti­vi­ties are often rather poor­ly paid. Jobs that requi­re spe­cial skills often pay well. For exam­p­le in the Avia­ti­on secu­ri­ty, in the ran­ge Cash and valu­ables trans­port, during the acti­vi­ty in nuclear faci­li­ties, in which Under­ground and sub­ur­ban rail­way guar­ding or as an NSL spe­cia­list in Emer­gen­cy call and ser­vice con­trol cen­tres the ear­nings are often signi­fi­cant­ly hig­her than the indus­try avera­ge. The exact amount of the wage for the job can be found in the Coll­ec­ti­ve agree­ments take from them. If they have been declared gene­ral­ly bin­ding, which is usual­ly the case, they app­ly to all employees. (It is best to add the fede­ral sta­te to the Goog­le search to nar­row down the results).

Working hours

Anyo­ne who is alre­a­dy acti­ve in the indus­try and works in shifts knows it: Often, bio­rhyth­ms and pri­va­te life suf­fer from the chan­ging working hours. Howe­ver, working night shifts, Sun­days and public holi­days often offers decisi­ve finan­cial advan­ta­ges. Depen­ding on the fede­ral state/collective agree­ment, the fol­lo­wing bene­fits can be ear­ned Night, Sun­day and public holi­day surchar­ges that are well worth see­ing. What’s more, the­se tax-free! On public holi­days in many places 100% Surchar­ge pos­si­blei.e. in addi­ti­on to the actu­al dai­ly wage, you recei­ve the same amount again — but tax-free! View­ed over the month, depen­ding of cour­se on the amount of night, Sun­day and public holi­day hours, the fol­lo­wing can be achie­ved Seve­ral hundred euros on top earn. Espe­ci­al­ly around the turn of the year or at Eas­ter, this can be a lucra­ti­ve affair.

Overtime/overtime

Over­ti­me is, of cour­se, a par­ti­al aspect of working hours. Nevert­hel­ess, I would like to devo­te a sepa­ra­te point to this aspect here. Why? Becau­se expe­ri­ence shows that a lot of over­ti­me is work­ed in the secu­ri­ty sec­tor, often much more than is legal­ly per­mis­si­ble and with too few breaks bet­ween assign­ments. Think careful­ly about whe­ther you want to go along with this and should actual­ly work 200, 220, 240 or even more hours per month. My tip at this point would be to invest in fur­ther edu­ca­ti­on and not to trade so much time for money: Memen­to Mori — your life­time is also limi­t­ed. Set prio­ri­ties and make a good decis­i­on for you, also for your future.

Sta­te

As in other indus­tries, the­re is a West-East divi­de in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty sec­tor. In the past, the­se wage dif­fe­ren­ces were real­ly gla­ring. Secu­ri­ty workers in Ber­lin ear­ned in some are­as not even half of tho­se who work­ed in Bava­ria.  As a rule, the best-paid fede­ral sta­tes include Bava­ria, Baden-Würt­tem­berg and North Rhi­ne-West­pha­lia. Among the lowest paid are still the new fede­ral sta­tes, for exam­p­le Bran­den­burg or Meck­len­burg-Wes­tern Pome­ra­nia. Just a few years ago, one could bare­ly keep one’s head abo­ve water with a job as a secu­ri­ty guard in the East Ger­man sta­tes. Howe­ver, the mini­mum wage and the gra­du­al con­ver­gence of coll­ec­ti­ve agree­ments are incre­asing­ly put­ting the dif­fe­ren­ces into per­spec­ti­ve. In addi­ti­on, one should not for­get that whe­re peo­p­le earn more, they usual­ly earn less. Cost of living (espe­ci­al­ly rents) are hig­her. So think careful­ly — if you are toy­ing with the idea — whe­ther a move is real­ly worth it for you.

Indus­try

Many peo­p­le think of secu­ri­ty ser­vice jobs in the clas­sic way, as the secu­ri­ty com­pa­ny that as a ser­vice pro­vi­der exter­nal cus­to­mers. Whe­re­as in the past, vete­ran employees in fac­to­ries came to the plant secu­ri­ty ser­vice towards the end of their working lives to spend the last years of their care­ers doing less stre­nuous work, the situa­ti­on has chan­ged con­sider­a­b­ly nowa­days. Pro­fes­sio­nal, exter­nal secu­ri­ty ser­vice pro­vi­ders look after a lar­ge num­ber of com­pa­nies from busi­ness and indus­try or the public sec­tor as cli­ents. But they still exist, despi­te the deca­des-long trend towards out­sour­cing. The Inter­nal plant secu­ri­ty. Espe­ci­al­ly in indus­try, pro­per­ty and plant pro­tec­tion acti­vi­ties are when you are direct­ly employ­ed by the manu­fac­tu­ring com­pa­ny, very well paid. Der Grund hier­für ist, dass Sie nach dem Bran­chen­ta­rif bezahlt wer­den, dem die Mas­se der Beleg­schaft ange­hört. Wer­fen Sie einen Blick in die Rate tables for the metal and elec­tri­cal indus­try! The­se month­ly sala­ries are in a dif­fe­rent league.

Allo­wan­ces

Allo­wan­ces regu­la­ted by coll­ec­ti­ve agree­ment are usual­ly paid for guard/shift lea­ders, for dog hand­lers or in cer­tain faci­li­ties such as mili­ta­ry pro­per­ties. Like­wi­se, the­re are often allo­wan­ces for on-call duties, e.g. for (addi­tio­nal) work in the plant fire bri­ga­de. The­se ran­ge from a few cents per hour up to over 10% more pay. In Bava­ria, the­re is also slight­ly more money if you work in the grea­ter Munich area.
Secu­ri­ty com­pa­nies or their cli­ents also some­ti­mes pay Vol­un­t­a­ry (revo­ca­ble) allo­wan­ces. Manch­mal gibt es auch Ein­mal-Prä­mi­en für beson­ders erfolg­rei­che Ein­sät­ze oder für her­aus­ra­gen­de Arbeits­leis­tun­gen. Lei­der sind die­se Art Zula­gen aber eher die Aus­nah­me. Immer häu­fi­ger vor­zu­fin­den ist aber eine Wech­sel­prä­mie, also so eine Art „Begrü­ßungs­geld“. Das allein soll­te aber aber nicht unbe­dingt der allei­ni­ge Grund für einen Arbeit­ge­ber­wech­sel sein.

Con­cre­te numbers

You would like to know con­cre­te figures?
If you have read the artic­le up to this point, you will rea­li­se that this is dif­fi­cult, as it can depend on a num­ber of fac­tors such as the fede­ral sta­te, the job, the working hours and their (addi­tio­nal) qua­li­fi­ca­ti­ons. Nevert­hel­ess, a con­cre­te example:

This results in approx. 2520 euros of taxa­ble inco­me (gross) and just under 420 euros of tax-free supplements.With inco­me tax class 1 and no child­ren, a sin­gle per­son thus recei­ves approx. 2170 Euro net trans­fer­red. Howe­ver, this cal­cu­la­ti­on is for illus­tra­ti­ve pur­po­ses only. Your actu­al sala­ry paid out may depend on num­e­rous factors!

Hint: This artic­le was last updated in Febru­ary 2023. As the­re are regu­lar adjus­t­ments to both the mini­mum wage and coll­ec­ti­ve agree­ment regu­la­ti­ons, the frame­work con­di­ti­ons may have chan­ged in the mean­ti­me! (All infor­ma­ti­on wit­hout guarantee.)

Who does not need to pass an examination?

Who does not need to pass an examination?

Only secu­ri­ty staff requi­re a com­pe­tence exami­na­ti­on, which is spe­cial guar­ding acti­vi­ties accor­ding to § 34a GewO or wish to set up their own secu­ri­ty com­pa­ny. The acti­vi­ties that may only be car­ri­ed out with the 34a licence include, in par­ti­cu­lar, guar­ding in public are­as, at admis­si­on are­as or in various secu­ri­ty acti­vi­ties in a mana­ge­ri­al posi­ti­on: More here.
Howe­ver, even if you want to car­ry out an acti­vi­ty for which the suc­cessful pas­sing of a cer­ti­fi­ca­te of com­pe­tence exami­na­ti­on is actual­ly man­da­to­ry, the­re are cer­tain excep­ti­ons. Not all per­sons need the cer­ti­fi­ca­te of com­pe­tence, even if they car­ry out regu­la­ted guar­ding acti­vi­ties or are self-employ­ed as a secu­ri­ty con­trac­tor with their own secu­ri­ty company.

Who is exempt from the 34a examination…

Basi­cal­ly appli­es: Anyo­ne who has com­ple­ted a hig­her-level trai­ning or fur­ther trai­ning with a reco­g­nis­ed (IHK) qua­li­fi­ca­ti­on in the secu­ri­ty indus­try does not need an addi­tio­nal cer­ti­fi­ca­te of competence!

But be careful! The­re are a few more pit­falls. Here are the details on the exemp­ti­on from the expert know­ledge examination:

A per­son is exempt from the expert know­ledge exami­na­ti­on if he…

…has suc­cessful­ly pas­sed the cor­re­spon­ding final exami­na­ti­on. Pro­of of this can be pro­vi­ded by pre­sen­ting the respec­ti­ve exami­na­ti­on certificate.

I have suc­cessful­ly com­ple­ted the so-cal­led “plant secu­ri­ty cour­ses”. Is this the same as the exami­na­ti­on for expert knowledge?

No! The fac­to­ry secu­ri­ty cour­ses (fac­to­ry secu­ri­ty cour­se 1–2 or 1–4) are — wit­hout suc­cessful­ly pas­sing the exami­na­ti­on to beco­me a fac­to­ry secu­ri­ty spe­cia­list — not equi­va­lent! You need the expert exami­na­ti­on. In addi­ti­on, the IHK works pro­tec­tion spe­cia­list exami­na­ti­on is no lon­ger offered. 

I was in the armed forces. Do I still have to take the examination?

Basi­cal­ly alre­a­dy. Cau­ti­on is advi­sed here: As a per­son doing basic mili­ta­ry ser­vice, a tem­po­ra­ry sol­dier or a pro­fes­sio­nal sol­dier, you have to take the expert know­ledge exami­na­ti­on — regard­less of whe­ther you are curr­ent­ly obli­ged to be a sol­dier or not — if you (addi­tio­nal­ly) want to work in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty sec­tor and per­form the cor­re­spon­ding guar­ding tasks. The only excep­ti­on is for mili­ta­ry poli­ce, i.e. the mili­ta­ry poli­ce of the Ger­man Armed Forces. Mili­ta­ry poli­ce offi­cers are exempt from the expert know­ledge exami­na­ti­on, as mili­ta­ry poli­ce offi­cers have acqui­red a lar­ge part of the know­ledge requi­red in the expert know­ledge exami­na­ti­on during their trai­ning cour­ses. Mili­ta­ry poli­ce offi­cers or ser­geants, for exam­p­le, do not need to take a Cham­ber of Indus­try and Com­mer­ce (IHK) exami­na­ti­on; the pro­of is pro­vi­ded by the Bundeswehr’s trai­ning or ser­vice record. All other sol­diers must acqui­re the 34a certificate.

Do I need a cer­ti­fi­ca­te of com­pe­tence as a poli­ce officer?

The­re are excep­ti­ons both for poli­ce offi­cers at sta­te level (Land poli­ce) and at fede­ral level (Bun­des­po­li­zei). By the way, the same appli­es to employees in the cor­rec­tion­al ser­vice and to the wea­pons-car­ry­ing area of the cus­toms ser­vice. It is important to note that the obli­ga­ti­on to take the exami­na­ti­on is only wai­ved if you work in law enforce­ment and have suc­cessful­ly com­ple­ted the cor­re­spon­ding care­er exami­na­ti­on — at least for the inter­me­dia­te ser­vice. Poli­ce offi­cers who work as civil ser­vants in the poli­ce enforce­ment ser­vice the­r­e­fo­re do not need a cer­ti­fi­ca­te of com­pe­tence. Many poli­ce offi­cers earn extra money pri­va­te­ly, e.g. as door­men. Espe­ci­al­ly in conur­ba­ti­ons whe­re life is expen­si­ve, such as Munich, Stutt­gart, Frank­furt, Ham­burg, Ber­lin or Düs­sel­dorf, a part-time job in a secu­ri­ty com­pa­ny is a good way to earn extra money. Tip on the side: Make sure that you inform your (main) employ­er about your side job and ide­al­ly have it appro­ved in writing.

I stu­di­ed law, have an LL.B. or a sta­te law degree. Do I real­ly still need to take the expert know­ledge examination?

It’s hard to belie­ve: but of cour­se, a (part-time) job in the secu­ri­ty indus­try can also be inte­res­t­ing for pro­s­pec­ti­ve lawy­ers, be it to finan­ce their stu­dies or to gain impres­si­ons of the indus­try. Of cour­se: In the field of law (public safe­ty and order, trade law, data pro­tec­tion law, cri­mi­nal law and cri­mi­nal pro­ce­du­re law, civil code, code of cri­mi­nal pro­ce­du­re, etc.) law gra­dua­tes are alre­a­dy fit. That’s why you only need to catch up on the topics of acci­dent pre­ven­ti­on in the secu­ri­ty indus­try (UVV, DGUV regu­la­ti­on 23), deal­ing with peo­p­le and the basics of secu­ri­ty tech­no­lo­gy. A cer­ti­fi­ca­te of par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on in the IHK ins­truc­tion pro­ce­du­re ser­ves as pro­of of this. Tog­e­ther with a cer­ti­fi­ca­te of suc­cessful com­ple­ti­on of a law degree at a uni­ver­si­ty or aca­de­my that awards a degree equi­va­lent to a uni­ver­si­ty degree, no addi­tio­nal com­ple­ti­on of the expert know­ledge exami­na­ti­on pur­su­ant to §34a GewO is required.

I have been working as a secu­ri­ty guard for many years. Is work expe­ri­ence not enough recognition?

No, not nor­mal­ly! Howe­ver, the­re are cer­tain tran­si­tio­nal arran­ge­ments for “vete­ran” secu­ri­ty workers. Employees in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty sec­tor who have par­ti­ci­pa­ted in the requi­red trai­ning sin­ce 1 April 1996 or who were alre­a­dy working in the secu­ri­ty sec­tor befo­re 31 March 1996 and were pre­vious­ly exempt from trai­ning due to this cut-off date regu­la­ti­on are, so to speak, “grand­fa­the­red”. Atten­ti­on: This exemp­ti­on may only be invo­ked if it can be shown that the guar­ding acti­vi­ty was unin­ter­rupt­ed for at least three years befo­re the cut-off date of 1 Janu­ary 2003. For all others who have only been acti­ve in the secu­ri­ty indus­try sin­ce 2003, such exemp­ti­ons do not app­ly.
So it is com­pli­ca­ted! My tip: It is bet­ter to invest in taking the qua­li­fi­ca­ti­on exami­na­ti­on and bene­fit from a “know­ledge update” even as an expe­ri­en­ced secu­ri­ty employee!

Atten­ti­on: Spe­cial cases!

The­re are some other spe­cial cases, such as the pos­si­ble reco­gni­ti­on of for­eign cer­ti­fi­ca­tes of com­pe­tence. It is also not always clear whe­ther the type of acti­vi­ty to be per­for­med requi­res a qua­li­fi­ca­ti­on exami­na­ti­on at all. If it is a mat­ter of simp­le ste­war­ding acti­vi­ties (e.g. car park ushers) or sim­ply che­cking and tearing off admis­si­on tickets, the­re is usual­ly no need for an expert know­ledge exami­na­ti­on, and in some cases not even the ins­truc­tion accor­ding to § 34a GewO. Howe­ver, bor­der­line cases such as super­vi­si­on or secu­ri­ty ser­vices in muse­ums or cer­tain con­stel­la­ti­ons of acti­vi­ties in event pro­tec­tion are some­ti­mes con­tro­ver­si­al. (Such bor­der­line cases are dis­cus­sed again in sepa­ra­te artic­les here on the Info­por­tal).
An important note: To be on the safe side, ask the Cham­ber of Indus­try and Com­mer­ce (IHK) and the com­pe­tent aut­ho­ri­ty whe­ther your qua­li­fi­ca­ti­on is suf­fi­ci­ent or whe­ther you also have to take the IHK exami­na­ti­on accor­ding to § 34a GewO. You will then recei­ve legal­ly secu­re, per­so­nal infor­ma­ti­on. If you are new to pri­va­te secu­ri­ty, you are then allo­wed to car­ry out the cor­re­spon­ding acti­vi­ties after your relia­bi­li­ty has been che­cked and you have been assi­gned the guard ID!

What is a 34a examination?

What is a 34a examination?

The expert know­ledge exami­na­ti­on accor­ding to § 34a of the Trade, Com­mer­ce and Indus­try Regu­la­ti­on Act is an ent­ry-level qua­li­fi­ca­ti­on for employees in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty indus­try. It ser­ves as pro­of of basic know­ledge, espe­ci­al­ly with regard to fun­da­men­tal legal aspects rele­vant to working in the guard and secu­ri­ty ser­vice. In addi­ti­on, the suc­cessful­ly pas­sed expert know­ledge exami­na­ti­on with pro­of from the Cham­ber of Indus­try and Com­mer­ce is a pre­re­qui­si­te for car­ry­ing out spe­cial guar­ding tasks and being allo­wed to beco­me self-employ­ed as a secu­ri­ty contractor.

A cer­ti­fi­ca­te of com­pe­tence is requi­red for the fol­lo­wing activities

As a secu­ri­ty guard (employee), you need pro­of that you have suc­cessful­ly pas­sed an exami­na­ti­on of com­pe­tence at the Cham­ber of Indus­try and Com­mer­ce (IHK) (accor­ding to § 34a GewO) if you pro­vi­de secu­ri­ty in the ent­rance area of dis­co­the­ques in the hos­pi­ta­li­ty indus­try (boun­cers), pat­rols in public traf­fic are­as (e.g. city pat­rols), pat­rols in are­as with actu­al public traf­fic, acti­vi­ties to pro­tect against shop­lif­ters (depart­ment store or store detec­ti­ves). (e.g. city pat­rols), pat­rols in are­as of the pre­mi­ses with actu­al public traf­fic, acti­vi­ties to pro­tect against shop­lif­ters (shop detec­ti­ves), guar­ding of asyl­um and refu­gee accom­mo­da­ti­on (only in a mana­ge­ri­al capa­ci­ty) as well as guar­ding of lar­ge events with pro­tec­ted access (only in a mana­ge­ri­al capacity).

The pur­po­se of the expert know­ledge examination

Why the­re is the expert know­ledge exami­na­ti­on has seve­ral reasons. When pri­va­te indi­vi­du­als — inclu­ding employees of secu­ri­ty com­pa­nies — guard other people’s lives or pro­per­ty, this ent­ails spe­cial duties and a gre­at respon­si­bi­li­ty. As a secu­ri­ty guard, you have to know your rights and the legal limits, i.e. what is allo­wed and what is for­bidden. On the other hand, due to their posi­ti­on as gua­ran­tor, they are obli­ged to pre­vent dama­ge to the cli­ent. In con­trast to the poli­ce, you do not have any spe­cial powers and must the­r­e­fo­re be able to weigh up exact­ly to what ext­ent you are allo­wed to inter­fe­re with the rights of third par­ties in a par­ti­cu­lar situa­ti­on. If you go too far, you run the risk of being char­ged with offen­ces such as depri­va­ti­on of liber­ty or bodi­ly harm. If you sleep on duty and do not com­ply with your duty to pro­tect, you can also end up in court for com­mit­ting an offence by omis­si­on if you cau­se harm. For the­se reasons, among others — lis­ted here as examp­les — it is important to acqui­re the spe­cia­li­sed know­ledge in order to later have the neces­sa­ry con­fi­dence to act in the guar­ding business.

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