Competence and Career Cards help improve career guidance and migration counselling

Both, migrants and formally low-skilled Germans have significantly less educational and occupational opportunities in Germany - even though they often have gained valuable previous experiences and qualifications. To be able to recognise these competences more quickly, we developed the Competence Cards and Career Cards together with various partners[1] from the field of migration counselling.

Cards sets help overcoming language barriers and provide initial professional orientation 

The Competence Cards are designed to meet the needs of both, immigrants and counsellors. With the practical and flexible set of 49 Competence Cards, personal, social and transversal method skills and competences can be quickly identified and documented. With their combination of pictures, simple descriptions and translations in eight languages, the cards make it easier to start conversations in migration and career counselling. They support the preparation of CVs and letters of motivation as well as the preparation for job interviews. Especially clients with migration background, language difficulties or low self-esteem can benefit from this.

The resulting competence profile also supports further career counselling, e.g. at employment agencies or job centres.

The Competence Cards are licensed under CC BY SA

To ensure that the cards can be tailored to the needs of the respective guidance practice, they are available under the open license CC BY SA 4.0. This creates the basis for sustainable improvement and scaling processes initiated by users. More information on the use of the CC license can be found here. If you are interested in the open data and the creation of your own cards, please contact us.

[1] We developed the Competence Cards in cooperation with the seven non-statutory welfare organisations responsible for providing immigration counselling to adult immigrants (Arbeiterwohlfahrt (Worker’s Welfare), Deutscher Caritasverband (German Caritas Association), Paritätischer Gesamtverband (General Association for Equality), Deutsches Rotes Kreuz (German Red Cross), Diakonie (social Protestant church welfare organisation), Zentralwohlfahrtsstelle der Juden in Deutschland (Central Welfare Office of Jews in Germany), Bund der Vertriebenen (Federation of Expellees)), and with the support of the Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training (f-bb).

Career Cards for occupational guidance

Inspired by a user survey of the Competence Cards we additionally developed Career Cards to help identify occupational qualifications. As a modular picture book of the German occupational landscape, they provide a systematic overview of the German labour market.

Using photos, the 48 Sector Cards cover 156 VET-occupations while the 30 Occupation Cards present occupations that are currently in particularly high demand with useful detail. For example, they provide an overview of the necessary skills, possible alternative occupations and continuing training opportunities. They also list typical occupational fields of application and job sites.

In combination with the Competence Cards, the Career Cards close an important gap in the guidance process, serve as an ideal conversation opener and facilitate initial occupational orientation.

The great added value of the Competence and Career Cards is reflected in the high demand for the cards: Since December 2015, more than 14,000 sets of Competence Cards have been ordered and more than 6,500 sets have been downloaded. Since the publication of the Career Cards in April 2019, more than 2,000 sets of Career Cards have been ordered and distributed.

You find further information about the Evaluation of the cards on our Blog, in the detailed Evaluation Report and in our Results of the Online Survey.