anabin: How to Look Up Your Qualification
anabin is a free online database at anabin.kmk.org (opens in a new tab). It is run by the Central Office for Foreign Education (ZAB) of the KMK, the conference of the education ministers of Germany's federal states. It explains how qualifications from other countries compare with German ones.
We cannot look you up in anabin. You can do it yourself, and this article shows how.
Do You Even Need anabin for an Ausbildung?
It depends on the type of training:
- Company (dual) training: by German law, you do not need a specific school-leaving qualification, so you do not need official recognition. Each company decides what it asks for. Many ask for an intermediate school-leaving qualification.
- School-based training: your school-leaving qualification must be officially recognized first.
So for most company training, anabin is useful background, not a required step.
What anabin Contains
The main sections are in German. The ones that matter most to you:
- Schulabschlüsse mit Hochschulzugang: school certificates that give access to university
- school certificates that do not give access to university