Unhappy in your job: What options do you have as a security guard?

Unhap­py in your job: What opti­ons do you have as a secu­ri­ty guard?

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.

Working as a 34a secu­ri­ty guard: What to do when the boss can­cels services?

Working as a 34a security guard: What to do when the boss cancels services?

In the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty sec­tor, shift work, night work and work on holi­days are com­mon working con­di­ti­ons. Secu­ri­ty guards often per­form chal­len­ging work to ensu­re the safe­ty of faci­li­ties, events and peo­p­le. Unfort­u­na­te­ly the Wages in this sec­tor often in the low-wage sec­tor for exam­p­le, in the sepa­ra­te secu­ri­ty ser­vice. If hours are unex­pec­ted­ly lost, e.g. becau­se the employ­er loses an important con­tract, and the month­ly tar­get working time is not rea­ched becau­se of this (or for other reasons), it can beco­me finan­ci­al­ly dicey as a 34a secu­ri­ty guard. This artic­le looks at the reasons that lead to the can­cel­la­ti­on of working days and shows the pos­si­bi­li­ties that one then has as a secu­ri­ty employee.

What are pos­si­ble reasons why my employ­er sche­du­les me on fewer assign­ment days?

First of all, the secu­ri­ty company’s point of view should also be brief­ly exami­ned at this point. The fact that you are on the duty ros­t­er less often has in most cases (hop­eful­ly) not­hing to do with you per­so­nal­ly, but has ope­ra­tio­nal reasons. If the­se are explai­ned trans­par­ent­ly by the employ­er and you can under­stand them, this offers a bet­ter start­ing point for a solu­ti­on to the pro­blem that can be sup­port­ed by both sides. It is pos­si­ble, howe­ver, that this will lead to a chan­ge of employ­ment or to you start­ing to look for a new job. Or may­be the “lean peri­od” is only short and you can com­pen­sa­te for the hours by working extra hours in the fol­lo­wing month or the employ­er accom­mo­da­tes you in some other way.

Here are ten pos­si­ble reasons why your employ­er might want to redu­ce your working hours:

  1. Lower cus­to­mer demand: The­re could be less demand for secu­ri­ty ser­vices, lea­ding to a reduc­tion in the num­ber of man-hours needed.
  2. Eco­no­mic slow­down: It is pos­si­ble that the eco­no­mic situa­ti­on has dete­rio­ra­ted, lea­ding to resour­ce cons­traints and cost savings.
  3. Chan­ges in the busi­ness stra­tegy: Your employ­er may have chan­ged its busi­ness stra­tegy, lea­ding to an adjus­t­ment of human resources.
  4. Staff rota­ti­on: Pos­si­bly rota­te staff to give all staff the oppor­tu­ni­ty to work and to dis­tri­bu­te working hours more equitably.
  5. New tech­no­lo­gies or auto­ma­ti­on: The Intro­duc­tion of new tech­no­lo­gies or auto­ma­ted sys­tems could lead to fewer employees being needed.
  6. Sea­so­nal fluc­tua­tions: Working hours could be sub­ject to sea­so­nal fluc­tua­tions, for exam­p­le if less secu­ri­ty staff is nee­ded in cer­tain months.
  7. Chan­ges in con­tracts with cli­ents: It is pos­si­ble that con­tracts with cli­ents have chan­ged and this leads to a reduc­tion in the volu­me of work.
  8. Legal rest­ric­tions: The­re could be (new) legal rest­ric­tions, such as maxi­mum limits for working hours or rest peri­ods bet­ween shifts. Or the exis­ting requi­re­ments (e.g. from the Working Hours Act) are now bet­ter fol­lo­wed up.
  9. Com­pa­ny holi­days or sea­so­nal com­pa­ny breaksYour employ­er may have deci­ded to redu­ce working hours during cer­tain peri­ods, such as com­pa­ny holi­days or sea­so­nal breaks (from cus­to­mers). Also, for exam­p­le, the Covid pan­de­mic had cau­sed tem­po­ra­ry dis­lo­ca­ti­on within the industry. 
  10. Inter­nal com­pa­ny res­truc­tu­ring: Your employ­er may car­ry out inter­nal res­truc­tu­ring lea­ding to a reas­sess­ment of working hours and resour­ce allocation.

What opti­ons do I have if my employ­er assigns me to less work?

Of cour­se, it is not worth arguing about one or two hours. Howe­ver, a loss of 20, 30, 40 per cent or even more hours is a big deal, becau­se you also have to make a living. If your boss remo­ves you from the duty ros­t­er, assigns you to signi­fi­cant­ly fewer shifts than usu­al and you don’t work your hours — then you have the fol­lo­wing options:

  1. Check employ­ment con­tract!
    That is the most important point. As a rule, what is decisi­ve is what has been agreed in your employ­ment con­tract. For exam­p­le, if it says “full-time”, the employ­er is obli­ged to employ you accor­din­gly. What is meant by full-time is usual­ly regu­la­ted in the respec­ti­ve coll­ec­ti­ve agree­ment. Often a spe­ci­fic num­ber of hours is also agreed. If, for exam­p­le, 170 hours per month are con­trac­tual­ly sti­pu­la­ted in your employ­ment con­tract, this num­ber of hours must be adhe­red to (apart from minor fluc­tua­tions, e.g. due to sick cover).
  2. Con­sult the duty ros­t­er!
    Duty sche­du­ling in secu­ri­ty ser­vices, e.g. in fac­to­ry secu­ri­ty, is often done on the basis of a fixed shift rhythm. In this way, it is pos­si­ble to plan rough­ly in advan­ce — of cour­se with a cer­tain degree of uncer­tain­ty (e.g. due to eter­nal out­stan­ding holi­day plan­ning). Howe­ver, the actu­al duty ros­t­er for the fol­lo­wing month is decisi­ve: If it sta­tes 20 shifts, for exam­p­le, then you are entit­led to work this num­ber of shifts. Once a duty ros­t­er has been published, it may only be chan­ged again after con­sul­ta­ti­on with the employees.
  3. Seek dia­lo­gue and actively offer work per­for­mance!
    Many things can be cla­ri­fied through com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on. Seek to talk to your super­vi­sor and reach a con­sen­sus. Important: Com­mu­ni­ca­te that you do not agree with the chan­ges and expli­cit­ly offer your work per­for­mance! Your employ­er is obli­ged to give you the work accor­ding to the exis­ting employ­ment con­tract, you pro­vi­de your work per­for­mance accor­ding to the contract. 
  4. Your employ­er does not react? Send a writ­ten remin­der!
    Inform your employ­er in wri­ting about the aspects men­tio­ned abo­ve. The writ­ten form is important so that you have pro­of. Set a dead­line for your boss, but con­ti­nue to be poli­te and coope­ra­ti­ve. After all, you usual­ly want to con­ti­nue working for your employer.
  5. If not­hing helps: com­plain!
    If all else fails, the employ­er does not react and talks (pos­si­bly also with the works coun­cil) have not led to suc­cess, the only opti­on is to take legal action befo­re the labour court.

Lawy­er Jörg Zitz­mann has beau­tiful­ly pre­sen­ted the facts of the case in the You­Tube chan­nel of the Aca­de­my for Secu­ri­ty:

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.

The­se are the advan­ta­ges of lear­ning with exam ques­ti­ons for the 34a exam

These are the advantages of learning with exam questions for the 34a exam

Lear­ning with exam ques­ti­ons is a pro­ven method used by many stu­dents to impro­ve their under­stan­ding and know­ledge of cer­tain topics. 

Why 34a pre­pa­ra­ti­on with exam ques­ti­ons makes sense

When ans­we­ring exam ques­ti­ons, you get feed­back on how well you have unders­tood the mate­ri­al and can work spe­ci­fi­cal­ly on the dif­fi­cult parts to impro­ve your know­ledge. You can iden­ti­fy gaps in your under­stan­ding and tar­get them. Through regu­lar feed­back, you can ensu­re that you are con­ti­nuous­ly impro­ving and track your pro­gress.
Ano­ther advan­ta­ge of lear­ning with exam ques­ti­ons is the deeper enga­ge­ment with the lear­ning con­tent. When ans­we­ring exam ques­ti­ons, one has to deal with the con­tent more inten­si­ve­ly and make con­nec­tions bet­ween dif­fe­rent topics. By del­ving deeper into the infor­ma­ti­on, one can gain a deeper under­stan­ding of the topic. By repea­ting and app­ly­ing the infor­ma­ti­on, memo­ry is impro­ved. When you stu­dy a topic inten­si­ve­ly and actively app­ly what you have lear­ned, it sticks bet­ter in your memo­ry.
Exam ques­ti­ons also focus atten­ti­on on the most important aspects of the lear­ning mate­ri­al and help to eli­mi­na­te irrele­vant infor­ma­ti­on. By focu­sing on rele­vant infor­ma­ti­on, the brain is bet­ter able to absorb and pro­cess it. This leads to a bet­ter under­stan­ding of the lear­ning mate­ri­al.
One of the most important bene­fits of lear­ning with exam ques­ti­ons is the simu­la­ti­on of an exam situa­ti­on. This can also help to redu­ce exam anxie­ty. Exam anxie­ty can be a signi­fi­cant bar­ri­er to lear­ning, as it can cau­se you to per­form worse than you actual­ly could. By prac­ti­sing exam ques­ti­ons, you can beco­me more attu­n­ed to the type of ques­ti­ons and the exam pro­cess. This can help redu­ce exam anxie­ty and boost confidence.

Other advan­ta­ges of lear­ning with exam questions

Con­clu­si­on

Over­all, lear­ning with exam ques­ti­ons offers many advan­ta­ges. It helps to impro­ve the under­stan­ding of lear­ning con­tent, streng­then memo­ry and redu­ce the fear of exams. Through regu­lar feed­back and tar­ge­ted prac­ti­ce, you can work spe­ci­fi­cal­ly on the dif­fi­cult parts and track your pro­gress. Lear­ning with exam ques­ti­ons is an effec­ti­ve way to prepa­re for exams and suc­ceed. Pre­pa­ring for the exam with exam ques­ti­ons is the­r­e­fo­re an important fac­tor in suc­cessful­ly pas­sing the IHK exam. Why memo­ri­sing alo­ne is not neces­s­a­ri­ly enough to pass the 34a exam, learn more in this blog post.

Tip: Exam ques­ti­ons on YouTube

Appli­ca­ti­on tips for pri­va­te secu­ri­ty guards: How to app­ly successfully!

Application tips for private security guards: How to apply successfully!

Secu­ri­ty guards play an important role in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty indus­try and are often the first point of cont­act for cus­to­mers and visi­tors. If you are a secu­ri­ty guard loo­king for a new job, a suc­cessful appli­ca­ti­on can make the dif­fe­rence bet­ween suc­cess and fail­ure. The chan­ces are quite good due to the situa­ti­on on the labour mar­ket. It is also cal­led an employee mar­ket — mea­ning: the­re are hard­ly enough qua­li­fied appli­cants for the cur­rent vacan­ci­es. You have — depen­ding of cour­se on some fac­tors like your edu­ca­ti­on and the desi­red place of work — in prin­ci­ple a good choice!

In this artic­le we will give you tips and advice on how to suc­cessful­ly app­ly and find your dream job in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty industry.

10 appli­ca­ti­on tips for secu­ri­ty guards in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty sector

  1. Crea­te a meaningful cover letter

The cover let­ter is the first impres­si­on you make on a poten­ti­al employ­er. It is important that you take time to crea­te a strong cover let­ter that high­lights your expe­ri­ence, skills and moti­va­ti­on. Make sure you tail­or the cover let­ter to the com­pa­ny and the secu­ri­ty job adver­ti­sed and that you find out about the com­pa­ny and its activities.

  1. Update your CV

Your CV is your most important appli­ca­ti­on docu­ment and should show­ca­se your work expe­ri­ence, skills and qua­li­fi­ca­ti­ons. Update your CV befo­re you app­ly and make sure it is clear and easy to read. Use bul­let points and clear for­mat­ting to high­light important infor­ma­ti­on. Also include what trai­ning and cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­ons you have com­ple­ted and what expe­ri­ence you have had in the secu­ri­ty indus­try. Pro­vi­de your cer­ti­fi­ca­tes of com­pe­ten­cy, refe­ren­ces and any trai­ning cer­ti­fi­ca­tes. Do not include Fake docu­ments and con­vin­ce you with a pro­fes­sio­nal cor­rect expres­si­on.

  1. Empha­sise your skills and experience

As a secu­ri­ty guard, you should be able to quick­ly reco­g­ni­se dan­ge­rous situa­tions and react to them appro­pria­te­ly. In your appli­ca­ti­on, empha­sise your skills and expe­ri­ence in the field of secu­ri­ty and make sure to high­light your com­pe­ten­ces in the are­as of com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on, con­flict reso­lu­ti­on and de-escala­ti­on. Howe­ver, do not exag­ge­ra­te, e.g. by eccen­tri­cal­ly spraw­ling nar­ra­ti­ves of your past exploits as a secu­ri­ty employee!

  1. Be pre­pared for the interview

An inter­view is your chan­ce to pre­sent your best side and con­vin­ce the employ­er of your skills. Prepa­re for the inter­view by rea­ding up on the com­pa­ny, pre­pa­ring ques­ti­ons and thin­king about the ans­wers you would give. Make sure you are on time and well pre­pared for the inter­view and that you cle­ar­ly pre­sent your qua­li­fi­ca­ti­ons and experience.

  1. Stay posi­ti­ve and confident

As a secu­ri­ty guard, it is important that you appear posi­ti­ve and con­fi­dent. Be con­fi­dent in your skills and expe­ri­ence and con­vey to your poten­ti­al employ­er that you are the best choice for the job. Remain pro­fes­sio­nal and poli­te throug­hout the appli­ca­ti­on pro­cess and make sure you lea­ve a posi­ti­ve impres­si­on. At this point, plea­se do not bad­mouth your old or pre­vious employ­er. This does not make a good impres­si­on and the manage­ment staff in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty indus­try are often bet­ter con­nec­ted than you think!

  1. Use your network

Use your pro­fes­sio­nal net­work to find poten­ti­al employ­ers and learn about job ope­nings. Talk to for­mer col­le­agues, super­vi­sors and other cont­acts in the secu­ri­ty indus­try and ask for recom­men­da­ti­ons or infor­ma­ti­on about vacan­ci­es. Online plat­forms such as Lin­ke­dIn or XING can also help you find poten­ti­al employ­ers and make cont­acts. You can also indi­ca­te the­re that you are open to offers. Some­ti­mes head­hun­ters also get in touch who can be hel­pful in fin­ding jobs.

  1. Be fle­xi­ble and open to new challenges

In the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty indus­try, the­re are a varie­ty of tasks and posi­ti­ons that requi­re dif­fe­rent skills and expe­ri­ence. Be fle­xi­ble and open to new chal­lenges and check whe­ther you are sui­ta­ble for other posi­ti­ons or tasks. You may be able to con­tri­bu­te your skills and expe­ri­ence bet­ter in ano­ther posi­ti­on or be inte­res­ted in a new challenge.

  1. Pre­sent yours­elf professionally

As a secu­ri­ty guard, you are the company’s figurehead and should the­r­e­fo­re pre­sent yours­elf in a pro­fes­sio­nal man­ner. Make sure that you wear appro­pria­te clot­hing and make a well-groo­med impres­si­on at job inter­views or other pro­fes­sio­nal occa­si­ons. Also pay atten­ti­on to your body lan­guage and appearance and make sure you com­mu­ni­ca­te poli­te­ly and professionally.

  1. Do not shy away from high demands

A maxi­mum of 20 years and 10 years of pro­fes­sio­nal expe­ri­ence — of cour­se that’s not pos­si­ble. Employ­ers often wri­te quite a few requi­re­ments in the job adver­ti­se­ments. Don’t be afraid of this, but be honest if you don’t (yet) meet a requi­re­ment. You can still gain expe­ri­ence in your new job, you can impro­ve your for­eign lan­guage skills by taking cour­ses on the side (e.g. at the adult edu­ca­ti­on cent­re) and you can make up for miss­ing addi­tio­nal trai­ning. Employ­ers are often more fle­xi­ble than you think, espe­ci­al­ly if it is other­wi­se a good (human) fit!

  1. Keep your eye on the ball and don’t be afraid of setbacks!

Landing a direct hit on your first appli­ca­ti­on and get­ting your dream job is the excep­ti­on rather than the rule. Don’t be afraid if you don’t suc­ceed with your first appli­ca­ti­on, but try again some­whe­re else. Often it is hel­pful to ask for open feed­back about why you did not make it to the short­list or to have pro­fes­sio­nal appli­ca­ti­on trai­ning, whe­re your appli­ca­ti­on docu­ments are also review­ed and opti­mi­sed. Just stay on the ball here, sub­scri­be to rele­vant job offers on job por­tals. You will then be auto­ma­ti­cal­ly noti­fied when new vacan­ci­es ari­se in your search radius.

Con­clu­si­on

A suc­cessful appli­ca­ti­on in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty indus­try requi­res time, effort and com­mit­ment. Use the tips abo­ve to opti­mi­se your appli­ca­ti­on and find your dream job. Stay on the ball and con­ti­nue your edu­ca­ti­on. Compa­re job offers and try to sell yours­elf in the best pos­si­ble way. Be con­fi­dent, fle­xi­ble and pro­fes­sio­nal and show your poten­ti­al employ­er that you are the per­fect choice for the job.

The Future of the Pri­va­te Secu­ri­ty Indus­try in Ger­ma­ny: Man or Machine?

The Future of the Private Security Industry in Germany: Man or Machine?

The pri­va­te secu­ri­ty indus­try is an important eco­no­mic sec­tor in Ger­ma­ny and employs many peo­p­le. In 2022, the­re were a total of just under 260,000 employees in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty sec­tor in Ger­ma­ny, working in around 5,700 guard and secu­ri­ty com­pa­nies. The­se are con­sidera­ble figu­res. Pri­va­te secu­ri­ty is incre­asing­ly taking over form­er­ly purely sove­reign tasks in cer­tain are­as and has thus beco­me an important play­er — part­ly also in the area of public safe­ty and order.

But how will pri­va­te secu­ri­ty deve­lop in the future? Will human secu­ri­ty guards incre­asing­ly be repla­ced by machi­nes? Or will humans con­ti­nue to play an important role in the secu­ri­ty indus­try in the future? In this artic­le we take a look at the future of the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty indus­try in Germany.

The role of peo­p­le in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty industry

Human secu­ri­ty per­son­nel have many advan­ta­ges over machi­nes. They can assign human actions more uner­rin­gly and react ade­qua­te­ly. They can bet­ter assess dan­ge­rous situa­tions and act appro­pria­te­ly. They have the abili­ty to react to unfo­re­seen events and act fle­xi­bly. Espe­ci­al­ly in situa­tions whe­re empa­thy, under­stan­ding and inter­per­so­nal com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on are important, human secu­ri­ty per­son­nel are irreplaceable.

Fur­ther­mo­re, the­re are cer­tain acti­vi­ties in the secu­ri­ty indus­try that are dif­fi­cult to auto­ma­te. For exam­p­le, moni­to­ring peo­p­le and che­cking iden­ti­fi­ca­ti­on docu­ments requi­res a high level of exper­ti­se, expe­ri­ence and empa­thy. The­se acti­vi­ties also requi­re cogni­ti­ve skills such as cri­ti­cal thin­king, pro­blem sol­ving and decis­i­on making, which curr­ent­ly can­not be ful­ly taken over by machines.

The role of machi­nes in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty industry

Howe­ver, the­re are also acti­vi­ties in the secu­ri­ty sec­tor that can be sup­port­ed by machi­nes. For exam­p­le, came­ras and other tech­ni­cal devices can be used to moni­tor buil­dings and public places. The recor­dings can be ana­ly­sed by human secu­ri­ty guards in order to reco­g­ni­se and react to dan­ge­rous situa­tions. Howe­ver, sys­tems that eva­lua­te the recor­ded image mate­ri­al direct­ly with the help of a com­pu­ter and sound the alarm if neces­sa­ry are fas­ter and more relia­ble in the masses.
The first auto­ma­ted sys­tems, for exam­p­le in the area of access con­trol, alre­a­dy exis­ted many years ago. Guard robots that are equip­ped with detec­tors and, for exam­p­le, pat­rol warehou­ses ful­ly auto­ma­ti­cal­ly have also been used for some time. Dro­ne tech­no­lo­gy is also beco­ming incre­asing­ly popu­lar for appli­ca­ti­ons in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty sec­tor — for exam­p­le, when it comes to alarm track­ing or veri­fi­ca­ti­on. Here, howe­ver, the legal hurd­les are still quite high and often pre­vent its use in practice.

In addi­ti­on, tech­no­lo­gies such as AI and machi­ne lear­ning can be used to detect pat­terns and anoma­lies in lar­ge amounts of data. In this way, secu­ri­ty forces can be aler­ted to poten­ti­al thre­ats at an ear­ly stage and react accordingly.

The future of the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty industry

It is unli­kely that machi­nes will com­ple­te­ly replace human secu­ri­ty guards. Humans will con­ti­nue to play an important role in the secu­ri­ty indus­try. Howe­ver, machi­nes will play an incre­asing­ly important role and sup­port human secu­ri­ty guards in cer­tain acti­vi­ties. Pri­va­te secu­ri­ty com­pa­nies must adapt to the­se chan­ges and train and deve­lop their staff accor­din­gly to meet the demands of the future.

Con­clu­si­on

The future of the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty indus­try in Ger­ma­ny will be shaped by a com­bi­na­ti­on of human labour and the capa­bi­li­ties of machi­nes. Humans will not be repla­ced, but will deve­lop fur­ther and take on other acti­vi­ties. This means that the­re will be a shift in tasks. While per­cep­ti­on tasks can lar­ge­ly be taken over by machi­nes, pri­va­te secu­ri­ty forces will incre­asing­ly take on other, more deman­ding tasks.

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.

Vou­ch­er code: 10% Dis­count on Sach­kun­de pre­pa­ra­ti­on with Sachkun.de

Voucher code: 10% Discount on Sachkunde preparation with Sachkun.de

The lear­ning plat­form Sachkun.de is one of the best-known online offers for 34a pre­pa­ra­ti­on. The plat­form with e‑learning, test ques­ti­ons, mock exams and online help has been around sin­ce 2005, and more than 10,000 peo­p­le have used it to prepa­re online for the 34a examination.

New: Sachkun.de 2.0

Recent­ly, eLear­ning at www.sachkun.de was com­ple­te­ly rede­si­gned. More than 1,000 exam-rela­ted test ques­ti­ons, goal-ori­en­ted lear­ning texts, ins­truc­tion­al vide­os and even weekly live online semi­nars now await lear­ners. The 34a pre­pa­ra­ti­on is available in three dif­fe­rent ver­si­ons: Clas­sic, Pro and VIP. Tho­se who book VIP also have access to a Whats­App group in which they can ask ques­ti­ons and exch­an­ge infor­ma­ti­on with other Sach­kun­de lear­ners. What is new is that the pre­pa­ra­ti­on now runs com­ple­te­ly via a con­ve­ni­ent mobi­le pho­ne app in which you can learn with 34a ques­ti­ons around the clock, i.e. 24/7 — depen­ding on the tariff for 30, 60 or even 100 days. 

Cou­pon code for www.sachkun.de

With the vou­ch­er code SK10YT you curr­ent­ly get 10% Dis­count on all tariffs.
Click here to go direct­ly to the Offer on www.sachkun.de.

About Sachkun.de exper­ti­se preparation

Sachkun.de is cer­tain­ly not the che­a­pest pro­vi­der on the mar­ket, but it has pro­ven its­elf for years. The posi­ti­ve reviews on the net speak for the qua­li­ty of the plat­form. This is also ensu­red by the qua­li­fi­ca­ti­ons of the ope­ra­tors of the 34a lear­ning plat­form around Jörg Zitz­mann. It should also be noted that the exam-rela­ted ques­ti­ons and con­den­sed lear­ning texts make it pos­si­ble to prepa­re for the IHK exam very effi­ci­ent­ly, i.e. in a par­ti­cu­lar­ly time-saving man­ner. If ques­ti­ons of under­stan­ding remain unans­we­red, a lec­tu­rer is available — depen­ding on the tariff — in the weekly video ses­si­on or addi­tio­nal­ly also in the Whats­App 34a lear­ning group. This ensu­res that par­ti­ci­pan­ts’ ques­ti­ons are always ans­we­red — as in a face-to-face cour­se — and that all con­tent is unders­tood. With pri­ces rough­ly bet­ween 1.80 and 3.00 euros per day (as of 5 March 2023), the pri­ce-per­for­mance ratio is very reasonable. The money-back gua­ran­tee, which takes effect if you fail the 34a exam seve­ral times despi­te pre­pa­ra­ti­on, also con­tri­bu­tes to security.

We will gra­du­al­ly intro­du­ce more pro­vi­ders here on the blog. We look for­ward to hea­ring your opi­ni­ons and expe­ri­en­ces on 34a exam pre­pa­ra­ti­on! Feel free to lea­ve a comment 🙂

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. 
Imprint
en_GBEN

Exclu­si­ve tips on how to pass the exam easily

We do not send spam! Learn more in our Pri­va­cy poli­cy.

Exclu­si­ve tips on how to pass the exam easily

We do not send spam! Learn more in our Pri­va­cy poli­cy.

Coo­kie Con­sent with Real Coo­kie Banner