Archi­ves

§ 34a GewO

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.

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. The reason for this is that you are paid accor­ding to the indus­try pay sca­le to which the bulk of the work­force belongs. Take a look at the 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. Some­ti­mes the­re are also one-off bonu­ses for par­ti­cu­lar­ly suc­cessful assign­ments or for out­stan­ding work per­for­mance. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, the­se kinds of bonu­ses tend to be the excep­ti­on. Incre­asing­ly com­mon, howe­ver, is a Switch pre­mi­um or, if you like, a kind of “wel­co­me money”. Howe­ver, this alo­ne should not neces­s­a­ri­ly be the sole reason for chan­ging employers.

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.)

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.

Why do so many par­ti­ci­pan­ts fail the expert know­ledge exami­na­ti­on? (§ 34a GewO)

Why do so many participants fail the expert knowledge examination? (§ 34a GewO)

What are the reasons why so many exami­nees fail the Cham­ber of Indus­try and Com­mer­ce (IHK) exami­na­ti­on in the secu­ri­ty industry?

This ques­ti­on is also posed by Jörg Zitz­mann and Kai Delio­mi­ni in the recom­men­da­ble Pod­cast for pro­tec­tion and secu­ri­ty (Video below!).

Both Jörg Zitz­mann as well as Kai Delio­mi­ni are very well known in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty industry.
Among other things, both are repre­sen­ted in IHK exami­na­ti­on com­mit­tees in the field of pro­tec­tion and secu­ri­ty, are acti­ve as aut­hors of books for the pre­pa­ra­ti­on of the expert know­ledge exami­na­ti­on and are repre­sen­ted with many hel­pful vide­os on You­Tube and in podcasts.

Every second or third per­son fails the 34a test!

With not infre­quent fail­ure rates bet­ween 30 and 50%, the ques­ti­on natu­ral­ly ari­ses: What’s the reason?
Some fac­tors for suc­cess or fail­ure are obvious. Some pro­blems can be sol­ved quick­ly and easi­ly, some sim­ply requi­re inten­si­ve lear­ning, prac­ti­ce and per­se­ver­ance. Befo­re I go on to point out what I con­sider to be the main (mis)success fac­tors, here is the very inte­res­t­ing con­ver­sa­ti­on bet­ween Jörg Zitz­mann and Kai Delio­mi­ni on YouTube:

My top 5 reasons why so many peo­p­le fail the writ­ten and oral IHK spe­cia­list know­ledge examination

From my expe­ri­ence, the fol­lo­wing fac­tors are the main reasons for fail­ure with the “34a-licence”:

  1. Lack of moti­va­ti­on / lack of interest
    Many par­ti­ci­pan­ts do not see any added value in the exam. They have no real inte­rest in the con­tent, so they don’t want to learn at all. This is par­ti­cu­lar­ly pro­no­un­ced among peo­p­le who are “sent” by their employ­er or the employ­ment agen­cy and are not actual­ly inte­res­ted in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty sec­tor at all. But even if the par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on its­elf is of their own accord: The exami­na­ti­on is often not seen as an oppor­tu­ni­ty but as a neces­sa­ry evil. Lack of moti­va­ti­on and inte­rest, howe­ver, are dia­me­tri­cal­ly oppo­sed to exam success.
  2. No suf­fi­ci­ent pre­pa­ra­ti­on of the content
    Some peo­p­le take the exam light­ly. Mul­ti­ple-choice ques­ti­ons with pre-set ans­wers to tick off and only 50% neces­sa­ry cor­rect ans­wers to pass — what could go wrong, you ask yours­elf. But far from it. The legal topics in par­ti­cu­lar are tough. In addi­ti­on, the­re is exci­te­ment, espe­ci­al­ly in the oral exam, and ques­ti­ons whe­re you may have to think a litt­le out­side the box. If you don’t have the neces­sa­ry know­ledge and thus the con­fi­dence to act, you will quick­ly be eli­mi­na­ted. Com­pre­hen­si­ve pre­pa­ra­ti­on is the be-all and end-all for exam success!
  3. Insuf­fi­ci­ent know­ledge of German
    A lot has alre­a­dy been asked and said about Ger­man lan­guage skills. One thing is cer­tain: many peo­p­le who work in the secu­ri­ty sec­tor are not nati­ve spea­k­ers of Ger­man. Mul­ti­l­in­gua­lism is often important for the job, but so is suf­fi­ci­ent know­ledge of Ger­man. This is becau­se the exami­na­ti­on is offe­red exclu­si­ve­ly in Ger­man and you must also be able to com­mu­ni­ca­te con­fi­dent­ly in Ger­man in your ever­y­day work as a secu­ri­ty guard. Legal texts are writ­ten in dif­fi­cult lan­guage, “offi­ci­a­le­se” is usual­ly just as dif­fi­cult to under­stand, and the exam ques­ti­ons some­ti­mes depend on indi­vi­du­al words that can chan­ge the mea­ning in one direc­tion or ano­ther or pro­vi­de hints for solutions.
  4. Struc­tu­re and man­ner of the exami­na­ti­on are unclear
    Many peo­p­le are not com­ple­te­ly clear about the frame­work con­di­ti­ons of the exam. But only if you know which topics are important and how, and how the exam is struc­tu­red, can you prepa­re for it spe­ci­fi­cal­ly and effi­ci­ent­ly. For exam­p­le, the­re are topics that you can quick­ly get over, which can usual­ly be ans­we­red with com­mon sen­se. Some topics, on the other hand, count twice and some requi­re more inten­si­ve stu­dy. In addi­ti­on, the­re are empi­ri­cal values for the oral exami­na­ti­on and tac­ti­cal tips for working through test ques­ti­ons, which should be con­vey­ed by a com­pe­tent lec­tu­rer or aut­hor, for example.
  5. Dif­fi­cult indi­vi­du­al conditions
    Of cour­se, peo­p­le are dif­fe­rent. Ever­yo­ne has dif­fe­rent per­so­nal pre­re­qui­si­tes and the gene­ral con­di­ti­ons (e.g. fami­ly obli­ga­ti­ons, free time for lear­ning, lear­ning envi­ron­ment, etc.) also play a signi­fi­cant role in suc­cess and fail­ure. You may also know peo­p­le who can memo­ri­se things with a “quick glan­ce” and recall this know­ledge at the snap of a fin­ger. Others, on the other hand, find this signi­fi­cant­ly more dif­fi­cult. Some peo­p­le also have no pro­blem at all spea­king in front of others in an exam situa­ti­on, most are natu­ral­ly ten­se, some par­ti­ci­pan­ts suf­fer down­right from exam anxiety.

Ask yours­elf to what ext­ent the points abo­ve app­ly to you, how you can avo­id mista­kes in your pre­pa­ra­ti­on and com­pen­sa­te for any defi­ci­ts. You can find more infor­ma­ti­on on this right here in the sub­ject know­ledge infor­ma­ti­on por­tal num­e­rous tips and Links to other sites or media such as You­Tube.


The latest book tips for the 34a:

How long should I prepa­re for the expert know­ledge exami­na­ti­on (§ 34a GewO)?

How long should I prepare for the expert knowledge examination (§ 34a GewO)?

The cru­cial ques­ti­on in the field of sub­ject mat­ter pre­pa­ra­ti­on: How long to learn, how much to practise?

The ques­ti­on about pre­pa­ra­ti­on time is tru­ly a clas­sic ques­ti­on that I get asked again and again. But the­re is no one-size-fits-all ans­wer to this.

The ans­wer is: it depends!

The­re are a num­ber of fac­tors that influence the length of pre­pa­ra­ti­on. One major one is the lear­ner himself/herself, others are the lear­ning envi­ron­ment and con­di­ti­ons, and the way one pre­pa­res. Here some expe­ri­encewhich may of cour­se dif­fer in indi­vi­du­al cases:

Best Prac­ti­ce: My recom­men­da­ti­on for pre­pa­ra­ti­on on the side

If you would like to prepa­re for the expert know­ledge exami­na­ti­on on the side within one or two months and safe­ly achie­ve your § 34a cer­ti­fi­ca­te, the fol­lo­wing has pro­ven its­elf fol­lo­wing lear­ning tac­tics proven:
Stu­dy with your lear­ning mate­ri­al for 1–2 hours every day. On weekends, stu­dy one day, for a total of at least 8 hours very inten­si­ve­ly — inclu­ding working on test ques­ti­ons. (If you work on weekends, then take ano­ther day off as a weekly inten­si­ve lear­ning day). At the end of each lear­ning pha­se, do some mock exams to check your lear­ning level (lear­ning tar­get check). Are­as in which you are not yet pro­fi­ci­ent enough should be stu­di­ed more inten­si­ve­ly on the fol­lo­wing days. Keep doing this until you achie­ve cor­rect solu­ti­ons in the sta­ble 90% mock exams. Then you should be fit for the exam. You can find more tips — also for pre­pa­ring for the oral exam — at www.sachkunde-34a.de/insider-tipps-lernunterlagen-34a.

Is it pos­si­ble to take the exami­na­ti­on in ano­ther language?

Is it possible to take the examination in another language?

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

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

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

 

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

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

 

Help for for­eign-lan­guage sub­ject mat­ter participants

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

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