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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!

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