Who is Bildungsurlaub-Approval?

We have been in the language industry for almost 20 years and are very experienced with Bildungsurlaub. We formerly started getting the Bildungsurlaub recognition for the language schools we worked with as an agency, We realised that many language schools find it difficult to keep up with the permanent changes in regulations and requirements. As the law is different in each federal state and the documentation is often required to be in German, a lot of language schools found themselves incapable of dealing with the application process. Even the language schools, which handled their recognitions themselves found that they are spending too much time on the recognition process, especially when it needs to be done in the high season. As more and more of our language schools requested our help with Bildungsurlaub, Thomas Roth decided to start Bildungsurlaub-Approval to assist the language schools.

 

 

What does „Bildungsurlaub“ mean?

Bildungsurlaub (in some regions also refered as Bildungsfreistellung or Bildungszeit) means educational leave and german employees are entitled to 5 days paid leave every year to study at a recognised institute. To get recognised, an institute has to prove that their program is suitable and intenseenough to meet the criterias of Bildungsurlaub. In some states in addition to the language course, some lessons in local political education are required. How can you benefit from the Bildungsurlaub approval? Once you are approved for Bildungsurlaub, your insititute will be added in the list of officially recognised institutes and german employees will be able to get up to two weeks paid leave to study at your institute.

 

 

Are you facing one of these problems?

  • you haven’t heard of Bildungsurlaub before
  • you tried to apply for Bildungsurlaub but gave up on the tedious paper work?
  • you are approved for Bildungsurlaub but it takes you too long to keep up with permanent changes, reporting documents, re-application, etc. while you really should do all your other work
  • you do your approvals yourself but are often uncertain when clients ask about particular requirements
  • you are approved but would like to promote your courses on a webpage catering for the kind of clients you are looking for
  • you don`t get enough clients from Germany
  • you have difficulties finding the right doucment for the right state and the corresponding forms

Here is how Bildungsurlaub-Approval can help you:

  • advice you which of your courses could get the approval
  • check and if necessary adjust your program and time tables to meet the criteria for Bildungsurlaub
  • prepare all the necessary documents in german language (where required)
  • apply for the Bildungsurlaub recognition on behalf of your school in as many federal states as you wish
  • do all correspondence with the german ministries on behalf of your school
  • settle the ministry application fees on your behalf, where applicable
  • if necessary, have your time tables and program translated if not provided in german (additional fees apply)
  • re-apply and re-new the recognition
  • support you in filling in the documents required for your clients
  • support you in answering your questions about Bildungsurlaub
  • help you with client enquiries about Bildungsurlaub
  • act as german speaking contact person of your school, might be required by some states
  • provide you with the „Bildungsurlaub approval“ logo to be used on your publications and website
  • list your school on our webpage
  • give you access to our upload and download area
  • provide you with our logo, which may be used for promotional purposes

 

 

 

What are the criterias to get approved for Bildungsurlaub?

The criterias very much vary from each federal state. Bildungsurlaub-Approval will advice you in which states your language courses would be able to get recognised for Bildungsurlaub. In gernal the minimum requirements are 30 lessons a week, a detailed time table must be provided. Some states require an application for each level and each destination of the language school, while others accept all levels and all destinations of one language school.
In our seminar we have given during the ICEF Berlin workshops we explained more about the requirements and also talked a little about promoting your language courses for Bildungsurlaub. Our power point presentation „Bildungsurlaub – less scary than you think“ can be downloaded here: Presentation

 

 

Requirements Bildungsurlaub Baden-Württemberg

Entitlement: Participants are entitled to 5 days Bildungsurlaub per year

Amount of lessons: Minimum 6 hours per day

Further info: Educator must be in operation for at least 2 years, Certification DIN EN ISO 9001, DIN ISO 29990, DIN EN 14804: 2005-09, EAQUALS accreditation or British Council accreditation UK is required.

Contact Ministry
Bildungsurlaub | Sprachreisen |  Info educators

Requirements Bildungsurlaub Berlin

Entitlement: Participants are entitled to 5 days Bildungsurlaub per year, in a two year period 10 days Bildungsurlaub can be taken.

Amount of lessons: No minimum amount of lessons required but to avoid rejection from the employer we recommend 30 weekly lessons.

Further info: All course locations are accepted.

Validity of the Bildungsurlaub approval: The Bildungsurlaub recognition is valid for 1 or 2 years, in that period repeated courses are approved without further applications.

Contact Ministry
Bildungsurlaub | Sprachreisen |  Info educators

Requirements Bildungsurlaub Brandenburg

Entitlement: Participants are entitled to 5 days Bildungsurlaub per year, in a two year period 10 days Bildungsurlaub can be taken.

Amount of lessons: Minimum 6 lessons (45 minutes) per day, 5 days per week.

Further info: All course locations are accepted.

Validity of the Bildungsurlaub approval: The Bildungsurlaub recognition is valid for 1 year. Renewal need to be made every year.

Contact Ministry
Bildungsurlaub | Sprachreisen |  Info educators

Requirements Bildungsurlaub Bremen

Entitlement: Participants are entitled to 5 days Bildungsurlaub per year, in a two year period 10 days Bildungsurlaub can be taken.

Amount of lessons: Minimum  6 lessons (45 minutes) per day/ Maximum 8×45 minutes lessons/ day, 5 days per week.

Further info: Certificates of qualifications and memberships need to be presented accepted are ABLS, ACCET, ASILS, British Council, Cervantes, EAQUALS, English in New Zealand, English in Australia, fle, Languages in Canada…
Educator must be in operation for at least 1 year.

Application period: Application must be made 12 weeks before course commences.

Validity of the Bildungsurlaub approval: The recognition is valid for 2 years

Contact Ministry
Bildungsurlaub | Sprachreisen |  Info educators

Requirements Bildungsurlaub Hamburg

Entitlement: Participants are entitled to 5 days Bildungsurlaub per year, in a two year period 10 days Bildungsurlaub can be taken.

Amount of lessons: Minimum 6 lessons (45 minutes) per day, 5 days per week.

Further info: All course locations are accepted. Original documents to be sent to the ministry. The ministry charges € 83,50 (2020) for each approval.

Application period: Application need be made 10 weeks before course commences.

Validity of the Bildungsurlaub approval: The Bildungsurlaub recognition is valid for 2 years.

Contact Ministry
Bildungsurlaub | Sprachreisen |  Info educators

Requirements Bildungsurlaub Hessen

Entitlement: Participants are entitled to 5 days Bildungsurlaub per year, in a two year period 10 days Bildungsurlaub can be taken. All course locations are accepted.

Further info: Hessen does not recognise educators based outside of Germany. However Hessen accepts the recognitions from other ministries, when the following criterias are met:

Amount of lessons: Minimum 6 x 60 minutes lessons/ day, 5 days per week, 20% political topics are required

Contact Ministry
Bildungsurlaub | Sprachreisen |  Info educators

Requirements Bildungsurlaub Mecklenburg Vorpommern

Entitlement: Participants are entitled to 5 days Bildungsurlaub per year, in a two year period 10 days Bildungsurlaub can be taken. All course locations are accepted.

Amount of lessons: Minimum 6 x 60 minutes lessons/ day, 5 days per week

Application period: Application need be made 10 weeks before course commences.

Validity of the Bildungsurlaub approval: The Bildungsurlaub recognition is valid for up to 3 years.

Contact Ministry
Bildungsurlaub | Sprachreisen |  Info educators

Requirements Bildungsurlaub Niedersachsen

Entitlement: Participants are entitled to 5 days Bildungsurlaub per year, in a two year period 10 days.

Amount of lessons: Niedersachsen requires 8 lessons with a minimum of 45 minutes daily. Self study, online learning and home work are acceptable.

Application period: Application need to be made 12 weeks before course start.

Validity of the Bildungsurlaub approval: The recognition is valid until 31.12. of the second year.

Contact Ministry
Bildungsurlaub | Sprachreisen |  Info educators

Requirements Bildungsurlaub Nordrhein Westfalen

Entitlement: Participants are entitled to 5 days Bildungsurlaub per year, in a two year period 10 days

Amount of lessons: 6 lessons of 45 Min. per day

Further info: Educator must be in business for at least 2 years, hold a qualification of ISO 9000, ISO 29990 Course destinations must be within 500 km to the border of Northrhine Westphalia.

Contact Ministry
Bildungsurlaub | Sprachreisen |  Info educators

Requirements Bildungsurlaub Rheinland Pfalz

Entitlement: Participants are entitled to 5 days Bildungsurlaub per year, in a two year period 10 days. Rhineland Palatinate accepts applications without level and all destinations are accepted

Amount of lessons: 6 lessons of at least 45 minutes are required and at least 4 lessons need to take place before 7 pm.

Application period: The application for Bildungsfreistellung need to be made at least 3 months before the course starts.

Validity of the Bildungsurlaub approval: The recognition is valid for 2 years if course title, course content and teacher qualification don`t change in this period.

Contact Ministry
Bildungsurlaub | Sprachreisen |  Info educators

Requirements Bildungsurlaub Saarland

Entitlement: Participants are entitled to 6 days per year.

Amount of lessons: Saarland accepts the approvals of other ministries if the daily lessons are at least 5 hours (60 minutes)

Contact Ministry
Bildungsurlaub | Sprachreisen |  Info educators

Requirements Bildungsurlaub Sachsen Anhalt

Entitlement: Participants are entitled to 5 days Bildungsurlaub per year, in a two year period 10 days.

Amount of lessons: Minimum  6 lessons (45 minutes) per day, 5 days per week.

Application period:  Application need to be made 3 month before course start.

Validity of the Bildungsurlaub approval: The ministry charges € 26 for each approval. The first approval is only valid for the course period as applied for, the renewal (charge of € 26) is valid for 2 years

Contact Ministry
Bildungsurlaub | Sprachreisen |  Info educators

Requirements Bildungsurlaub Schleswig Holstein

Entitlement: Participants are entitled to 5 days Bildungsurlaub per year, in a two year period 10 days.

Amount of lessons: Minimum of 7 hours (60 minutes) per day, including reasonable break times.

Application period: Application need to be made 10 weeks before course start. The minstry charges a fee of € 69 per approval.

Validity of the Bildungsurlaub approval: The recognition is valid for 2 years

Contact Ministry
Bildungsurlaub | Sprachreisen |  Info educators

Requirements Bildungsurlaub Thüringen

Entitlement: Participants are entitled to 5 days Bildungsurlaub per year

Amount of lessons: Minimum  6 lessons (45 minutes) per day.

Validity of the Bildungsurlaub approval: Recognitions in Thüringen are unrestricted.

Contact Ministry
Bildungsurlaub | Sprachreisen |  Info educators

Why use the service of Bildungsurlaub-Approval?

  • professional handling of your documents and approvals
  • time saving for your school admin staff
  • online training of school administration staff regarding handling of Bildungsurlaub
  • attracting new clients for Bildungsurlaub through our webpage
  • use of the „Bildungsurlaub approved“ logo
  • fair, transparent pricing
  • all your documents securely filed in one place
  • creating the documents for your clients easily in our log in area

What can you do on the the educator access page?

  • you can find all official Bildungsurlaub documents in our download center
  • you find prepared documents, which your clients require for Bildungsurlaub
  • you can upload all your documents (time table, teacher certificates, etc.) and approvals in our upload center, so you always have all the documents needed in one secured place
  • you have access to our instruction videos
  • download the „Bildungsurlaub approved logo“ and other marketing support
  • chat online with us and take part in discussion groups with other educators